What is Participatory Budgeting?
Participatory Budgeting (PB) is citizens making decisions on a public budget. However, how PB is defined and implemented is different around the world. This is mostly because PB has a range of benefits and different localities and countries adopt PB to fulfil one or more of the benefits, and a different emphasis is placed on those outcomes - meaning that the objectives and process then change to suit the purpose. Thus, PB is an umbrella for a whole range of processes worldwide. The litmus test for whether or not it's PB (or another form of engagement) is neatly put by a participant in Brazil: "If it feels like we've decided, its PB, if it feels like someone else decided, it's not".
Our agreed definition with the Department for Communities and Local Government is:"Participatory budgeting directly involves local people in making decisions on the spending and priorities for a defined public budget. PB processes can be defined by geographical area (whether that’s neighbourhood or larger) or by theme. This means engaging residents and community groups representative of all parts of the community to discuss and vote on spending priorities, make spending proposals, and vote on them, as well giving local people a role in the scrutiny and monitoring of the process and results to inform subsequent PB decisions on an annual or repeatable basis."
