participatory budgeting pilot
Kosovo
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION is any process through which citizens influence public decisions that affect their lives and the lives of other citizens. The participation can be active as when citizens interact with their elected officials or the staff of a local government to influence a public policy decision. The most effective citizen participation brings people together to learn and discuss as well as to give their input, and these opportunities are particularly useful for building a consensus that can be a meaningful guide for government action, and that is the approach we are striving for in our proposal.
The participatory budgeting method involves citizens in the local decision making processes as a general overview and financial planning of local government unit as a specific overview. An active participation of all the stakeholders is fundamental to design an efficient and practical budget. All citizens are, at least minimally, being interested in their city’s financial policies, because it is their tax money that is being spent, and most importantly, the implemented decisions will affect their everyday lives.
Local Government Budget – is a detailed financial plan designed for a specific time period. It is the most significant policy document that the city council makes each year. The budget includes: a work plan for the coming year, estimates of future expenditures and revenues, financial information from operating departments and details about capital investments that the city will undertake.
The desired effect of the participatory budgeting method is to provide citizens with an opportunity to participate in the financial decision-making process of the city. The cooperation between citizens, non-governmental organizations, representatives of the business sector and the government will result in more transparent, just and effective financial policies. The participatory budgeting methodology is important, because it increases citizen involvement, strengthens democracy and ultimately, through the implementation of effective policies, improves the quality of life for citizens.
Project justification
The most compelling justification for this project is the fact that this methodology of involving citizens into local government budgeting procedure contributes fundamentally to democratization, to the grass-roots development of democratic institutions, systems, and processes. It is guided by the philosophy that citizens in an evolving democracy will have more faith and confidence in their future and in their institutions of government because of the opportunity they will have to participate in shaping it.
Another priority of this project is to achieve a higher level of transparency and accountability in the selected local government units. Transparency and openness through the decentralized and democratization of the state and Increased citizen participation in policymaking through Participating Budgeting project confront Kosova political legacies of social exclusion, and corruption by making the budgetary process transparent, open, and public. By moving the locus of decision-making from the private offices of politicians and technocrats to public forums, these public forums foster transparency. Participatory Budgeting programs act as “citizenship schools” as engagement empowers citizens to better understand their rights and duties as citizens as well as the responsibilities of government. Citizens, on their side, will offer helpful and creative solutions to the myriad economic problems we have in our communes. Citizens learn to negotiate among themselves and vis-à-vis the government over the distribution of scarce resources and public policy priorities.
Another significant justification for this project has to do with the fact that merely providing “opportunities” for citizens to participate in a democracy is by itself a necessary but insufficient condition. In a society that has had little history and experience with democracy in the past years, many of its public administrators, professionals and ordinary citizens have a need for ongoing education and training related to rights and responsibilities in a civil society. Opportunities for participation must be accompanied or supplemented by knowledge, skills and abilities obtained through such education and training. Clearly, the principal priority of this project is “to support the development of civil society and citizen participation.” It is not only to promote public awareness and understanding, but also acceptance of the concept of a “social contract.” This is the idea that, in a democracy, “for every benefit, there is an obligation, for every right, there is a responsibility, for everything a citizen receives, there is something a citizen must give back.”
Finally, the justification lies with another priority, inextricably related to civil society and citizen participation, is that of “enhancing good governance.” If the people want and expect “good governance,” they must be able and willing to contribute to “good governance.” The activities proposed in this project are particularly designed to foster and facilitate good governance through “good citizenship.”
Main Objectives
§ The main objective of this proposal is to develop tools that link budget, policymaking, and citizen participation, in order to test and evaluate whether citizens and local government officials will be engaged in a more transparent and inclusive dialogue on budget monitoring and formulating.
§ Our objective in ensuring citizen participation will be to ensure equal representation for all interests in decision making processes, balancing different values and needs.
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