The experience of the participatory budget in Porto Alegre (Brazil)
Experience selected in the Best Practices Competition sponsored by Dubai in 1996 and ranked as BEST. ( Best Practices Database.) Country / Country: Brazil
United Nations Region: ecological SurRegión America: Riverside (watersheds) Field of action: CiudadInstituciones: Local government
Keywords = Preparation of the budget. Investment planning. Participation. Social justice. Urban management. Categories
= Good urban governance: decentralization, management and public administration. Civic Engagement and Cultural richness: civic education, community participation, reducing social exclusion, social integration. Gender equality and equity: access to resources, control of resources, full participation in society, functions, powers and duties by gender.
Main Contact: Prefeitura Municipal de Porto Alegre Praça Montevideo, 10-1. andarPorto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul Brasil90010-170 (051) 224.4400 or 228.8725 (fax) zanotta@procempa.tche.br (Dirección dudosa) Sponsor: Porto Alegre City HallPraça Montevideo, 10-1. andarPorto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul Brasil90010-170 (051) 224.4400 or 228.8725 (fax) zanotta@procempa.tche.br (Dirección dudosa) Socio: Utzig, Jose EduardoRua Andre Puente, 50Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul-Brasil90035 150 (051) 225.4520, 225.1417 or 225.1589 zanotta@procempa.tche.br (Dirección dudosa) Socio
: Ferrara, John Carlos CamargoRua André Puente, 50Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul Brasil90035-150 (051) 225.4520, 225.1417 or 225.1589 Zanotta@procempa.tche.br (Address dubious)
Partner: Miele, MarceloRua André Puente, 50Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul Brasil90035-150 (051) 225.4520, 225.1417, 225.1589 zanotta@procempa.tche.br ( Address dubious)
SUMMARY The history of the development and implementation of public budgets in Brazil is marked by serious deformations related to power concentration, resource waste, political affairs and corruption. In Porto Alegre the story has changed. Seven years ago, the City of Porto Alegre created an innovative and revolutionary system to formulate and monitor budget municipal.
In this system, called the Participatory Budget, not only the technical part and municipal government officials, deciding on tax collection and spending of public funds, locked in their offices. Is the population through a process of discussions and consultations, which determines and decides the amount of income and expenditure, and where and when to make investments, what are the priorities and what are the plans and actions to be taken out by the Government.
Participatory Budgeting has shown that democratic and transparent administration of resources is the only way to avoid corruption and waste of public funds. Despite some opinion against the technocrats, popular participation has shown that spending is efficient and effective where it should be, and that the achievements of public works and other areas are important for the population. Since its inception, the projects decided by the Participative Budget represent investments of over $ 700 million, mainly in urban infrastructure and improving the standard of living of the population.
The Participatory Budget has also shown that the intention of effective mechanisms of participation and commitment of the Government has decided to do what the population is essential to break the chains and bureaucratic barriers that separate the society of the State, and to form an active and mobilized. Today, in Porto Alegre, citizens are aware of public issues and decide on them, thus becoming, themselves, the protagonists of their own future.
The Participative Budget is known by 60% of the population, according to a study of public opinion, and millions of people participate actively in the process, attending meetings, regional conventions, or meetings to discuss issues currently específicos.En there are at least 70 cities across Brazil that use the participatory budget system, based on experience held in Porto Alegre.
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DESCRIPTIO N
A brief history
Porto Alegre is the capital of the State of Rio Grande do Sul has 1,290,000 inhabitants and is located in the center of a metropolitan area of \u200b\u200b3 million inhabitants. Until the early years of the eighties, Porto Alegre has experienced an accelerated population growth, together with a strong concentration of income, generated a very volatile and that left a third of the population in surrounding areas the city without urban infrastructure.
This population has historically been neglected by all local governments above. In 1989 there were an enormous number of people living in illegal slum of the city without sewers or paved streets, and whose shacks lacked drinking water. That meant a huge government debt with a very important part of the population. When the system started in PB it was found that some people had been fighting for a sewage system or paved streets for more than 30 or 40 years.
The Government fully centralized and undemocratic was an insurmountable obstacle to establishing a transparent relationship with society. The City Council decided on the investment, leaving the population completely outside the process and its priorities were very different from a very important part of the population.
addition, the city faced a financial deficit and administrative structural in nature. City revenues from taxes, were completely unbalanced and insufficient to finance even a fraction of the public works had to be done to balance the growth of the city and start paying the social debt owed to the millions of citizens living in poverty.
In 1989, he began to run the PB system, it faced a difficult situation, as well the novelty of the system, achieved a modest share of the population. In 1990, participation remained very limited, especially for the funding difficulties that the City was experiencing. From that moment, when the city regained its investment capacity, thanks to a deep fiscal reform, the Participative Budget received a major boost. The Government began to have funds to address the demands and the population began to feel and see with their own eyes that their decisions are respected and that this had implications for a better standard of living.
Since 1991, the Participative Budget became a massive and thrilling process which started to mobilize communities in every neighborhood. In 1994, for example, more than 11,000 people, and in 1995, over 14,000 attended the meetings and regional meetings led and coordinated by the City. If we add to this number of people the vast amount of local associations and popular organizations participating, more than 100,000 people would somehow linked to the development of the city budget. Besides this, nearly a thousand organizations and associations have signed up to participate in this Budget. SUSTAINABILITY
Project Development Participatory Budget Performance has improved in recent years in trying to solve very different problems that arose. Early on it became clear that the priorities of the poorest regions, where he lived most of the population, were very different from those regions had enjoyed better financial conditions. In poor areas, for example, most needed was a basic sewage system, while the wealthy suburbs aspired to have a cleaner city with more parks and boulevards. On the other hand, in the poorest areas of the city had a common feeling, and the degree of organization of citizens to achieve their aspirations, was very uneven.
Another problem they faced was the tradition of the relationship existing policy between government and citizens, based on the exchange of favors. This tradition is deeply rooted in our political culture, leads to passivity rather than participation. In addition, there was no previous experience to discuss important technical issues as the budget. Even after the tax reform, income was not sufficient to meet all the demands of society.
Therefore, a solution was needed to break, to uproot the passivity and the political relationship. It was to encourage participation in determining the investments and expenses based on objective criteria, accepted by communities and able to cover the entire city, from a list of priorities aimed at reducing the huge diferencias.Las solutions found to resolve these issues, to ensure full participation, guarantee the democracy of the process and make the discussions were educational, productive and richer, are the following:
The city was divided into 16 zones according to geographical, social and community organization, through which organized the full participation of the population, also to allow other citizens and entities linked to issues such as women's rights, health care, cultural associations, etc.., participate, five other organizations were created to participate dedicated to specific topics: organization and the city's urban development, transportation and circulation, health and social care, education, culture, entertainment, financial development and fiscal forecasting.
Annually, the City encourages at least three major meetings of regional organizations, plus those dedicated to specific issues. In the first, accounting for investments approved last year, is made public to see what is actually done, what is being done, and what has not been started yet and why. At this time citizens can criticize the government. This phase ensures the necessary transparency in the process, fundamental to maintain the open relationship that seeks to establish the participatory budget. In the second phase, residents of every street, every neighborhood, and participants in the thematic structures choose their priorities and elect the counselors of the Participative Budget.
between these phases have time for an intermediate stage, which held numerous meetings, both in the thematic area and in regional (broken down into micro-regions). This is when people express their needs and establishes a certain priority to the most urgent work. Although this is done in smaller meetings, this phase is Central to the process because to establish priorities, people express their desires, leading to a healthy discussion about what is most important.
After setting priorities, delegates and advisers chosen in each region or thematic organization, and constitute the Forum of Regional Delegates and Delegates for thematic issues, the Municipal Council of Government Plan and Budget.
The Municipal Council of Government Plan and Budget made up of two counselors and their corresponding substitutes elected by each of the 16 zones that make up the city, two counselors and their corresponding proxies chosen by each of the five thematic organizations , a representative and his deputy of the Union of Municipal Employees, and a representative and his deputy of the Union of Neighbourhood Associations of Porto Alegre. Government representatives are two and are not entitled to vote. The mandate of the delegates is for one year with possibility for re-election. However, this mandate can be revoked at any time by a specific process that takes place in the Forum of Regional Delegates and Delegates for thematic issues, and requires a qualified majority of two thirds.
The Council coordinates and organizes the process of budgeting and investment plan and, later, make sure the budget agreed. Are held weekly meetings with an agenda and activates a permanent link with the power ejecutivo.Los delegates, whose number is much higher than the consultants, have a monthly meeting and provide the above-mentioned Forum Regional Delegates and Delegates for thematic issues. His job is to support the counselors are collecting information after public and informing the public of the issues discussed by the Council, and track, along with the community, and the upgrading of public works under the Plan Investment.
After meetings of organizations and regional issues and the constitution of the Forum Municipal Council Delegates and Government Plan and Budget, we began to prepare the final draft of the Municipal Budget and Investment Plan. First, all line ministries together with the governing bodies involved in City Council meetings to discuss the works, its cost and technical feasibility. With that information in hand, consultants and representatives return to discuss with communities. Then, the executive has advisers and delegates a detailed budget proposal, which includes all items of income and expenses. After the three main figures of the budget is established, the next step is to develop the investment plan. Three criteria are observed when conceiving the Investment Plan:
the priority of the zone (determined in zonal assemblies, sanitation, education, street paving, etc.).
The total population of the area (the most populated areas receive more).
The lack of services or infrastructure (the poorest areas receive more).
Contrasting these criteria and discussing with the population, down investments and works to be carried out in each region of the city, a proposal for the Thematic and the municipal government itself.
At the end of the investment plan presented for approval to the City Council Government Plan and Budget.
After approval of the Municipal Budget by the Council, the executive sent the proposal to the town councilors. Thus there is real union of direct and participatory democracy with representative democracy. Naturally, it is a tense and difficult, but that has proved extremely positive. The city council discussed with the executive and consultants about the budget figures, present amendments and eventually suggest changes. It then sets a difficult negotiation, which leads to significant changes do not affect the overall structure of the budget as the council know that the budget is the result of a genuine process of political and social representation. IMPACT
PB results
Since the Participatory Budget has been consolidated, the City Council has dedicated a percentage that varies between 15 and 25% of revenues and investments (the rest is used for the payment of wages employees and to cover administrative expenses.) In this way and in accordance with the principle that the works decided by the Participative Budget represent investments of over $ 700 million.
Over the years, the budget has given priority to basic sanitation facilities. This has led to increased water supply between 1990 and early 1995, from 400,000 to 465,000 families. Today, the water supply network provisioned to 98% of families. With regard to the sewer system, the increase has been even greater. In 1989, the sewer system reached 46% of families and, currently, to 74%.
With planned investments next year, should reach the end of 1996 with 85% of the population connected to sewers.
Another priority for the Participatory Budget is the paving of the streets of suburbia. Annually, between 25 and 30 paved miles of streets in the suburbs and poor areas of the city. Drainage, street lighting and the urbanization of areas, health and housing are other issues as priorities.
In the field of education, the investments decided by the Participative Budget allowed to increase enrollment more than doubled between 1988 and 1995, and a considerable improvement in the quality of teaching.
But the results of the Participatory Budget can not and should be judged only by the numbers and percentages, but are essential to demonstrate that participation, transparency and democracy can make public spending is much more efficient and effective. As important as
actual results of the participatory budget is the recovery of citizenship of Porto Alegre and its awakening to an active participation in public affairs.
This document has been produced from an English version.
Translated by Maria Isabel Gómez Jiménez.
Reviewed by Lourdes Domingo and Isabel Velázquez.
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