Governments across Asia and the Pacific are making budget choices with less room for error. Natural catastrophes caused US$65 billion in economic losses across the region in 2023, only 9 percent of which was insured. At the same time, 83 percent of people in the region’s developing economies, excluding China, live in countries where governments spend more on debt service than on health care.

The budget process is an essential space for people to assess whether governments are delivering on commitments with concrete investments. Although Latin America and the Caribbean has made strides in budget transparency and public participation, oversight powers that can hold governments accountable for delivering results are weakening.

Over twenty years and ten rounds of assessments, the Open Budget Survey has tracked how governments manage public money: what they disclose, who they consult, and how they are held to account. Transparency has improved globally, but the results show a persistent gap between formal improvements and the accountability mechanisms that would make them matter.

The 2025 edition of the Open Budget Survey (OBS), covering 33 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, finds that despite fiscal and governance challenges, the region has made modest progress in accountability— which can be bolstered to build public trust.