Civil society engagement in education budgets: a report documenting Commonwealth Education Fund experience

This report documents CEF experience, illustrating how civil society can engage in the budget process through budget analysis; tracking disbursement flows through the education system; monitoring expenditure; and lobbying to influence budget allocations to the education sector. The report describes why education budget work is important. It records the range of work supported by CEF, setting this within the international context and noting major achievements and common challenges faced by organisations implementing programmes of budget work. It provides country profiles, which offer an insight into the achievements, activities, challenges and lessons learnt for each of the countries supported by the CEF, making recommendations based on partner experiences. It is primarily intended for groups or individuals that have a new or relatively new interest in education budget work, but may also be of interest to those that have engaged in this work for some time, The final section of the report provides a list of resources - budget expenditure tracking manuals, tools and examples of research on education financing - that were produced with CEF support. These serve as a useful guide for the reader to investigate budget work in more depth. There are also links to organisational websites for further information on budget work.