south-africa-local-government-budget-advocacy

171 Pages·2017·10.4 MB·English

Local Government
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IBudget Advocacy
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This Guide was written by Carlene van der Westhuizen, Jessica Taylor and Albert van Zyl
of the International Budget Partnership (IBP), along with consultant Maxine Rubin.
Trinity Loubser was responsible for the design, layout and production.
Richard Jordi played an important role in editing to make the Guide more user-friendly and
further editing was done by Ryan Flynn of the IBP.
The development and publication of this guide was made possible with the financial support
of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the ‘Accounting for Basic Services: tackling the
inadequate use of resources by municipalities and building a rights-based approach to service
delivery’ project of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Afesis-corplan, the Built Environment
Support Group, Planact and Isandla Institute with support from the European Union.
Foreword
Local government in South Africa is responsible for the
delivery of important basic services including water,
electricity and sanitation. This makes the local govern-
ment space an important site for civil society advocacy to
improve the quality and quantity of service delivery to poor
people living in South Africa. A growing number of civil
society organizations are engaging in this space, with an
increasing need to be able to understand and engage with
local government budgets.
Issue specific budget analysis can be a powerful tool to support any advocacy campaign
for improved service delivery. Reading, understanding and analysing government
budgets, and local government budgets in particular, can be challenging. A Guide to
Local Government Budget Advocacy describes a step-by-step approach to reading
and analysing a local government budget with a focus on a specific service delivery
issue. It also includes information on how you might use your analysis findings to ad-
vocate for better service delivery. We hope that this Guide will allow a greater number
of organisations to access the basics of budget analysis for advocacy, with a focus on
local government.
This Guide builds on a number of budget analysis trainings IBP-SA has conducted
with civil society partners over the last few years. In particular, content and cases in
the guide draw on a tailored local government budget training held by IBP-SA with
Planact, Built Environment Support Group (BESG), Afesis-Corplan and Isandla Institute.
These organisations are involved in budget work around South Africa and are partners
in the Accounting for Basic Services project. In addition, the guide includes a case
study of the Social Justice Coalition’s (SJC) pioneering budget work.
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Local government budget analysis training taking place at the IBP offices in Cape Town and being replicated in other parts
of the country in South Africa.
Contents
Foreword .............................................................................................................3
Is this guide for you? .........................................................................................6
Introduction ........................................................................................................8
Three real-life cases .......................................................................................11
Case 1: Social Justice Coalition and ...........................................................13
the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality
Case 2: Planact and Emalahleni Local Municipality ..................................14
Case 3: Built Environment Support Group and...........................................17
uMgungundlovu District Municipality
Section A: Examining the service delivery issue ..................................19
Step 1: Exploring the service delivery issues ..........................................20
Step 2: Looking for clues about budget issues .........................................23
Section B: Exploring the local government context ..............................33
Step 3: Looking for key government documents ....................................34
Step 4: Getting information about the service .........................................48
Step 5: Building a picture of the municipality ..........................................52
Section C: Budget basics .......................................................................65
Step 6: Getting to know the budgeting process ......................................66
Step 7: Understanding the different parts of a municipal budget ..........72
Step 8: Learning to ‘talk budget’ .................................................................81
Section D: Reading and analysing the budget ......................................83
Step 9: Reading the budget ........................................................................84
Step 10: Learning a few tools for budget analysis ..................................90
Step 11: Applying your tools to the budget numbers ............................102
Section E: Budget advocacy ................................................................139
Step 12: Budget findings for advocacy ...................................................139
Step 13: From analysis to advocacy .......................................................146
Appendices ....................................................................................................149
Is this Guide for you?
Read through the questions below and circle the answer that best applies
to you and/or the organisation you work for.
Example: Are you interested in gaining a better understanding of local government
budgets?
YES NOT SURE NO
Question 1: Do you live in or work directly with a poor community that is
facing service delivery issues?
YES NOT SURE NO
Question 2: Are you part of or associated with a civil society association,
movement, or organisation?
YES NOT SURE NO
Question 3: Are you involved in advocacy work to address a specific service
delivery issue that the community is facing?
YES NOT SURE NO
Question 4: Is the service you are dealing with the responsibility of local
government? (e.g. water, electricity, sanitation, or solid waste management).
YES NOT SURE NO
Question 5: Have you engaged, or are you planning to engage, with local
government on the improvement of this service?
YES NOT SURE NO
Question 6: Are you interested in gaining a better understanding of local
government budgets to support engagement with local government?
YES NOT SURE NO
Question 7: Would you like to use budget analysis as a tool to support your
advocacy campaign for improved service delivery?
YES NOT SURE NO
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If you circled YES
in answer to most of the
questions, then this Guide
is for you. If you follow
the steps the Guide should
assist you and/or your
community or organisation
to get a better understand-
ing of local government
budgets and how they can
be a powerful tool in your
advocacy campaign.
If you circled NOT SURE
in answer to most of the
questions, then this Guide
will help you answer the
questions above.
If you answered NO
to most of the questions,
then this Guide might not
be exactly what you need
in your advocacy work right
now. Nevertheless, you will
probably still find some
useful things in it.
Local government budget training taking place in different parts of South Africa.
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Introduction
Why you need a Guide to local
government budget advocacy
In South Africa, local government is responsible for the delivery of a number of
important basic services including water, sanitation, electricity, and solid waste
management. This means that local government, made up of a number of muni-
cipalities, is responsible for planning, budgeting, and delivering these basic services.
One problem is that, in many parts of South
Africa, poor communities do not have adequate
access to these basic services. This is an issue that
many communities and civil society organisations
(CSOs) are working to address. CSOs and commu-
nities working to engage with local government
are becoming more aware of the importance of
the budget for addressing service delivery issues
and improving access to basic services.
If you are part of one of these CSOs or communities looking to get a better under-
standing of local government budgets, you may feel intimidated by the technicalities
of the budget document. You may also be wondering how to connect the budget to
your advocacy work. A Guide to Local Government Budget Advocacy (the Guide)
will show you how to read and engage your municipal budget in a way that will
directly support your advocacy work for improved service delivery.
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The people who we think will benefit most from the Guide are those of you who are
part of an association, movement, or organisation of people working directly with one
or multiple communities to address specific service delivery issues. The Guide is best
suited to you if you are dealing with a service that is the responsibility of local govern-
ment, like water, sanitation, or electricity, and you are wanting to engage directly with
the relevant municipality on their budget for basic services.
How this Guide will help you
This Guide has a lot to offer. However, it is not a one-stop shop for becoming an
expert budget analyst. The Guide will help you to:
• figure out where and how to get documents and informa-
tion that you need for budget analysis;
• explore the structure of your municipality relevant to your
service delivery issue;
• better understand the local government budget process;
• read and conduct some basic analysis of a local government
budget;
• develop budget findings that you can use for advocacy; and
• think about how budget analysis and findings can fit into
your advocacy strategy.
The Guide focuses specifically on a process of analysing the local government budget
documents to explore the way the municipality collects, allocates, and spends money.
Keep in mind that service delivery problems can be caused by other things like policy
or public procurement issues, but this Guide does not look at these issues in any detail.
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How does the Guide work?
This Guide is made up of five sections and 13 steps as shown below:
Section A: Examining the service delivery issue
Step 1: Exploring the service delivery issues
Step 2: Looking for clues about budget issues
Section B: Exploring the local government context
Step 3: Looking for key government documents
Step 4: Getting information about the service
Step 5: Building a picture of the municipality
Section C: Budget basics
Step 6: Getting to know the budgeting process
Step 7: Understanding the different parts of a municipal budget
Step 8: Learning to ‘talk budget’
Section D: Reading and analysing the budget
Step 9: Reading the budget
Step 10: Learning a few tools for budget analysis
Step 11: Applying your tools to the budget numbers
Section E: Budget advocacy
Step 12: Budget findings for advocacy
Step 13: From analysis to advocacy
Each step will move you towards the end goal of reading and analysing a local
government budget and using your analysis findings to advocate for improved
service delivery.
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