Equity of Public Resource Use

This sub-sub-indicator assesses the extent to which the pattern of public expenditures and revenue collection affects the poor and is consistent with national poverty reduction priorities. The expenditure component consists of two sub-components, one focusing on measurement issues and the other on priorities and strategies, especially those related to the poor and to vulnerable groups. The first (i) covers the extent to which poverty measurement, monitoring, and evaluation instruments exist and the degree to which poverty-related information is made available to the public. The second (ii) assesses the extent to which vulnerable groups are identified, priorities are spelled out and budgets are aligned with those priorities and sub-national allocation of public spending takes into account sub-national levels of poverty. The assessment of the revenue collection, the third (iii) dimension of the criterion, covers the incidence of major taxes, e.g., whether they are progressive or regressive, the extent to which progressive changes have been incorporated in the revenue system, the degree of alignment between revenue collection and poverty reduction priorities.