Budget Support, Budget Transparency and Domestic Accountability in Mozambique

Abstract

Donors have provided foreign aid in the form of budget support in order not only to promote growth and poverty reduction but increasingly also to strengthen domestic accountability in the recipient country. Yet, despite numerous studies and evaluations, little information has been provided on how individual elements of budget support work towards domestic accountability. This article reconstructs the donors’ accountability-claim and hypothesises effects of budget support on budget transparency and domestic accountability. Evidence from empirical research in Mozambique confirms the effectiveness of budget support to improve budget transparency, and therefore supports the core accountability-claim. Moreover, the article provides insights from the demand-side, where domestic accountability institutions play an active role in the process of answerability.

Keywords: foreign aid, democracy promotion, budget transparency, civil society, domestic accountability