At the voters’ meeting on a winter day in December 2016, 60 people in Baze village (Gio Linh district, Quang Tri), mostly women, were listening to the local People’s Council member reporting about the local socio-economic situation and road construction in the village.

Waiting for the budget expenditure plan for the road construction that had not yet come out, Nghia raised her hand and asked: “Please let us know how much it costs for the road construction in our village?"

It is a big change for Nghia and other women in the village when they stand up and raise questions to the People’s Council member.

Nghia said she had been invited to the voters’ meetings for several times but she saw that people just sat, listened and then left the meetings. Sometimes, she did not understand some issues, but she did not dare to ask because she was afraid of raising inappropriate questions. In this meeting, she spoke out because she thought that the road is funded by the state budget, and the state budget is from people’s contribution.

Nghia started to change after the commune Women’s Union invited her to join a group of women in Baze village to learn about the state budget. Nghia was elected the group leader and participated in trainings held by the Women’s Union of Gio Linh district.

Since its establishment, the Baze community group has run monthly meetings to discuss topics related to the state budget. After joining the community group, Nghia and other women have become more confident and been willing to contribute their ideas in meetings. Nghia found the group’s activities very practical to her life. Nghia hopes that the Baze community group will be maintained for a long time because women in the village not only learn new knowledge but also interact with each other; it has been a lot of fun.

The project “Non-state actors promoting state budget transparency” funded by the EU and Finland, Oxfam and the Budget Transparency, Accountability and People’s Participation coalition (BTAP) have cooperated with social organizations, elected representatives, and people in two provinces, Hoa Binh and Quang Tri, for state budget oversight. We built capacities for people and facilitated their engagement with local authorities to monitor state-invested programmes.