Practical techniques Data on budget allocation The following steps can determine if budget allocations are in line with human rights Budgets are official government documents. standards and principles. Generally speaking, they should be available from 1. the website of the treasury or finance ministry, Calculating ›› Ratios or shares (percentage of something out of a total) ›› Averages (mean value of budget allocations) ›› Per unit or per capita expenditure (value per person) 2. 3. auditor generals offices or anti-corruption agencies. In many countries, however, relevant documents are not made public, and few governments offer appropriate mechanisms public participation in budget processes. To learn how open your government’s budget process is, visit the Open Budget Index, which Making comparisons ranks countries according to the degree (identifying priority areas and groups) to which the public is able to access eight Analysing trends (comparing progress key documents in the budget process (http:// over time, adjusted for inflation) internationalbudget.org/what-we-do/open- Data on budget expenditure What governments plan to spend and what the actually spend is often different. Corruption is a leading cause, but inefficient financial management systems, fund diversions and weak oversight can also contribute to the gap. A variety of tools and methods exist (often called “Follow the Money” approaches) that track data on expenditures, including: government oversight and auditing reports, monitoring the public procurement process and non-governmental oversight and auditing of spending. 46 Accessing budgetary data budget-survey/) Other sources of data relevant to analysing budgets come from international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. NGOs working on corruption can also help you locate budgetary data. Depending on your region and political context, it  may be wise to use a VPN or other anonymising tool to mask your budget data searches.