Participatory Budgeting
Research findings into Young People’s Involvement in Participatory Budgeting.
There is now a body of evidence to show that where communities contribute to the setting of financial priorities for their neighbourhoods it improves the quality of public services, helps to target resources more equitably and leads to greater accountability and transparency in decision-making. Evidence of this kind comes at a time of significant change within English local authorities. The Government’s White Paper "Strong and Prosperous Communities" [1] sets out a bold new agenda which is intended to redefine the local authority’s relationship with its population. Participatory budgeting is proposed as means of supporting greater community involvement in decision-making.
Also of interest...
The Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has recently announced that 10 Local Authorities will act as pilot areas for Participatory Budgeting, and government plans that every neighbourhood will have some input into budgetary decisions within five years
The first full scale participatory budgeting programme began in the late 1980s in the Brazilian coastal city of Porto Alegre. Since then it has spread throughout the Americas, Africa and Europe. In the United Kingdom there is a growing interest in the idea of participatory budgeting.
In England, young people are the experts. YouthBank, The Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund are positive examples of how young people have become directly involved in public financial decision making.
The involvement of children and young people in participatory budgeting will have many benefits, including:
- providing opportunities for young people to develop an active citizenship role;
- providing opportunities to engage with, and feel ownership of their community;
- providing opportunities for discussion and decision making with other young people and adults in the local community, developing personal and social skills;
- through the full participatory budgeting process, to determine the use of part of the Local Authority budget to support projects based on the priorities agreed by children and young people.
The NYA has carried out research which sets out good practice in England of all aspects of young people’s involvement in participatory budgeting, including consultation, representation, training, selection of projects for funding, and project monitoring. It concludes that many elements of youth work practice in England have a great deal to offer in the development of participatory budgeting in England.
Examples in England involve ring-fenced budgets; budgets for youth-centred provision managed by young people. The lessons gathered from an international perspective show how young people’s involvement in wider budgeting decisions (and not just for young people-centred provision) brings young people into the heart of the decision making process. The challenge is to encourage local authorities and other public bodies to open up their mainstream budgets to greater influence by communities, including young people.
Young people and those working with them therefore have valuable experience of running and managing participatory budgets, and if proposals for PB in "Strong and Prosperous Communities", the Local Government White Paper, are enacted they will be the largest group in the UK with experience in this field, and will have an excellent platform from which to support the roll-out of PB across whole communities. It is vital that this experience is not lost. For further information, please see the research findings and report:
Research findings - Participatory Budgeting May 2007
Young People’s Involvement in Participatory Budgeting
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