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The Open Budget Survey – an independent, comparative assessment of transparency, oversight, and participation in national budgets covering 125 countries – has found that countries are not sufficiently transparent and accountable about how they are managing their debt or spending on important social sectors, like health, sanitation, and other services.
 
The latest survey report by International Budget Partnership, published on 29 May 2024, shows a one-percentage-point increase in global budget transparency scores compared to the previous round.

The report uncovers regional trends, which show two stories – one of sustained progress and one of downward peril. Since 2012, East Asia & the Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa have had the steepest increases over time. Their progress, along with that of Eastern Europe & Central Asia and Latin America & the Caribbean, contrasts with a significant fall over time in South Asia, stagnation in Western Europe, U.S., & Canada, and continued low performance in the Middle East & North Africa (albeit with improvements).
 
“We also found that governments could be more accountable about how they are managing debt and the longer-term ramifications of their debt on their finances,” International Budget Partnership said in a statement sent to Financial Nigeria.