OBS
OBS

Online training: Open Budget Survey 2021, COVID-19 module

Four team members of the Foundation were among 37 researchers from 25 countries who attended an online training on the new, 25-indicator COVID-19 module of the Open Budget Survey which supplements the core OBS questionnaire with an assessment of the transparency of emergency fiscal measures and budgets that governments have used to respond to the many consequences of COVID 19. The module has 26 indicators, multiple parts and 26 questions. Part 1 is about an overview of the Covid-19 module, Part-2 consists of the detail of fiscal policy, Part-3 is related to monitoring of the fiscal policy and part-4 is related to oversight and participation.  The training helped:

  • Understand the rationale for a COVID module and how it supplements the Open Budget Survey;
  • Review the methodology, structure, and question formats of the COVID module;
  • Classify the different forms that emergency fiscal policy packages took in 2020; and
  • Begin to identify the government actions, institutions, documents, and websites that will need to be consulted during the research of the COVID module.

OBS researchers attending the training were from New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan.