Jordan has been ranked as the most financially transparent country in the Middle East and North Africa, coming in at 33rd place globally on the Open Budget Index 2015.
Lagging significantly behind Jordan, but in second place regionally, is Turkey at 58. The rest of the regional countries included on the ranking are far below that with Qatar and Saudi Arabia listed dead last on the ranking.
The survey covers 102 countries throughout the world and includes 12 Middle Eastern and North African countries. Taking the top three spots globally were New Zealand, Sweden and South Africa.
According to International Budget Partnership, the organization that published the index, "The Open Budget Index is the world's only independent, comparative measure of central government budget transparency."
This year's study also revealed that "the vas majority of people live in countries that have inadequate systems for ensuring accountable budgets." In fact, the survey that was used to create the index showed that "98 of 102 countries surveyed lack adequate systems for ensuring that public funds are used efficiently and effectively."
The key pillars of the survey are budget transparency, public participation and formal oversight. According to the survey, 32 countries don't even satisfy one of these categories. The majority of the Middle East and North African countries are part of that 32.
Here is how the regional ranking stacked up, keeping in mind that Saudi Arabia ranked 102 overall and Jordan ranked 33.
,- Jordan
- Turkey
- Tunisia
- Morocco
- Yemen
- Algeria
- Egypt
- Sudan
- Iraq
- Lebanon
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
The full ranking [PDF] was published earlier in September.