Why and when do governments decide to open up their books, and let the public know how they raise and spend public resources? What are the incentives that leaders face when deciding whether to adopt and sustain fiscal openness reforms? These are some of the questions discussed based on recent research including direct interviews with reform champions from across the world.
The Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) was set up “to advance and institutionalize global norms and significant, continuous improvements on fiscal transparency, participation, and accountability in countries around the world.” In order to promote a deeper understanding around the incentives agenda, GIFT has embarked on two projects in recent years: the first is based on a set of think-pieces written by senior academics and practitioners. The second consists of six interviews with politicians and senior officials considered “reform champions” in their respective countries, to gather first-hand personal testimonies from leaders at the forefront of successful fiscal openness reforms about the incentives that they faced during the various stages of the reform process, from formulation to implementation, and the alliances that formed around their cause.
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SPEAKER BIOS Paolo de Renzio,Senior Research Fellow at the International Budget Partnership (IBP) in Washington, DC At IBP, he coordinates a research program on governance, fiscal transparency and development, and is part of the team that produces the Open Budget Index. Paolo holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and a Masters from the London School of Economics, where he also taught from 2006 to 2009.He has published in various academic journals and has co-edited a book called “Open Budgets: The Political Economy of Transparency, Participation and Accountability” (Brookings Press, 2013). Kathrin Frauscher, Program Director, Open Contracting Partnership Kathrin works for the Open Contracting Partnership with a passion for supporting partners with expertise, tools, processes and connections to open up contracting in their countries and sectors. In her role as Program Director she is responsible for the program portfolio and implementing a strategy that delivers value for our clients and partners. Previously, Kathrin was a governance specialist at the World Bank Group where for the past decade she led open contracting and governance projects and programs in Africa and Asia. Together with the Open Contracting team at the World Bank, she incubated the Partnership and helped build its global brand and reach. Jim Brumby,Director, Public Service and Performance, Governance Global Practice, The World Bank Group Jim leads the department that focuses on public sector reform. He has been engaged on public management and economic reform at state, national and international levels for more than thirty years, having worked for the Treasury of the State of Victoria in Australia, the Treasury of New Zealand, the OECD, the IMF and since 2007, at the World Bank. He returned to the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC in 2015 after several years based in Indonesia as Lead Economist and Sector Manager. He holds an MPA from Harvard University. CHAIR: Roby Senderowitsch, Manager of Leadership, Learning & Innovation, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Vice Presidency, The World Bank Group Previously Roby served as Manager of the Global Partnership for Social Accountability. His work in the Bank includes a strong focus on political economy analysis, building coalitions for change, anti-corruption, and performance based management of public institutions. Before joining the Bank, Roby worked with several NGOs in Argentina and Cuba, where he served as the Field Representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Roby has been a lecturer in Human Resource management in nonprofit organizations, as well as director of educational programs and community development and human resource management in the private sector. |