Impacts of public participation on public budgeting process of Kurdistan

This study examines the relationship between approaches of public participation and capital budgeting process. The objective of this study is to determine factors that have caused the lack of public deliberation in Kurdistan budgeting system. It also aims to identify the impacts of deliberation, communication, and information in capital budgeting process. The study administered 465 questionnaires and interviewed 11 budget experts and government officials. The correlation coefficient and regression analysis used to examine relationships. The findings indicated strong positive correlations between deliberation, communication, information and capital budgeting process. The regression analyses demonstrated a unique significant contribution of public participation in capital budgeting process. This study revealed the leading factors that caused lack of deliberation embraces money shortages, political parties interference, corruption, weakness of civil society organizations, lack of trust, and the deployment of classical financial system. The study also revealed that budget communication effectively stimulates capital budgeting process. Additionally, access to budget information promotes good governance, minimizes corruption and the misuse of public budget. It also facilitates the implementations of other participatory approaches and creates an informed and active citizenry. To alleviate public dissatisfaction, service problems, corruption, illegitimate budget decisions, and the misuse of public budget, the Kurdistan government must involve citizens in decisions making through informed, deliberative, and consultative programs. This study becomes a notable policy implication to improve Kurdistan budgeting system

Fifth External Programme and Management Review of CIAT

Report of the fifth external program and management review (EPMR) of CIAT, conducted between November 1999 and April 2000 by a panel chaired by Ronnie Coffman. The document includes an excerpt from the summary of CGIAR International Centers Week 2000, a transmittal from the TAC Chair and the CGIAR Executive Secretary, TAC's comments, CIAT's response, and a transmittal from the panel chair.The review contained 12 recommendations related to research, two covering organization and management aspects, and one on partnerships. These were endorsed by TAC at its 79th meeting, and by the CGIAR at ICW 2000. TAC said the panel did not assess scientific quality adequately, and urged particular attention to social science research. It also sent up an alarm about the predominance of project funding.CIAT had survived difficult financial and other problems. It was praised for creating a research park to house other institutions. Among the panel recommendations related to research were obtaining funding to bring the genebank up to standard, improving storage of cassava germplasm through cryopreservation, developing a comprehensive policy and operational strategy on biodiversity, committing the center to increasing the productivity of its mandate commodities, finding long term funding for the African bean project, developing a rigorous overall approach to natural resource management, assessing the impact of past efforts to integrate germplasm, natural resources, and social science research, and review of experience with partnerships.Regarding organization and management, the panel noted a strong corporate culture. It urged greater inter-project and intra-project coordination, and redesign of the financial information system to provide better information to project leaders. The panel urged the board to focus on resource allocation and monitoring implementation

Annual report on evaluation findings 2003

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Rapport annuel sur les constatations des évaluations 200

Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook

The purpose of the Sourcebook is to act as a guide for practitioners and technical staff in addressing gender issues and integrating gender-responsive actions in the design and implementation of agricultural projects and programs. It speaks not with gender specialists on how to improve their skills but rather reaches out to technical experts to guide them in thinking through how to integrate gender dimensions into their operations. The Sourcebook aims to deliver practical advice, guidelines, principles, and descriptions and illustrations of approaches that have worked so far to achieve the goal of effective gender mainstreaming in the agricultural operations of development agencies. It captures and expands the main messages of the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development and is considered an important tool to facilitate the operationalization and implementation of the report's key principles on gender equality and women's empowerment