Effective Participation

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Public actors willing to listen to citizen voice (Enabled by high policy content of political discourse)

Civil society influencing state from outside of state action space

(Purely representative democracy)

Type of project

Type of political culture Attitude of state actors

Type of democractic practice Civil society inside state action space, influencing state (Includes elements of direct democracy)

Source: Author. Public officials with little interest in listening to citizen voice (Policy issues have low political currency value)

FIGURE A.1 State Attitude toward Citizen Voice and Effective Participation

One way ofbypassing such constraints is to set up programs in which community-level participation structures have real authority over development funds that are not channeled through the state.While this may yield short-term benefits,the sustainability ofsuch initiatives is not certain:this type ofmechanism can lead to long-term effective engagement only ifsufficient local taste and capacity ensue for participation and demand builds. In this case,the environment is transformed into one in which the political and governance context forces state actors to engage substantively.

Initiatives in the top right-hand corner have the greatest impact.Here, public actors are willing to listen to citizen voice (and are supported by a local political culture that is driven by issues ofpublic policy),and well-designed mechanisms allow civil society direct access to and participation in public decision making.Program initiators operating in this type ofenvironment have the most scope for selecting the type and level ofparticipation.

On the left-hand side offigure A.1,citizens’own initiatives to improve public transparency and the accountability ofstate actors can yield successful results even in environments in which citizens’voice may not have immediate effect:in Africa,Asia,Eastern Europe,and Latin America,citizens have

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elbowed open space and demanded that their voices be heard.Doing so takes time,capacity,and careful strategizing,including coalition building.DISHA in India,the St.Petersburg Strategiya Centre in Russia,IDASA in South Africa, and CIDE (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas) in Mexico have succeeded in building credible voices on public resource matters (International Budget Project 2000).Initiatives like these can move the participatory environment from one in which state actors are unwilling to engage to one in which they have little choice but to engage with citizen voice,opening up the options for effective participation.To succeed,such initiatives must choose the correct entry point and carefully design and implement projects to maximize citizen participation.Perceptions ofcitizen-state relationships,power distribution,governance systems,and degrees ofindividual and press freedom, as well as perceptions oftrust among citizens and between citizens and the state,are therefore important environmental determinants ofwhether and which types ofparticipatory budgeting initiatives will bring benefits.

Supportive Legal and Policy Frameworks A supportive legal framework is an enabling,even necessary,condition for citizens to participate in and contribute to processes in the public sphere. Legal frameworks regulate the terms ofactors’engagement and the scope they have for influencing behavior in the arena ofthe other (McGee 2003), albeit the arena between central and subnational governments or between government and civil society actors.Such frameworks are never sufficient, however:government practices,the overall incentive framework,and action by citizens or the state are required to initiate and sustain participation.

For all types ofcitizen engagement,the most important feature ofthe legal framework is the guarantee ofcertain freedoms and human rights.If no provisions guarantee citizens’rights to freely associate,to express themselves,and to participate in a relationship with the state (or ifprovisions of the law limit these rights),the space for participatory initiatives is severely limited.CSOs or individual citizens who attempt to form associations to review public services and influence public resource decisions will have no legal basis for asserting their right to do so.IfCSOs are to be able to put information in the public domain to influence what happens in the state,the legal framework must allow—or at least not prohibit or constrain—civic organization,freedom ofspeech,and access to information.

For direct citizen involvement in participatory budgeting,the legal framework requirements are greater.A review ofcommunity-driven development initiatives suggests that a higher level ofdecentralization ofpolitical,

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administrative,and fiscal competency to local levels ofgovernment is necessary for local communities to engage effectively in local resource decisions (ESCWA 2004).This makes sense:citizens will engage in local processes only ifthey believe that local governments have a real chance ofdetermining which public goods and services will be delivered locally.This means that a legal framework for decentralization needs to be in place.Such a framework is not sufficient, however:attempts to decentralize,including the creation ofa political apparatus,often occur at the administrative level but are not followed by sufficient fiscal autonomy for local governments,limiting the level ofresources over which local governments have control and constraining participation.

An enabling framework for participation at the local level is also desirable,although it is arguably not necessary.A national enabling framework catalyzed the development oflocal level participatory practices in Thailand, where a national requirement for participation in local government practices prompted several local authorities to develop institutions to implement the requirement.Experience,particularly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics,where participatory local governance is a standard feature ofconstitutional and national legal frameworks,has shown that nationallevel legislation may not be sufficient,however,particularly ifit lack details on the institutions that may be deployed.One ofthe more succesful examples ofcommunity-driven development is Romania,where the legislative framework includes detailed provisions.Examples from elsewhere (such as Naga City in the Philippines) show that local-level development ofnational constitutional and legal frameworks institutionalizes participation.

Local Capacity and Knowledge The assessment ofcommunity-driven development by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA 2004) singles out the need for continuous support to develop capacity for participatory practices ifinitiatives are to be successful.This finding echoes the results ofother studies that point to the importance oflocal capacity for participatory success,including the capacity oflocal governments and local civil society and the capacity ofthird-party facilitating organizations.

The capacity oflocal governments—in terms ofboth human resources and systems—to plan,budget,and manage the delivery ofpublic goods and services and participatory processes is critical.Transparency and an institutional environment conducive to citizen participation are also critical.This is particularly true for mechanisms that involve direct participation ofcitizens in decision making.Case study evidence points to the important role that

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clear,predictable,and enforced decision-making rules play in providing confidence to citizens that their participation will lead to direct results.More subtle incentives relate to good budgeting principles,such as having clear resource ceilings,so that real choices have to be made;avoiding wish-list planning,with the inevitable loss oftrust in participation when proposed projects are not implemented,is critical.Strong local capacity also supports the development ofcivil society advocacy–type initiatives that do not involve direct participation in decision making.In India,for example,the development ofa civil society advocacy network was possible only after financial management practices improved the level and quality ofinformation available.

The existence ofCSOs with capacity is also critical.Because ofthe technical nature ofpublic budgets and public service delivery,significant depth oforganization and some sophisticated capacity within organizations are required to engage with these issues.Putting good-quality information into the public domain requires expertise,the forming ofcoalitions (among CSOs and between CSOs and academic institutions),or both.The case study evidence indicates that coalition building among nongovernmental structures is important,both to bring on board needed skills and to build a wider front ofsupport,making it more difficult for state actors to ignore campaigns. Civil society capacity is also required for successful citizen participationin local resource allocation decisions.In Eastern Europe,where societies emerged from a long period oflimited citizen engagement,partnerships betweenlocal governments and key CSOs appear to have made an important contribution to making participation work.

In most ofthe mechanisms that allow citizens a direct say in local resource decisions,organizational,facilitation,and conflict-resolution skills are also required.Where development partners are involved in initiating and sustaining participatory budgeting initiatives,these skills are often provided by contracted third parties.In some municipalities,such as Porte Alegre,the quality offacilitation has been an important factor in widening participation.

Finally,the capacity ofcitizens themselves is important.Educational attainment is less important a determinant ofparticipation than citizens’ grasp oftheir right to engage in individual and collective action and to hold state actors to account.

Free Media Institutions

Strong local media institutions that can disseminate information to citizens— informing them ofevents on the budget calendar,discussing issues pertinent to the resource decisions,communicating the outcomes ofprocesses—are

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critical to participatory programs that involve direct citizen involvement.This is particularly clear in the Eastern European case studies,where local media institutions have been important players linking local governmentsand citizens in processes allowing direct participation in public resource decisions.

For participatory budgeting initiatives that involve the introduction ofbudget information into the public domain,a free media is a precondition.Reaching as many citizens as possible is an essential part ofensuring the effectiveness ofcivil society analyses ofpublic budgets and service delivery.Without free and functional media institutions,the reach of organizations will be limited to stakeholders whom CSOs can contact directly.A review ofsuccessful applied budget initiatives across the world reveals the importance ofgood relations with a free press.The Institute for Economic Affairs in Kenya;the Centre for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington,D.C.;and IDASA in South Africa could not have been effective had they not been able to disseminate their findings widely through a free and responsive media.

Availability ofInformation It is an axiom ofparticipation that citizens need access to information to participate—this relationship is recognized in the international human rights framework (OHCHR 2004).The requirement ofa minimum level of transparency about the allocation and use ofpublic funds for citizen participation holds for both types ofparticipatory budgeting initiatives.CSOs cannot engage with public resource decisions ifthey do not know what those decisions are.Similarly,citizens’ability to be involved directly with public decision-making processes in a meaningful way depends on what information they receive,when they receive it,and whether they are informed about the outcomes ofthe processes.

The availability ofinformation on public funds is a function ofgovernments’willingness and capacity.Fiscal transparency is not merely about the availability ofinformation.Specific types ofinformation must be provided regularly.The information must be provided in accessible formats in a timely manner.Legal frameworks that make provision for fiscal and budget transparency along these dimensions support participatory budgeting,as does legislation guaranteeing citizens’rights to access information.However, even ifsuch legislation exists,providing full information requires sophisticated financial management capacity.Such capacity is often as much the result ofdemand for accountability—both internally and externally—as a prerequisite for it.