Description
Despite all attempts the situation in public participation in CR is not very good. Elections in 2014 opened a possibility to address newly elected often inexperienced politicians and show them useful communication methods. The project aims to introduce, test and implement participatory budgeting as a method of dialogue between citizens and local governments in the Czech Republic. The method will be introduced at the conference and tested in three selected municipalities. Based on the monitoring process there will be developed a Methodology of participatory budgeting that will be distributed to all municipalities in CR. Participatory budgeting will strengthen the public's interest in local issues, increase the involvement of people in solving local problems and improve relations between town halls and citizens. The Norwegian partner will use its expertise to supervise the process and comment on the Methodology.
Summary of project results
Main goal of this project was to „Introduce, test and mainstream inovative tool of citizen involvement in decision making called Participatory Budgeting (PB) and widen opportunities for citizens to involve in public affairs”. PB makes more accessible participation in decision making processes to the citizens, who are willing to take a part in. Moreover PB enables to the citizens to be partners in the dialog among them, politicians and PA officials. The project outcomes demonstrated that PB is liveable and functional tool for public participation. We introduced and test the procedure of PB in two different municipalities (city districts of Prague, Prague 10 and Prague-Zbraslav). Number of citizens is different in the two municipalities (Prego 10 – 100 thousands, Prague Zbraslav 10 thousands) it means PB is useable in cities as wells as in towns. We also assisted to plan and prepare conditions for PB in several additional municipalities (městský obvod Ostrava – Jih, m. č. Praha 3, Rumburk, Žďár nad Sázavou, Kroměříž). All these municipalities should use the PB procedure in long term perspective. For all other Czech municipalities over 10 thousand inhabitants, we prepared brochure of PB methodology. We presented the methodolgy at the final conference, which was attended by about 100 representatives of politicians, officials and active citizens, which was subsequently distributed to all mayors of these cities. Besides this methodology city further use or can take advantage of promotional and informational materials (infographics, web pages, underlying texts). Overall, thanks the project almost 300 000 citizens may directly take a part in distribution of 14,500,000 CZK in 6 Czech municipalities. Hundreds of people were actively involved in discussions about how specifically should be finance spent and create dozens proposals what could be improved in the cities.
Summary of bilateral results
Thanks to cooperation with the Norwegian partner we have gained knowledge on the distribution method of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Norway and we used information of these approaches on PB n online version of brochure on PB. Originally it was planned to consult procedure of the pilot testing in several municipalities and contribution to the brochure Methodology of PB for Czech cities. Due to not sufficient funds it was suggested by the Donor partner that their senior advisor will undertake activities (drafting best practice example of PB to the brochure Methodology of creating Participatory Budget in Czech cities).