By Jay Colburn, International Budget Partnership – Feb 28, 2017
This post is the first in a series looking at the budget cycle and how civil society can most effectively engage at each stage of it.
Timing can be everything when it comes to influencing government decisions. Luckily budgeting more or less follows a regular cycle throughout the financial year – things may be delayed or late, but decisions are often contingent on what has come before. As the figure below shows, the budget cycle can be broken down into four stages. Civil society organizations (CSOs) looking to influence budgets can use their knowledge of the budget cycle to determine the timing and targets of their interventions.