Title of Event:

Name of Co-sponsoring Organisations:

Partners organizations:

Date and time of the session:

PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING: BUILDING PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY AND IMPROVING MUNICIPAL FINANCE

- Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre Municipalities, Brazil
- International Center for Urban Management, CIGU, Quito.

- Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa, MDP-ESA, Harare, Zimbabwe
- FAL: Local Authorities Forum for Social Inclusion
- Social Development Department of the World Bank
- Governance Section, Good Governance Global Campaign; Training and Capacity Building Branch, UN Habitat
- Max Bloch Institute, Berlin. Wednesday, June 21,

16:30h -18.30h

Key Highlights

1. Estimated no of participants: about 100 from 26 countries, and about 150 couldn’t participate because of the small size of the room
2. Stakeholder group representation at the event: local governments (few) mainly from Canada, international organizations, national and international NGOs and Universities mainly from Northern countries. Few CBOs
3. What were the expected objectives: (i) To promote cross-regional dialogue and networking on Participatory  Budgeting, (ii) To disseminate updated information and knowledge, (iii) To turn visible the potential of participatory budgeting for improving governance and urban management
4. What did the networking event achieve:The 3 objectives were reached. However the salient feture of the event were two : a)  a cross regional dialogue between Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America –first of its kind in an international meeting- and b) numerous questions asked by 12 persons from the floor that were briefly answered.

2. What were the core issues identified in your event as they relate to the theme and sub-themes of WUFIII?

- The variety of participatory budgeting processes aiming at the same basic principles.

- PB are local processes based on participation and people’s control of public resources

- The necessary links with participation and planning systems in each city. - The challenges expecting a process that already is applied in over 1000 cities and that will expand in the future.

3. What were the main points raised by panellists and participants in relation to these different issues? What new ideas have been generated as a result of the discussion?

- There is a clear necessity to monitor and get a common tool for follow up and measurements of differences and commonalities.

- There is a clear need to broaden the participation towards the most excluded (women, migrants, youth in particular).

- Improve the dissemination of the experiences on a massive scale without loosing the quality of the processes.

- Training and capacity building of both civil servants and citizens is probably a key issue to be dealt with.

4. What process steps have been identified in your event that could help turn ideas into operational reality?

> Maintain closer links with URBAL Network 9 on PB and Municipal Finance, coordinated by Porto Alegre Municipality.

> Use at the maximum existing facilities existing in Africa (through PDM) and in Latin America (through CIGU)

> Work more closely with the FAL (Local Authority Forum on Social Exclusion, as a part of the World Social Forum)

> Circulate information among 82 of the participants that left their contacts.

> Take opportunity of the interest and growing support from UN Habitat, UNICEF and the Social Department of the World Bank to document, disseminate and transfer experiences

> Strengthen the links between involved organizations on a multi-regional approach.