Preface 3

Foreword 4

Acknowledgements 5

Executive summary 9

1 Overview: The need to empower public understanding of the budget 11

1.1. Public understanding and ownership as imperatives for restoring public finances and trust 12

1.2. The changing drivers of trust 12

1.3. A changing communications landscape 14

1.4. Enabling public understanding and ownership 16

1.5. A way forward to empower public understanding and ownership 16

References 17

Note 17

2 Demystifying the budget for key decision makers 19

2.1. How OECD countries are demystifying budgets for key decision makers 21

2.2. Building on good practices in improving understanding of public finances 26

2.3. Conclusion 38

References 39

Notes 41

3 How public finances are communicated 43

3.1. Existing practices in communicating about public finances 45

3.2. Why public finances need to be better communicated 50

3.3. Building on good practices 52

3.4. Conclusion 63

References 64

Notes 65

4 Citizen engagement: Beyond the ballot and into budgets 67

4.1. Efforts to engage citizens on budgets 69

4.2. Why citizens must be engaged in efforts to restore public finances 71

4.3. Building on good practices in citizen engagement 76

4.4. Conclusion 81

References 82

Notes 83

5 Creating champions of fiscal sustainability 85

5.1. The emergence of fiscal advocates 87

5.2. Why independent institutions are evolving 89

5.3. Effective fiscal advocates 94

5.4. Measuring fiscal advocacy 96

5.5. Conclusion 103

References 104

Note 104