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Budget support refers to the infusion of financial resources by a donor government to the National Treasury of a partner country under a set of agreed conditions for payment. In the context of the EU, there are two forms of budget support -- General Budget Support (GBS) which aims to support national development or reform policy/strategy and Sector Budget Support (SBS) which pertains to the support of a particular national sector programme policy and strategy. Budget support is seen as a means to ensure predictability of aid and which according to an OECD-DAC evaluation, results to higher allocations to health and education by partner governments, higher budget execution rates, and improved access to services. On the other hand, due to the nature of the instrument, one cannot directly attribute budget support to results in development. The European Commission is increasing its use of general and sectoral budget support in line with the European Consensus and the Paris Declaration commitments. In ACP countries under the 10thEDF, the share of resources programmed as BS is expected to increase to about 44% (or € 13.5 billion), compared to 25% at the start of 9th EDF. This reflects a moderate increase in GBS of 3.4% and a substantial leap of 16.1% in SBS. Click here for the list of ACP programmes supported under Budget Support. Related Documents Fiche on Budget Support Related Links European Commission: Aid Delivery Budget Support and Economic Governance |
