The ‘People’s Budget’ and Budget Effectiveness: the Case of Local Governments in Uganda

Abstract

All over the world, participatory budgeting is being advocated. This is based on the belief that stakeholders’ participation in the budgeting process improves transparency, accountability and service delivery. Using evidence from 105 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Kabalore and Kamwenge district local governments, therefore, this study set out to analyse the participation of CSO’s in the budgeting process and the effectiveness of the budget process, as a result of such participation. The findings were that the participation of CSOs in the budgeting process is still very low and that the relationship between this participation and effectiveness of the budget process is very weak (spearman’s correlation coefficient = .08). Therefore, it is recommended that relevant organisations build the capacity of CSOs to participate in the budgeting process, to secure the benefits of budget effectiveness associated with such participation.