Building Bridges for Better Spending in Southeast Asia

The Challenge

No government activity has a more significant impact on citizens’ ability to attain health, education and other intrinsic human rights than the formulation and implementation of the public budget. However, government spending can fail to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people if funds are not allocated or spent efficiently and equitably. While some countries have been able to improve spending and service delivery through a vibrant civil society that has made major strides in monitoring government actions and holding them accountable, the expertise of these civil society organizations has been slow to cross borders, and many countries are lagging behind in social accountability work.

The Opportunity

Southeast Asia has seen impressive instances of civil society-led efforts to improve the quality of public spending, and great potential to build on these successes. R4D has worked with civil society organizations (CSOs) in the region and globally to improve governance and access to basic human rights by making public spending and service delivery more effective. Through the USAID Building Bridges for Better Spending in Southeast Asia project, R4D is helping leverage Indonesian CSOs’ extensive experience and expertise to catalyze more and better social accountability research and advocacy efforts in the region.

Our Work

R4D is working with partners throughout Southeast Asia to ensure that public spending in the region translates into high-quality services that improve people’s lives. Together with the Indonesia-based Bandung Institute of Governance Studies (BIGS), R4D is leading the three-year (2011-2014) Building Bridges project to catalyze these efforts. Through the project, Southeast Asian CSOs work together to develop their capacity to monitor and improve public spending and service delivery, to enhance and increase their collaborations with policymakers to improve policy decisions; and to catalyze and sustain concrete improvements in health and education spending and outcomes.

The Building Bridges project is built around 4 main components:

  • Learning by doing social accountability projects and grants: CSOs develop their capacity and expertise to drive improvements in basic services as they carry out three connected research and advocacy projects using Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys, Citizen Report Cards, and Social Audits.
  • Peer learning and technical support: As they carry out their projects, CSOs enhance their capacity to carry out social accountability work through training on the tools, ongoing technical support from Indonesian organizations, as well as by learning from their peers’ diverse strengths and experience.
  • Social Accountability Atlas: This online knowledge-platform will profile CSO-led projects focusing on holding governments accountable for spending and service delivery in Southeast Asia. The Atlas will drive more effective social accountability work throughout the region by increasing the availability of information on how to conduct high-impact efforts, and by connecting CSOs, policymakers, donors, and other development actors.
  • Regional Advocacy: CSOs will engage in targeted advocacy across the region to increase the quality and quantity of accountability work as well as strengthen the political will for policymakers to incorporate CSO-led work into their policy decisions.

Our Partners:

The USAID Building Bridges for Better Spending in Southeast Asia Project is supported by funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under the IKAT – US Partnership.  “Inisiatif Kemitraan Asia Tenggara – United States (IKAT‐US)” or “Southeast Asia – US Partnership: Civil Societies Innovating Together” is an initiative with the goal of facilitating partnerships between experienced Indonesian CSOs and their Southeast Asian counterparts to deepen democracy, good governance, and respect for human rights throughout the region.

For more detailed information on our partner organizations and their projects, please see the links to the files below.

Building Bridges Partner Descriptions

IKAT-US Fact Sheet

Global & Regional Initiatives

R4D is a globally recognized leader for designing initiatives that connect implementers, experts and funders across countries to build knowledge and get that knowledge into practice.