Social Expenditure Monitor for Arab States

The Social Expenditure Monitor supports budgeting and fiscal policy choices to rebalance priorities in spending, improve transparency and minimize leakages in public finance management.

Our approach

The Social Expenditure Monitor (SEM) advances knowledge and supports member States in fiscal policy and budgeting allocations toward rebalancing their social expenditure priorities. The project supports member States in analysing the equity, efficiency and effectiveness of fiscal policy and budgeting in the Arab region while improving their technical capacity to address macro-fiscal challenges and inefficiencies in social expenditure. New knowledge is produced in the field of monitoring social expenditures and analysing their efficiency and effectiveness aligned with macro-fiscal targets. Channels of enhancing and disseminating policy recommendations are formulated and partnerships are mobilized to improve the capacity of decision makers in advancing policy reforms. The project provides decision makers with analysis and tools for formulating more equitable, efficient and sustainable fiscal policies in the region.

Our partners

Key partners in the project include the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office Tunisia, United Nations Resident Coordinator Office Jordan, and the International Monetary Fund Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Center.

Our activities

Deliverables include fiscal policy briefs for member States, SEM country profiles for selected member States, statistical guidelines on data reporting for SEM for Jordan and Tunisia, a macroeconomic model with a focus on social expenditure and macroeconomic policy coherence, and an interactive course on SEM. The ESCWA ٍ SEM portal has also been established. This initiative also includes national and regional workshops on SEM in Jordan and Tunisia as well as other member States as the monitor expands.

This initiative is also related to several publications including:

• The impact of fiscal policies on poverty and vulnerability levels among the middle class in Egypt
• IMF Regional Note on Exploring the Role of Budgeting for Efficient Social Expenditures: Jordan Country Case 
• Enhancing social expenditure and fiscal sustainability: A structural macro modelling approach 
• Public social expenditure landscape in Arab States: concept, measure and trend
• Efficiency of public social expenditure in the Arab States
• Fiscal policy response to public debt in the Arab region (2020)
• Macro-Fiscal Policy toward Economic Diversification and Employment Generation in Iraq
• Social Expenditure Monitor Brochure
• Fiscal Policy and Structural Transformation in the Arab Region: What are the Pathways?
• Fiscal policy response to public debt in the Arab region (2017)
• Fiscal policy on public social spending and human development in Arab countries
• Effectiveness of fiscal policy in Jordan: Impact on growth, poverty and inequality.

ESCWA, jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) produced a flagship report entitled: "Social Expenditure Monitor for Arab States: Toward making budgets more equitable, efficient and effective to achieve the SDGs". A series of background papers have been prepared to inform the report.