A peoples story from Nepal 

Processes of economic literacy and budget accountability are being utilized by local organisations and groups to ensure accountability of duty bearers and to augment people’s access to local resources. Excluded and marginalised groups are increasingly engaged in budget tracking of public offices and seeking accountability with them after being trained in Economic Literacy and Budget Accountability for Governance (ELBAG). Various Dalit communities organised by RDN in 12 districts of Mid and Far-western Development regions have been able to claim the funds which are allocated for the poor and marginalised communities by the Village Development Councils Similarly, with support from Society for Environment and Education Development (SEED) groups of women, Dalits, PWDs and indigenous peoples of Dang have also succeeded in claiming Rs 347,000 from different VDCs. 

For instance, getting involved with women’s groups formed by Siddhartha Social Development Centre, women from the village of Jahadi in Nepal came to know of an allocation for women’s empowerment in their Village Development Council’s budget. It was only when they got involved in women’s groups formed by this budget allocation came to light. The news prompted them to approach the Village Development Council (VDC) secretary to ask how the budget had been spent. Initially, the secretary refused to acknowledge that any such budget existed. In response, the women organised a picket of the VDC’s offices, forcing the secretary to admit that the budget had already been spent on other development works. The women demanded that the budget allocated for women’s empowerment be duly spent on this purpose and threatened to organise more protests if it was not. Eventually the VDC agreed that funds in the following year’s budget would be spent on women’s empowerment. The women of Jahadi are now keeping a watchful eye on the VDC to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.