How non-state actors lobby to influence budget outcomes in Zambia
State-business relations have become an important mechanism for improving
information flow between government and the private sector, and depending on the
policy relevance of the information transmitted state-business relations can help to
reduce policy and institutional failures that arise from poor policy coordination and
asymmetric information. While recent empirical studies have demonstrated that effective
state-business relations increase the productivity of firms in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is
little understanding of how such relations influence the national budget and adoption of
pro-poor expenditures in developing countries. In this paper, we examine the role nonstate
actors play in shaping tax and expenditures policies through formal budget
processes, using data compiled from budget submissions for the 2008 budget and
lobbying activity data published in print media between 2006 and 2008. Analysis of
these data indicate that the current institutional arrangement established to encourage participation of non-state actors in formulating the budget has been utilized quite
effectively by several non-state actors to influence budget decisions. The data also show
that tax proposals submitted through line government departments and agencies were
more likely to be adopted in the budget as bureaucrats helped to shepherd these
proposals throughout the budget process. Those more able to articulate and justify their
own budget proposal also recorded higher success rates than those who lacked such
capacities and skills to more convincingly present their budget proposals to government.
Such capacities and skills are largely lacking among several civil society organisations
that evidently had the lowest number of budget submissions, albeit quite active in public
lobbying through the media. Donors can help build the necessary capacities in a bid to
promote policy dialogue; democratic economic governance and state-building by
encouraging civil society participation in fiscal policy-making processes. Measures to
strengthen state-business relations and effectiveness in lobbying for more pro-poor fiscal
policies and strategies are discussed.
Samuel M. Bwalya, Ezekiel Phiri & Kelvin Mpembamoto, October 2009
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Last modified: 31 March 2009