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Budget monitoring and the Millennium Development Goals
Simon Ngena, ZERO Regional Environment Organisation
Extracted from SusWatch MDGs e-Monitor
July 04, 2006

Government expenditure hinges on the National Budget, which is often complemented by a Supplementary Budget when ministries exceed their budgetary allocations.

How much a government spends, say, on the construction of roads, clinics or other infrastructure depends to a large extent on the resources allocated to the various ministries. Like most countries, the bulk of Zimbabwe's revenue comes from taxation, which contributes nearly 95% to State coffers.

The tax base is made up of Value Added Tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax, presumptive tax, withholding tax, customs and excise duties, etc. In the absence of multilateral and bilateral aid, these taxes will contribute significantly in financing the Millennium Development Goals. A product of an unprecedented global insight and commitment to address pervasive global challenges, the MDGs aim to achieve the following targets by 2015:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
• l Achieve universal primary education;
• l Promote gender equality and empower women;
• l Reduce child mortality;
• l Improve maternal health;
• l Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
• l Ensure environmental sustainability;
• and l Develop a global partnership for development.

The Government of Zimbabwe is aware of the mammoth task ahead, but it has committed itself to meeting the MDGs, first and foremost, from its own resources. "However, should international relations improve, the external flow of resources (grants and external borrowing) will go a long way to soften pressures on domestic resources," notes the 2004 National MDG Progress Report.

Although a commendable attempt has been made to cost the MDGs, it is not feasible, especially in Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary environment, to formulate a separate budget for the achievement of MDGs. Even in the most stable of economies, the MDGs timeframe alone makes it well nigh impossible to have a budget specifically for the MDGs. This means, to all intents and purposes, that the cost of financing the MDGs must be built into a country's national budget.

It is against this background that the Zimbabwe Sustainability Watch Network held a two-day training workshop from May 30-31 2006 to demystify the budget and transform it into a powerful tool for holding governments accountable for the achievement of the MDGs.

It was observed in the workshop that it was not enough to monitor national budgets alone. Local authorities' budgets should also be subject to the same scrutiny. This was because local authorities were the first port of call for essential services such as water and sanitation, health care and education. The primary aim of the Budget monitoring was to critically assess how ministries are implementing the programmes for which they were allocated funds; and to provide early warning of budget overruns.

The quarterly review also provides a useful opportunity to seek explanations from the relevant ministry for either under-expenditure or over-expenditure. Under-expenditure was not necessarily a positive thing, particularly where large capital outlays were involved as the price could be a budget overrun later in the year when inflation takes its toll, it was observed.

The workshop attracted Civil Society, United Nations and Government Officials and the Media. In the coming weeks some of the participants will formulate a dedicated Budget monitoring team comprising CSOs and Media who will eventually work on a Universal National Budget Monitoring tool Kit for MDGs . "Hopefully the team will be in a position to meet with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committees for their input to influence the budgeting processes", said Sherpard Zvigadza, the SusWatch national Focal point.

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