The MCSA and Gender Budget Group (GBG) Budget 2027 Roundtable convened civil society organisations, government agencies, United Nations representatives and other multi-stakeholder participants to discuss and provide feedback on the Budget 2027 memorandum. The roundtable was framed around the principle of reaching those furthest behind and strengthening the link between public expenditure, measurable outcomes and accountability.

A central message emerging from the discussion was that Budget 2027 should move beyond reporting outputs and headline economic performance towards demonstrating whether public spending improves people’s lived outcomes and protects social and planetary wellbeing. Participants highlighted the importance of disaggregated and citizen-generated data, stronger transparency, gender-responsive budgeting, and mechanisms that connect allocations to standards, outcomes and impact.

The discussion covered GBG’s gender-responsive budget recommendations and the MCSA People, Prosperity, Planet, and Peace & Partnership pillars, followed by perspectives from Sarawak and Sabah. Across these areas, participants raised issues relating to gender disparity, disability inclusion, food security, healthcare and non-communicable disease prevention, mental health, infrastructure for a care economy, Indigenous land rights and economic participation, energy transition, environmental remediation, children in immigration detention, legal barriers to socio-economic inclusion, youth participation, consumer rights, local waste management and decentralised governance.

Government and development partners generally welcomed the memorandum and its recommendations. DOSM also indicated openness to work involving food waste, unpaid care work, citizen-generated data, disaggregated data and transparency dashboards.