Public Expenditure Tracking and Budget Demystification in Nepal

SAWTEE has initiated a programme to track public expenditure in the health sector. The proposed project will analyse government budget allocation in Nepal’s health sector. It will specifically focus on the analysis of public expenditure in the health sector from the perspectives of gender and social inclusion. The project is supported by the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI).

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening transparency, efficiency and inclusiveness of national public financial management through fostering the use of social accountability initiatives/tools like policy appraisal, public expenditure tracking survey (PETS), health budget monitoring and media engagement. The expected outcomes of the project are as follows: policy makers are made aware of the policy gaps as well as resource gaps in gender and social inclusion, in particular in the health sector which would help to demystify budgetary allocation; the extent of leakages, problems and bureaucratic delays in the health sector, are recognized and actionable information to demand public accountability is identified; and reporting skills of economic journalists on budget, in particular health-related budget, is enhanced.