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Open Budgets

Every year, governments collect and spend billions of taxpayer funds to pay for public services like education and healthcare. The public has a right to know how that money is allocated and how it is spent. Making budgets open to public input and scrutiny can help ensure that government planning and spending align with public priorities. In particular, people should be able to see that money is spent equitably, addressing the needs of women, people with disabilities, youth, and low-income groups, among others. OGP members have made their budgets increasingly transparent, yet more work remains for governments to proactively increase civic participation and oversight.

Debt is also a critical component of a country’s public finances. When acquired and managed responsibly, debt plays an important role in a country’s economy and fiscal health. It helps finance the development of new infrastructure, emergency procurement, and economic stabilization. However, many governments do not publish sufficient debt information, leading to an increased risk of corruption, bad investment decisions, and undemocratic borrowing practices. Increasing debt integrity through greater transparency and public accountability helps ensure that debt levels are sustainable and that funds received through borrowing are efficiently allocated to meet public needs.

The Open Gov Guide

The Open Gov Guide is the go-to resource for open government reformers. The guide provides concrete recommendations for policy makers, civil society representatives, and more on how to apply open government principles to real-world challenges. Readers can also use the guide to learn more about how governments at the national and local level are putting these values into practice through OGP action plans and beyond.

Learn more about this policy area in the “Open Budgets” and “Public Debt” chapters of the Open Gov Guide.

Challenge Commitments

As part of the Open Gov Challenge, the OGP Support Unit would like to recognize some of the most inspiring commitments made by participants to date. Read more about these exciting reforms on this topic below.

For a full list of Challenge commitments submitted by members, visit our Open Gov Challenge Commitment Tracker.

ELGEYO MARAKWET, KENYA

Improve the Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Funds

To increase its tax revenue and better allocate its public funds, Elgeyo Marakwet committed to improving its fiscal monitoring and evaluation processes. For example, it aims to formalize its existing multi-stakeholder Project Management Committees by embedding it in the country government and to provide increased training on monitoring and evaluation and clearer guidelines on public participation.

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES

Improve Public Participation in the Annual Budgeting Process

Quezon City in the Philippines has been working to improve public participation in its annual budgeting process, especially to better engage with vulnerable communities. Through this commitment, the city committed to inviting civil society representatives to help shape the new budget, as well as hosting training sessions and workshops to allow participants to better understand how the process works.

ZAGREB, CROATIA

Implement a Citywide Participatory Budgeting Process

Building on an initiative to pilot participatory budgeting in four districts, Zagreb (Croatia) is expanding this policy to include the entire city. The government committed to improving the existing digital platform, where residents can propose, vote on, and monitor local projects, giving them a direct role in shaping their communities. The commitment includes training for city staff in deliberative practices and community engagement.

All Commitments by OGP Members

Explore all fiscal openness commitments from OGP members.

The following list reflects commitments submitted through national or local action plans. For more details, visit OGP’s Data Dashboard.

Filter the commitments according to three categories evaluated by the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): ambition, completion, and early results.

  • Ambition: Beginning with 2020 action plans, the IRM assesses ambition using an indicator called “Potential for Results.” This indicator is an early marker of a commitment’s potential to yield meaningful results, based on how the commitment is articulated in the action plan and the state of play in the respective policy area.
  • Completion: For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlined in the commitment were implemented.
  • Early Results: Beginning with 2021 action plans, the IRM assesses commitment results using an indicator called “Early Results”. This indicator compares the state of transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability before the action plan with the state at the end of the action plan.

Commitment List

803 Commitments related to Fiscal Openness by all members
  • Select
Showing 5 of 804
Country/LocalityYearCommitment TitleMore
Kosovo

2026

Strengthening proactive publication and transparency at the Ministry of Finance

Guatemala

2026

Leveraging and using open fiscal data.

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Guatemala

2026

Redesign of the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Portal of the Ministry of Public Finance (MINFIN)

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Guatemala

2026

Acciones interinstitucionales para el fortalecimiento del acceso a la información sobre los programas sociales relacionados con las intervenciones para mejorar la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de la población.

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Mendoza, Argentina

2026

Institucionalize the Participatory Budget of the City of Mendoza

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What is this showing?

This table shows all commitments that match the filters selected at the top of the page. At least one filter must be selected to populate this table. Use the tags above the table to further filter by commitment quality (e.g. ambitious, complete). Click on commitment titles to learn more about each commitment. Click on “Featured” icons to access stories, where available.

Why is this data helpful? (why did we choose it?)

This table enables finding existing commitments in specific policy areas, regions, and years, as well as top-performing commitments by using the built-in table filters.

How is this calculated?

The commitment performance metrics (e.g. ambitious, complete) are derived directly from IRM reports. See the terms below for details. The Year field shows the year in which the commitment was first submitted. Icons in the Featured field indicate that a story is available on the OGP website.

Terms to know

Learn More

Data Dashboard: Explore data on how OGP members are implementing reform in key policy areas, including information on the ambition and early results of commitments

OGP Resources: Find all of OGP’s stories of reform, IRM reports, fact sheets, and other information in one place.

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Open Gov Challenge Tracker

Discover initiatives submitted to the Open Gov Challenge by OGP members and beyond, through OGP action plans or as standalone commitments.

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