Themes: Social Rights & Social Welfare System
Objectives
- To make participants understand the economic restraints on the implementation of social welfare systems
- To make participants experience the side of policy-makers
- To make participants understand about the social welfare system and its implications
Duration and Planning
- 15 minutes : Explanation of the method
- 30 minutes : Inventing a country
- 90 minutes : Developing the budget of the country
- 30 minutes : Presentations and Discussions
- 15 minutes : Debriefing
Materials
- Flipcharts
- Coloured papers
- Board markers
- Post-its
- Pens
- Pastel Paints
Recommended Method
The participants are divided into two groups asked to invent a country name for their groups. Afterwards, the facilitator explains that, now they are the ministers of their country and they have 30 minutes to plan which person takes which role on the cabinet of their countries as ministers. They must have 1 president and 9 ministers for each country and develop an Organigram of their country on who decides on what with keeping in mind that last decision is always lays out with the president. During this phase, the participants have 30 minutes to come up with :
- A name of their country
- A flag of their country
- Organigram of their council of ministers
The main purpose of this initial activity is to make participants internalise the country that they will work for and feel more attached to their posts as decision-makers. During this phase, the participants present their country to each other and choose one side of the seminar room as their cabinet.
The facilitator should keep on eye about the discussions and the role division and ask questions to the participants’ why, they are choosing specific ministries over the others and how their decision making process is developed etc.
Afterwards, the facilitator explains the task by providing the handout to each group. After the presentation of the above sheet, the participants have 90 minutes to come up with each area with the arguments : Why? , How?, Where?, for Whom? They will spend the money.
In that way, the participants will have an opportunity to deal with the money management and see that not everything is possible. You can as well share the Public Expenditure Management Handbook developed by World Bank ( Additional Information and Readings ) to give participants an idea about how to divide the expenses.
The main purpose of this activity to make the participants aware both “Everything is possible!” and “Everything might not be possible!” by making them to deal with the piggy bank of their own countries. After the participants develop the budgets of their countries, they present to the overall group. Each group has a right to give feedback each other and ask the participants about why they have put more money to “one area” then the “other one”.
After the presentations are finalized, the facilitator asks the following questions to evaluate the overall process :
- From your experiences, is the expenditures are feasible? If not, why it is not feasible?
- When you were calculating each budget area, what did you prioritize, what not?
- Did you consider your country has a safety issue for example that you need more budget for the defense? If not, why? If yes, why?
- Did you consider that providing only for young people might hinder the social services for children or elderly or the overall adult population?
- How did you make your budget? How was the elaboration process?
- Do you know how much expenditure your country is using? Do you know the monitoring mechanisms for the expenditures in your own country?
- Do you think how can we achieve the transparent, just and fair budget process for our countries? If yes, how?
Facilitator’s Note
There are two ways of implementing this activity, if the group is smaller than 15 people, you can give the task to directly whole group, but for more than 20 people, you should divide the groups of 10 to consider the time limitation as well as the discussion times. The facilitator should familiarise him/herself concerning to the public expenditures and how to monitor and understand public expenditures to provide feedback during the elaboration process of the participants.
Additional Information and Readings
Public Expenditure Management Handbook. (1998). World Bank Publications.
Country ________________ – Handout
| Population: 40 million · Children (0-14 years): 10 million · Youth (15-24 years): 6 million · Adults (25-64 years): 20 million · Elderly (65+ years): 4 million Capital: Location: Language: Government Type: Currency: GDP : $1.2 trillion Yearly Budget: $500 billion Healthcare: Education: Defense: Social Welfare : Youth: Children: Elder Care: Unemployment Benefits : Housing Assistance : Disability Services : Family Services : Community Development Programs : Other : Infrastructure: Research and Development: Environment and Conservation: Public Safety: Other Services: Now you as the ministers of _______________, you have to divide your yearly budget to following areas by considering the well-being and security of your citizens. Each minister should develop their arguments where the money will be spend and how it will be spent. During this process, you have to consider the overall areas, but the social welfare budget line in a deepened way. Therefore, consider that you have to explain these budget to your citizens, NGOs, the public officials, so if you would like to be get elected next turn, consider which population group is important or which area is more important for you and develop arguments. |
