Budget toolkit
The Health budget literacy, advocacy and accountability toolkit aims to strengthen the capacities of civil society organizations, the media and parliaments for health budget advocacy.
Health budget literacy, advocacy and accountability is critical for civil society and other stakeholders to influence decision-making processes for universal health coverage (UHC). Activities involve accessing budget information, analysis to expose decisions and their implications, and influencing budget choices through advocacy and accountability.
The Health budget literacy advocacy and accountability for universal health coverage: Toolkit for capacity building, is the product of a collective effort of many partners coordinated by UHC2030 and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH). The toolkit can be used to design trainings and capacity-building workshops for the specific learning needs and interests. The content is based mainly on existing resources produced by WHO and other partners on health financing and budget analysis with the objective of making it a repository of such knowledge that can be used for capacity-building for various stakeholders. The toolkit is directed at facilitators, trainers or health activists who have experience in health budget advocacy and accountability, and who will use this toolkit to build capacity for civil society organizations, the media and parliamentarians and their staff.
Toolkit contents
The Health budget literacy, advocacy and accountability for universal health coverage toolkit contains a myriad of resources. We encourage you to select and download the sections which will be most useful to you. Click on the sections below for details and download links.
Chapter 1: General guidelines and resources for users and facilitators
This chapter describes the purpose of this toolkit, how to use it and the target audiences. It includes the following sections:
Chapter 2: Core content for understanding universal health coverage and public budgets for health
This chapter provides information about key aspects of health and UHC relevant for budget literacy, advocacy and accountability. The chapter also introduces concepts of public financing for health and access to relevant budget documents.
Module 1: Key aspects of health and UHC
Section A: Universal health coverage
A1: Defining UHC in the context of SDG3
A2: Relevance of UHC for disease or population specific interests
A3: Importance of social determinants of health
A4: Common goods for health: A foundation for UHC
A5: Need for strong health systems with emphasis on primary health care
Section B: Right to health and international, regional and national commitments to UHC
A good opportunity to use local, country data, and to understand which instruments the country has ratified and how it has been made relevant for the local policy and legal frameworks.
Download: B1: What is the right to health and how does it link with UHC?
Download: Activity: Agreements, declarations and domestic commitments
Module 2: Introduction to public financing for health relevant for budget advocacy for universal health coverage
Section A: Introduction to public policy and its association with the budget in relation to UHC
The public budget is a reflection of a government’s public policy priorities. The first step in developing budget analysis and advocacy is to first understand what the key policy priorities are.
Download: A1. What is public policy in general terms?
Download: A2. What is the role of public resources in relation to public policy?
Download: A3. On what should health policies focus for countries to achieve UHC?
Download: Tool WHO Global health expenditure report
Download: Tool: The WHO health financing progress matrix
Download: Activity. Understanding key elements of health policy design for UHC
Download: Activity: Exploring UHC budget information using the Global Heath Expenditure Database
Section B: Introduction to the public budget and its relevance for UHC
Download: B2. What is the public budget and why is it relevant?
Download: B4. Expenditures in the public budget and those relevant for UHC budget advocacy
Download: B5. Key budget classifications
Download: Tool WHO country mapping of health budget classifications
Download: Activity: What budget classifications is my country using to organize health and UHC related expenditures?
Section C: Introduction to the budget cycle and links with planning universal health coverage
Download: C1. What is the budget cycle and what are its key stages and actors?
Download: C2. Main stakeholders that intervene in the budget cycle
Download: C3. The budget cycle, its stages and stakeholders for UHC
Download: 1 Activity: Building the budget cycle for your country
Download: 2 Activity: Identifying the role of the ministry of health in the budget cycle
Section D: Budget information: key budget documents relevant for budget advocacy and useful resources to locate UHC related budget information
Download: D1. The key budget documents and their content
Download: D2. Where to find budget documents
Download: D3. Budget information relevant for UHC and where to find it
Activity:
Download: 1 Activity: Finding and exploring budget documents in my country
Download: 2 Activity: Finding budget documents in my country
Section E: Transparency, access to information and citizen participation as key elements of budget advocacy and accountability
Download: E2. Key tools for understanding and measuring budget transparency around the world
Download: E3. Freedom of information around the world
Download: Activity: Freedom of information
Section F: Budget analysis as a key tool for budget advocacy for UHC
In this section, you can engage with budget numbers and have the opportunity to do budget analysis using their country’s budget figures:
Download: F1. Why analyse the public budget?
Download: F2. Basic budget analysis
Download: F4. Budget analysis relevant for UHC budget advocacy
Download: Tool: Basic budget calculations to identify common problems in the use of public resources
Download: Tool: 20 key questions about your country budget, IBP Kenya
Chapter 3: Content for civil society organizations, the media and parliamentarians
Module 1: The role of Civil Society
Find tools and practical exercises for prospective UHC budget advocates to begin conceptualizing country-level UHC budget advocacy work.
Section A: General introduction and overview of civil society budget advocacy work
Download: A1. What is advocacy?
Download: Activity: Identifying definitions and concepts of advocacy
Download A2. What is budget advocacy? Who does it and why?
Download: Activity: Ecosystem of civil society budget advocacy in your country
Download: A3. What is the potential impact of budget advocacy?
Download: Tool: Case studies of civil society budget work around the world
Download: Activity: Budget advocacy work by CSOs and their impact
Section B: Budget advocacy related to health and UHC
Download: B1. What does health budget advocacy seek to accomplish and what has been its focus?
Download: Activity: Identifying civil society groups working to advance UHC
Download: B2. Examples of CSO budget advocacy for health and UHC
Download: Activity: Identifying a UHC budget advocacy problem or agenda in my country
Section C: The importance of strategic budget advocacy for UHC
Download: C1. When is civil society budget advocacy successful?
Download: C2. How to plan budget advocacy with an impact?
Download: Tool: Slippery problems
Download: Activity: Slippery problems
Download: Tool: Eight ways to change service delivery
Module 2: the Role of the Media
How to use this module to develop a workshop
Each section contains explanations about different aspects of UHC budget advocacy, and accountability and the role of the media. This module can be used to develop activities and presentations. Each section also contains example activities to help participants explore the different issues, apply knowledge and build understanding.
Section A: Introduction to media engagement with UHC budget advocacy work
Download: A1: What is health budget advocacy and accountability?
Download: Activity: Advocacy and accountability
Section B: What can the media do in health budget accountability?
Download: B1: What media can do?
Download: B3: Why should I work on health budget accountability for universal health coverage?
Download: Activity: Media and health budget accountability
Section C: With whom do media need to engage on health accountability?
Download: C1: Advantages and mutual benefits of collaboration and audiences to target
Download: C2: Networks: who can I collaborate with and learn from?
Download: C3: Strategic collaboration: when, what for and how can they bring about change?
Download: C4: How to build effective collaboration and mitigate possible risks?
Download: Activity: Collaboration
Section D: When and where in health budget can media play a part?
Download: D1: Where in the budget process can I have the most positive impact and why?
Download: Activity: Role of the media in the budget process
Section E: Addressing UHC budget accountability in a way that engages the audience?
Download: E1: How can media support UHC budget accountability?
Download: E2: Setting objectives for stories
Download: E3: What platform, format and style should be used?
Download: Activity: Engaging your audience
Section F: Limitations for media engagement
Download: F1: Considerations on challenges and risks media are facing
Download: Activity: Limitations and Challenges
Module 3: The role of parliaments
Section A: Parliaments and their relevance for SDG accountability
Download: A1. Why should Parliaments engage with the SDGs and what is their role?
Download: A2. To what extent are parliaments engaging with SDGs?
Download: Tool: Questions for assessing parliamentary involvement with the SDGs
Download: Activity: Application of the self-assessment tool on engagement with SDG 3 and UHC
Section B: Parliamentary oversight function and why it matters for UHC budget accountability
Download: B1. Parliaments and the public budget: a brief introduction
Download: Activity: Checklist on the executive budget proposal
Download: B3. Challenges and limits of parliaments and their members for effective oversight
Download: Tool: Tips for MPs on budget oversight
Section C: Engaging citizens in effective participation in budget oversight for UHC
Download: C1 The role of parliaments in fostering effective participation in the budget process
