The Forum of Participatory Budgeting Practitioners was held for the second time in Kyiv on 16 and 17 November. The event brought together more than 200 representatives of Ukrainian communities, Polish, Moldovan, English, German cities, and Georgian municipalities.
The Forum was organized by the USAID Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) Roll-out Project, Institute for Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research, Eastern Europe Foundation, Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI, Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance international technical assistance project (PLEDDG Project), and the USAID Citizens in Action Project of the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research.
At the opening of the Forum, guests from EU countries and implementers of participatory budgeting from Ukraine discussed the issues of international support tor realization of participatory budgeting in Ukraine and the mechanisms for implementation of local initiatives in different parts of Ukraine. Representatives of the Poltava region, Balta Amalgamated Territorial Community, cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv, Polish cities of Lodz and Warsaw, Moldovan cities Beltsi and Chisinau, as well as the Georgian city of Gori shared their experience with colleagues.
“I liked the large scale of the event and its variety. It is exciting to see the existence of various approaches to implementation of participatory budgets both in Ukrainian regions and other countries,” says Director of PAUCI Foundation Krzysztof Filcek.
Vyacheslav Zubenko, director general of the Institute for Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research, has underlined that implementation of participatory budgets in 65 Ukrainian cities using the Citizens’ Project electronic system has become possible thanks to financing by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Representatives of the cities using the system have noted that the Citizens’ Project platform has helped to automate all phases of participatory budgeting process and ensured transparency in project submission and voting.
As part of panel discussion, the Forum participants have considered successful practices of implementation of participatory budgeting. Work in groups was facilitated by practicing moderators. The discussions covered preparation of the regulations, submission and discussion of projects, their analysis, selection, realization and monitoring. The participants have chosen the model of best information campaign and author’s responsibility starting from idea presentation to its implementation.
The attendees have discussed the best models of citizens’ budget for the city and the optimal regulations on citizens’ budget, they have reviewed the electronic services for support of the citizens’ budget process and author’s co-financing of projects, as well as looked into the methods of encouraging residents to participate in citizens’ budget and successful planning for participatory budgeting.
Glyanec