Government Spending Watch - A New Initiative You Really Need to Know About
I’m consistently astonished by how little we know about the important stuff in development. Take the Millennium Development Goals – the basis for innumerable aid debates, campaigns, and negotiations. A large chunk of the MDG agenda concerns the size and quality of public spending – on health, education, water, sanitation etc. So obviously, the first thing we need is to know how much governments are spending on these things, right?
Well no actually, because we don’t have those numbers. Until now. Oxfam has teamed up with an influential and well-connected NGO, Development Finance International, which advises developing country governments around the world. Working with a network of government officials, DFI has pulled together and analysed the budgets of 52 low and middle income countries (With another 34 to follow). The result is a new database, called Government Spending Watch, (summary of overall project here) and a report ‘Progress at Risk’, previewed in Washington last Friday in a joint DFI/Oxfam America event to coincide with the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings. The full report won’t be ready ‘til May, but an initial draft exec sum is available, and here’s what it says.
Agriculture in India still remains the main source of livelihood for the majority of the rural population and more importantly the small holding farmers. With an average annual growth rate of 3.3%, the major challenges facing this sector include a shrinking land base, dwindling water resources, the adverse impact of climate change, shortage of farm labour, increasing costs and uncertainties associated with the volatility of international markets.
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Sanumaya lives with her five children and frailing mother-in-law in a rural village in Nepal. Her husband, Gopal has left for United Arab Emirates as a labor migrant. Last year, the hybrid seeds sold in the local market had led to crop failure, bringing the family to near bankruptcy. To save his family from destitution, Gopal borrowed money from the local businessman and set off overseas. In the meantime, Sanumaya joined a local women’s savings and credit group, from where she takes out loan money to do animal husbandry. The meager income Sanumaya earns from her business is barely enough to sustain the family. Gopal has not sent home any money yet. He’s probably saving it to repay the local businessman. Fortunately, the ancestral home that Sanumaya and Gopal inherited has a lush backyard, where Sanumaya grows vegetables and lets her goats roam about freely. She hopes to sell the goats someday and make some money.