Description
The project objective is to enhance civic participation in Kutno and to include citizens in real participatory processes during development and selection of projects for the civic budget in 2016 and the following years. The project is a response to the problem of poor participation of inhabitants in 2014 civic budget preparation (creating and promoting the projects), and of excessive role of public institutions in developing and proposing projects. Main activities are: - developing solutions to increase participatory nature of the budget (working group), - animation of local activities for development of grassroot projects, - informational and educational activities, - evaluation of the processes of developing civic budgets.
Summary of project results
"As proven by the diagnosis of the first edition of the Kutno Participatory Budgeting, there was too little involvement from citizens' side, too much from public institutions and schools, and insufficient quality of the submitted projects. The objective of the project was to involve the citizens of Kutno in actual participatory processes at every stage of project implementation, i.e. the evaluation (FGI research, surveys), the development of the procedure, the informative and educational actions. Another objective was to improve the knowledge of the mechanisms of the citizens' participation. As a result of the implemented activities, the residents became more active. They got involved in preparation, consulting and submitting of projects (52 in total) as well as in voting - the total of 15941 people. 94% of the projects fulfilled the formal requirements. 965 people took part in 48 activating meetings, 4 educational meetings and a mini festival. 2523 people were involved in creating and promoting the projects. The residents' participation rose by over 100% and the knowledge about KPB increased far above the intended 10%. An evaluation of the first KPB was carried out (300 people) and amendments to the principles and procedure of implementation of the event were introduced (by a directive). On the basis of the evaluation, the recommendations by the updating team, and public consultations, 2 new directives were prepared (for the second and the third KPB). The subsequently implemented activities included activating meetings with residents, seminars, project-writing marathons, a mini festival of project authors and informative and educational actions. Their outcomes included an ongoing evaluation report, and educative TV, radio and press materials. The beneficiaries of the project were the citizens of Kutno, and the representatives of NGOs, public institutions and the local government. Centrum OPUS, the project partner, was responsible for moderation of meetings, information and education. The City of Kutno - the substantial partner -implemented the developed products."
Summary of bilateral results