Tracing the Money: A New Tool to Impact the Budget Process
This article originally appeared on the Family Care International Blog, available here: http://familycareintl.org/blog/2015/03/04/budget-calendar/
By Kathleen Schaffer, Family Care International
A dilapidated clinic, falling tiles, a never-ending leak. Barren and disorganized medicine shelves. An overcrowded maternity ward with desperate, soon-to-be mothers crying out for help. One nurse scrambling to meet the needs of the many patients who have come through the doors. When clients lament the clinic’s disrepair, or doctors request more supplies and personnel, they’re met with the same hopeless reply: “There’s no money.”
Through Family Care International’s (FCI) Mobilizing Advocates from Civil Society (MACS) project in Kenya, international, national and grassroots organizations as part of the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (RMNCH) Alliance are demanding better facilities, adequate and respectful maternity care, and especially, more health personnel. Kenya has only 11.8 health workers per 10,000 people–more than 40% fewer health workers than the World Health Organization’s minimum recommendation of 22.8 health workers per 10,000 people.
Of course any effort to increase the quantity and quality of health workers will have to be paid for, and that means dealing with the budget. For many of us, budgets seem abstract and intimidating, but it’s vital to engage with them since they reflect the government’s priorities and determine where the public’s money goes.
In order to make realistic demands, we need access to information about Kenya’s budget. However, over the last few years Kenya decentralized many decision-making processes, including budgeting, to the county-level. This recent decentralization has made it difficult for us to intervene effectively during the budget process.
But now, civil society organizations in Kenya can engage with budget decision-makers at the right moments thanks to a new Annual Budget Cycle Calendar, developed by the MACS project.
This new easy-to-read calendar shows the key dates for the Kenyan Annual Budget Cycle at both the national and county levels, enabling citizens to participate in both the setting of priorities and in accountability processes.
It is a great resource not only for maternal health advocates but also for the broader health community and county government officials, such as those from the Health and Finance Committees. The RMNCH Alliance will distribute the calendar in counties all over the country, and we hope to see it on many office walls as a constant resource for advocacy opportunities.
Ultimately, by being able to participate in and monitor the budget process more effectively, we will ensure that the government fulfills its commitments to maternal, newborn, and child health, and that the budget reflects the needs and priorities of the community and not just politicians.