In the run-up to the Union Budget 2017, Accountability Initiative (AI) at CPR, which tracks government budgetary allocation and related expenditure for key social sector schemes annually, both through analysing government data and corroborating it with ground surveys run by their field staff, shares their latest findings.

In a series of articles below, Yamini Aiyar, Avani Kapur and Abhishri Aggarwal break down the bottlenecks in fund-flows, which negatively impact implementation on the ground despite monies having been allocated, as well as provide scheme-specific budgetary (allocation, expenditure, government reported outputs & outcomes) analysis over 2016-17.

Complexity of fund-flows

• In Huffington Post, Yamini Aiyar explains why the money allocated by the union government fails to reach the ground, primarily due to the complex mechanism of fiscal transfer or fund-flow, which makes tracking and accountability very difficult.

The complexity of this mechanism of money-flow has been captured in the animated video (above).

• In a follow-up and related article, Abhishri Aggarwal analyses the lack of effective implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, as well as the need for a transparent, well-maintained monitoring system.

Social sector allocations

• In a second series of articles, in the Wire, Yamini Aiyar draws on AI’s budgetary analysis for 2016-17 to unpack and critique the government’s social policy approach. She explains how despite attempting to shift to an ‘empowerment’ approach in its welfare model, primarily through the mechanism of conditional cash transfers, health and education, in particular, ‘remain invisible in Modi’s social policy’.
   
• Yamini Aiyar and Avani Kapur further provide a detailed sectoral analysis, inlcuding key challenges faced, in a series of articles in Livemint on maternal and child health; Swachh Bharat Mission; Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan; and health-care.

The full series of budget briefs (2016-17) developed by AI on seven social sector schemes can be accessed at their website here.