This WaterAid publication offers not only a primer on budget, but also aims to equip civil society advocates with the necessary knowledge to help the poor and marginalised. It addresses the demand for the basic rights of and access to water and sanitation, while additionally adressing the skills to understand the underlying principles, processes and scope of budgeting from the formulation to the auditing phase.

When a government makes a commitment to a national or international goal, the government is also signalling that it will put in resources in place to meet that goal. Often, resources (usually meaning funds) that come in are inadequate to meet the goal. And with regards to the funds that do come in, the public at large do not have information on how the funds have been procured, how they have been distributed and how they’ve been evaluated for effectiveness. Sometimes, even if all that information is there in the public domain, those most affected by the government’s reaching (or not reaching) its own goal are not in a position to make informed decisions. They do not have the knowledge or the skills to interpret what the funds-related information means for them.