BudgIT introduced its United States office in Washington, DC to a group of leaders, stakeholders, donor representatives and citizens.
The event hosted people from across the development sector such as Transparency Accountability Initiative, Carnegie Endowment fund, Open Government Partnership, MacArthur Foundation and other distinguished leaders from across the world.
This is part of BudgIT’s post anniversary strategy to expand its operations and enhance civic innovation globally. In the last few years, BudgIT has opened offices in Sierra Leone, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria. The civic organization continues to test its thesis that communities and citizens across the world deserve access to public information in a simplified and engaging way for civic action and institutional improvement.
“We believe that our ideas are valid across the world and we are happy to see this experimentation work out. We accept that learning can be shared across the world. In the next two years, we plan to open our offices in Kenya and make the US lead support of all our international programs” said Oluseun Onigbinde, Global Director, BudgIT
While the central mission of BudgIT’s work has not changed, the programming for the US office has been specifically designed to combine the use of creative arts, technology and data-driven research to stimulate civic participation in underserved and vulnerable communities. The event provided insights to the audience on how BudgIT intends to achieve this mission from a proximate perspective.
In her speech, Nada Zhody, the Director of Open Gov Hub and member of BudgIT Global Advisory Board, mentioned how the Hub has been a partner with BudgIT and also shared the influence that BudgIT holds in the open governance space.
While taking feedback from the audience, Iyanuoluwa Bolarinwa, BudgIT International Programs Lead, emphasized the importance of flipping the narrative. “BudgIT is amongst the first few organizations experimenting with this new phenomenon, and we need all the support and help we can get to make this a success” he said.
To connect with the BudgIT US team, you can reach our website at budgit.us and they can be reached at usoffice@yourbudgit.com
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