NGOs should instead monitor and do advocacy around government policies, programs and activities.  Because one of the principal channels through which the government undertakes service delivery is the budget, ISODEC established its Centre for Budget Advocacy (CBA) in 2000.

The CBA is the only initiative in Ghana that does budget work with a pro-poor perspective.  In its work it prioritizes essential services—health, education and water.   It does budget analysis and expenditure monitoring as well as capacity-building for government, legislators and civil society.  It also examines macroeconomic policies to determine if they are geared to poverty reduction and ensuring the delivery of these essential services.

The CBA analyzes the national and district budgets, determining the share of the budget directed to social sectors in general, and the education sector specifically, relative to the overall budget.  In looking at the budget CBA is concerned not just with the allocation for education, but the breakdown of that allocation into primary, secondary and tertiary education.  It wants to ensure that this breakdown reflects a pro-poor bias and prioritizes primary education.

Most local-level expenditure in education comes from the national government in the form of direct payments of teacher salaries.  At the same time the district is responsible for funding of education facilities, so CBA also monitors the district budget to ensure that the district, in its own budget allocations, gives appropriate priority to education. 

CBA uses this information in advocacy and other interactions with government, elected representatives and civil society at the two levels. 

In addition to analyzing the budgets, CBA is also involved in monitoring education expenditures at the district level to ensure that they are made efficiently and effectively.  This monitoring is undertaken in collaboration with the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), a network of NGO working on education issues, whose formation ISODEC facilitated.  GNECC asked CBA to develop a questionnaire for monitoring usage of capitation grants.  It uses these questionnaires in interviews with students, teachers, etc.  GNECC undertakes regular surveys and CBA assists the Coalition in analyzing the data produced.  The Coalition uses the reports produced to engage the Ministry of Education and officials at the school level.

In its work CBA uses the right to education guarantees in Ghana’s Constitution.  However, these are quite broad and there are debates, for example, about what the guarantee of “free” primary education means.  In the absence of a national education policy and because the guarantees in the Constitution like these are not very clear, CBA looks to international standards to help fill in the gaps.

A principal challenge that CBA has faced in its education budget work is securing multi-year funding for its research.  Short-term funding does not allow it to track developments and build its database over a period of years.

Another challenge is, of course, access to information.  The government has itself identified as a problem that it does not produce adequate, appropriate information.  The availability and quality of information also typically varies from district to district, making comparisons between districts difficult.  In addition, where the information exists, it is often difficult for civil society to access it.   

At the same time CBA has been successful in producing and disseminating very widely regular reports on the budget.  It also had a success in facilitating the formation of the GNECC, and with the Coalition producing regular reports on expenditures at the school level.  In addition it collaborates with the Coalition in working to influence education policies and allocations, and this appears to be having some impact.

November 2009