How can the sustainability of the participatory budgeting process be guaranteed?

A study of the Brazilian Popular Participation Forum indicates that during the period 1997-2000, of the 103 cases examined, over 20 per cent were suspended. This situation compels one to consider the conditions for irreversibility of the processes, in other words, mechanisms to ensure that these processes are consolidated and strengthened over time, beyond the political will of one or another mayor and the activism of some citizen movements.

It seems that, through time, the sustainability of Participatory Budgets proceeds alongside the empowerment of the population and its understanding of the importance of the process and the benefits it can bring. Such empowerment requires a clear prioritisation of consciousness-raising and educational efforts directed at the grassroots. These efforts, in the light of the teachings of Paulo Freire, call for an up-scaling of the educational perspective of PB.

Another condition of irreversibility relates to the legalisation of the process, which should be sufficiently open so as not to threaten the flexible and evolutionary nature of the process and to permit its self-regulation. At the same time, this flexible legalisation should insert the Participatory Budget within a normative-legal framework which allows for its institutionalisation, beyond any particular Mayoral administration. This is, most probably, the greatest challenge.

Finally, the Participatory Budget will be sustainable if the various actors can see that it represents an opportunity to serve their values and interests: politicians can enhance their legitimacy; technicians and public officials can improve the efficiency of their work and its social meaning; international organisations can see that the resources they contribute are better used; and citizens can contribute productively to decision-making and local management.