Background 

The Budget Monitoring Project falls under the Trade and Economic Development Project as National Budget was identified in 2006 by the members of the Trade and Economic Development Network as a key issue that the TEDN should continue to work.  In its analysis of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Budget Laws, the TEDN members identified three concerns regarding the national budget. First, the share of real current expenditure in the National Budget Law contributing to sectors that presumably include “pro-poor” activities has decreased during the last three years. Second, there is no alignment between the Budget Law and the National Strategic Development Plan. Third, there is limited information available on issues such as: actual spending within sectors (social, economic, general administration) and monthly expenditure reports of the different line ministries..  Therefore, the project aims to gather interested NGOs’ voices to advocate for improvements in the national budget allocations in order to and improve the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable groups in our society and make more budget related information available to the public to enable more public oversight on the Government's budget.   

Problem Statement

The NGOs ability to engage with Government and Parliament on issues around the national budget is currently weak because of: i) the limited knowledge of the NGO community, and ii) the scarcity of available information on the Cambodian National Budget. Due to these two constraints, Cambodian NGOs are currently not fully using the opportunities that the budget offers them to back their advocacy efforts by facts and figures from the National Budget, the proposed project aims to address both constraints.

Outputs

	Increased co-operation among NGOs/CSOs engaging in budget-work.
	Increased knowledge of National Budget among NGO's/CSO's, Parliamentarians, Senators, and Government Officials.
	Establish working relations with various stakeholders in the National Budget Process.(Since January 2008, PWYP related work falls under the Trade and Economic Development Project)