A Virtual Participatory Budgeting Workshop

The participatory budgeting workshop on 20th July 2020 was organized by International Republican Institute (IRI) and hosted by People Powered organization. IRI is a non-partisan and non-profit organization based in Washington DC focusing on increasing freedom and participation in policy development. The organization came up with the Generation Democracy network which covers more than 70 countries in helping them understand government and political systems.  The mission of People Powered is to expand people’s power to make government decisions, by supporting organizations and governments that are building participatory democracy around the world. As Josh Lerner of People Powered explained, goals for the participatory budgeting workshop were to:

1. Understand key principles and mechanics of PB

2. Learn strategies for leading a PB process in person and virtually

3. Understand how school and youth PB work in different contexts

4. Learn how to access additional resources on PB

5. Identify next steps for starting or improving PB in your community

Below were the main speakers in the workshop.

What counts as participatory budgeting?

In . word participatory budgeting is widely used yet some institutions do not understand what exactly counts as participatory budgeting. How much public inclusion would be considered adequate for decision making is not standard. However one thing for sure is that consultation without consideration of those ideas is not participatory budgeting.

 In the discussion led by Josh and Mariana of People Powered, budget consultation is a necessary part of participatory budgeting although it is inefficient on its own. the budget consultation, people share ideas on how the budget should be used and what projects they would support for implementation. In a complete participatory budgeting meeting, the process involves: brainstorming ideas, developing proposals, casing votes and funding the winning projects. In that order, the ideas of the public are actually considered and decision making is done fairly.

Designing an inclusive participatory budget involves a lot of work in planning and researching for viable ideas.  The steps included in this process are:

1.     Identifying money that matters- People need to participate in budgeting the money that is set out for projects that affect them. If the intended purpose of the money allocated is directly linked to them, then they should actively advice how that money should be used.  In democratic processes, the government is the budget controller and as such, projects run by the government should ideally be discussed with the public first voluntarily.

2.     Grassroots leadership involvement is yet another factor in considering the public to participate in decision making. The process of PB is meant to identify issues that are dire in the community and support funding for success initiatives. Tackling issues that affect majority of people in the area is guaranteed to improve the lives of people all around. Local leaders should be given the opportunity to lead the processes as they are familiar with the community.

3.     An inclusive design should be part of the planning initiatives of the PB process. An inclusive design is one that explains and illustrates how people could participate in the decision making. Considerations around this initiative are follow-up methods, comments and suggestions by the people.

4.     Targeted outreach is yet another aspect to consider in the PB process. The government or any other relevant body should consider what section of the population they target at a particular time and place. Having the specificity required in the process allows for articulation of goals, easy monitoring and effective reporting.

5.     Finally, equity is a necessary factor in the process since it allows the success of projects that are based on the basic needs of people. Considering equity means that the government or any other necessary institution factors in community mobilisation and solving the needs that matter to the most people.

Participatory budgeting in action

The workshop was moderated by Mariana Gonzalez and Josh Lerner from People Powered.

Alisa Vlasic from Croatia explained school participatory budgeting in Croatia in around 4 public schools. The process was initiated to include students in the decisions that the schools made on how to use the money allocated to them. The process included workshops, technical analysis by the teachers, promotion by other students, voting and finally implementation of the winning project. Through this process, about 6 projects were implemented.

Petrikevich of Participation Factory in the Czech Republic explained the participatory processes through the municipality system. The process involved designing projects for specific demographic groups and organizing personnel and finances around that information. Agenda setting was a specific need for all the activities that the government set so that they could organize resources and plan for all the activities incorporated in their plan. This process was broadly used in urban planning and involved the ideas of many ranks of people in the community including high school students. The successful projects incorporated the ideas of more than 400 people.

Anastasia of The World Bank explained the processes of the organization in implementing participation process around the world for their projects. The process involved multi-stakeholders communication and engagement throughout the process. Considering the scope of The World Bank, many considerations are country or theme specific and as such an intensive planning session is required before determining the right project.

Willice Onyango of The Youth Café explained the participatory budgeting work they initiated in Baringo County. The participatory process has so far improved quality of local democracy and its relevance to young people, as well as achieving a more inclusive and effective citizen engagement process. The initiative also reinforced the county governance system through the promotion of transparency, participation and accountability through supporting the inclusion of young people in devolution.  There was also an increase in county policy responsiveness to young people's needs in understanding and influencing decisions about the services that matter to them.

Challenges to participatory budgeting

In a session led by Mariana of People Powered, the speakers discussed the challenges they faced during the participatory budgeting process. As great as participatory budgeting sounds, it has some challenges that affect its implementation and effectiveness. These challenges were experienced by many people while implementing their participatory budgeting initiatives in different sectors.As great as participatory budgeting sounds, it has some challenges that affect its implementation and effectiveness.

These challenges were experienced by many people while implementing their participatory budgeting initiatives in different sectors.

The first challenge was mistrust between the the public and the government or relevant institutions. The public may have good ideas on how to handle the budget but lack of confidence in their judgment by the governing bodies may lead to lack of participation or initiatives to participate. At the same time, some members of the public may not be aware of their duty or role to participate in budgeting of government funds.

The second challenge is the inability to reach many people. Often, participatory budgeting is considered a secondary activity to other plans that people have. In the bustle of everyday life, people may not actively decide to participate in the making and planning or budgets. This is a dire challenge since participatory budgeting is geared towards reaching as many people as possible in the planning process. However, the advent of online services has made the process easier since people can air their views and vote though designated websites.

Lack of know-how or interest is yet another hurdler of participatory budgeting. Some entities may consider the process cumbersome and hard to coordinate which result to less participation and consideration of the inputs, process or outputs of the project. In other situations, people don’t feel heard and as such, they choose not to participate at all in the participatory budgeting. The lack of interest can be rooted in corruption of government institutions and people in leadership.

The society should be encouraged to participate in the process so that they find a legitimate and effective way to air their views on governance. More conversations on this topic are necessary to increase awareness on the topic and inspire conversations on the projects that effect change.

Conclusion

The event was well led by Josh and Mariana to ensure a detailed discussion on participatory democracy and how efficiency could be achieved in the participatory budgeting process. As people shared their different experienced with the participants, one thing that was clear is that without the use of good processes to capture the thoughts of people, the process could be futile. Mariana of People Powered explained the online resources they have on their website to support school participatory processes. The well written presentations were proof that the participatory budgeting process could be effective with good methodologies and proper implementation of policies. All participants through the interactive process conquered that consultation without implementation is not participatory budgeting. Completeness of the process

is thus the power and goal of participatory budgeting.Caroline Wanjiku Kamau is a Research and Business Development Associate at The Youth Cafe.

Have any questions or comments? Or want to learn more about The Youth Cafe’s work on Participatory Budgeting? Contact us.