Assessment of Participatory Budgeting in Brazil

Date
Apr 2005
The main objective of the study is to assess the extent to which participatory budgeting (OP) is fostering the efficient and democratic allocation of resources and citizen involvement in the planning and management of their localities. The report draws upon extensive field research undertaken by the Center for Urban Development Studies in: Porto Alegre, the initiator of the OP in 1989; Gravatai, an industrial city in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area; Caxias do Sul an urban center in a predominately rural area; Belo Horizonte, which implemented the first participatory housing budget (OPH); Santo Andre, in the Sao Paulo metropolitan region, the city which has interlinked its participatory planning and budgeting processes; and, Rio Grande do Sul, the only state to have successfully implemented participatory budgeting.