Description
The goal of the project is to scrutinise the process and impacts of participatory budgeting in selected urban locations and to test tools that allow community members to inspect implementation and follow-up. This project focuses on 18 communities across Poland. Bona Fides Associations will develop and test monitoring tools, make attempts at proposing modifications based on their findings and encourage citizens to scrutinise their own local governments. As a result of the project, community-specific monitoring reports will be produced, one for each community, and two aggregated reports (one after the pilot and one after monitoring proper). In addition, the project will develop one summary report which will be translated into Russian and English to support international dissemination.
Summary of project results
"The first civil budget in Poland was introduced in Sopot in 2011, and ever since, the idea has been rapidly becoming more and more popular, and the number of municipalities that introduced the mechanism has already exceeded 100. Importantly, the idea raises interest among local inhabitants (the turnover in votes often reaches 20-30% of all eligible persons, and inhabitants usually present many proposals). The civil budgets in Poland show the need for co-deciding on the part of inhabitants. The mechanism helps to build social capital and enhance civil responsibility. But the budgets can be often defectively implemented, so a reliable survey of civil budgets in Poland has a key role for their future development. The aim of the project was to diagnose the weak and strong sides of the process. Another aim was to develop a tool that, after completion of the project, can support implementing local monitoring in municipalities and including local communities in development of civil budgets. Under the project, a pilot monitoring of implementation of civil budgets in 6 municipalities in Silesia was led. Each of them ended with publication of a report. Then, monitoring was conducted in 18 municipalities from all over Poland, also ended with reports. 2 summary reports (after pilot monitoring and at the end of the project) were also prepared, the tool for monitoring was developed, and 9 local debates were organised, gathering about 180 persons. The project resulted in changes in implementing civil budgets in all 6 municipalities where pilot and proper monitoring was conducted, and works on introducing changes in another several municipalities covered only by monitoring. Another result is developing and testing the tool for civil budget monitoring and showing that through monitoring the implementation of civil budgets can be amended and their content can be influenced. The project benefited authorities and inhabitants of 18 monitored municipalities, and authorities and inhabitants of other Polish municipalities and cities that introduced or plan to introduce civil budgets. The partner of the project was the Non-Governmental Cooperative whose expert participated in works on every stage of the project, including developing the tool, conducting monitoring, preparing reports and leading debates."
Summary of bilateral results