MIFTAH holds workshop showcasing the 2017 Citizens’ Budget for the Ministries of Social Development and Education and Higher Education
By MIFTAH
January 10, 2018

On December 21, MIFTAH held a workshop in which the Ministries of Social Development and Education and Higher Education showcased their 2017 Citizens’ Budget. The Citizens’ Budget is considered a simplified version of the ministries’ public budget and offers a numerical summary of these ministries’ policies, approaches and priorities in 2017.

MIFTAH Programs Director Lamis Shuaibi opened the workshop by commending the ministries’ willingness to cooperate with civil society institutions in carrying out a series of joint interventions and issuing their citizens’ budget. She pointed out this step’s importance for increasing transparency of the public budget in line with the standards of international transparency for budgets. This, Shuaibi maintained, contributed to impacting financial policies and holding official institutions accountable for their declared priorities.

Hanadi Barahma, director of the budget department and Asem Khamees, director general of human resources, at the Ministry of Social Development, along with Dr. Mamoun Jabr, director general of educational planning, and Amal Hammad, head of the planning department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, gave presentations on behalf of their respective ministries. They focused on the vision, mission and goals of their ministry and how these could be embodied in the adopted policies along with specifying spending priorities.

MIFTAH project coordinator for “Finance for Development” Tamara Tamimi said the workshop was in line with MIFTAH’s strategic approaches such as “lobbying and advocacy on public policies that guarantee social justice and equality” within the framework of promoting good governance in Palestine. She said this could be achieved through providing a space that brings civil society institutions together with the official Palestinian establishment to showcase citizens’ budgets and open the door to a dialogue on fiscal policies in ministries and spending priorities. This, she maintained, contributed to the achievement of social justice.

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