BUDGET ANALYSIS, ALTERNATIVE BUDGETS

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BUDGET ANALYSIS, ALTERNATIVE BUDGETS
PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING Part II Porto Alegre,
Canada, Italy and the Philippines
by PROF. LEONOR MAGTOLIS BRIONES Co-Convenor
Social Watch Philippines
Presentation at Building an Asian Community of
Practice on Monitoring
and Budget Analysis 9-11 July 2008, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
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Participatory Budget (PB)
participatory process started in 1989

• two ways by which the population can participate
  
• territorially in one of the 16 city regions were
  they live
• thematically, relating to the process is via
  subject matter

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For territorial/regional regions select their
top four priorities out of a list of 14 budget
headings which include

• health
• transport
• leisure areas
• sports and leisure
• economic development
• culture, and
• environment improvement

• sewers and drains
• housing
• social services
• paving
• water supply
• education
• street lighting

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• For the thematic
• Priorities of a more city-wide character are
  decided
• There are thematic meetings to partly offset the
  problem of parochial bias and partly to bring in
  the non community sectors like the unions and
  business associations.

Each regional and thematic groups elect
candidates for the delegate forum which will also
be candidates for the PB council
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The Participatory Budget (PB) Council

• permanent yet voluntary body
• which has overall responsibility for managing the
  PB process
• it meets twice a week and
• is tasked with combining and reconciling the
  priorities put up by the regional and thematic
  meetings

The regional and thematic delegate meetings are
staged once a month and are in charge with
translating the general demands discussed at the
community meetings into specific proposals.
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The Local Political Structure
Mayors Office (Executive) - Prepares the budget
GAPLAN (planning office)
Coordination of Relations with the Communities
(CRC) (manage the budgetary debates with city
residents )
Chamber of Deputies (Legislature) - Ratifies the
budget
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The Process
First round plenary of the citizens per region
relating to the themes - March
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meetings between the citizens and the executive
(mayors office) follows April (to review
investment plans of the previous year, discuss
proposals for the new year)
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Second round plenary of the citizens per region
relating to the themes - June
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meetings between the citizens and the executive
(mayors office) follows July (election of
44-member Council of Participatory Budgeting
(COP))
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COP submits budget to legislature in September
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Chamber Debates October to December
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The Outcomes

• a change to local spending priorities to the
  benefit of the economic periphery,
• collective mobilisation of the poor and working
  class,
• leading to a rise in class morale and political
  consciousness.

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CANADA Alternative Federal Budget (AFB)

• the fundamental premise of the AFB has been that
  budgets are about choices.
• AFB starts from a set of social justice values
• human dignity and freedom, fairness,
• equality, environmental sustainability,
• and the public good
• embraced by representatives of a broad spectrum
  of civil society organizations

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AFB is a 108 page document that was produced with
a view of making the budget process democratic
through

• introducing a more transparent, participatory and
  democratic budget process

• requiring that all new budget and regulatory
  initiatives involve a comprehensive and publicly
  available impact assessment by the newly
  established Parliamentary Budget Office

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• requiring that budgets establish goals and targets

• requiring that the Treasury Board and the
  Parliamentary Budget Office monitor and publicly
  report on our overall progress

• The goals in coming out with AFB are
• economic literacy
• to build policy consensus among civil society
  organizations
• fuel popular mobilization.
• an exercise in public accountability

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ITALY
ALTERNATIVES TO NATIONAL BUDGET LAW
Since 1999 Sbilanciamoci! has proposed
alternatives to the Italian budgetary policies,
arguing for social and environmental priorities.
Sbilanciamoci! is a campaign involving 45
associations, NGOs and networks working on
globalisation, peace, human rights, environment,
fair trade, ethical finance.
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What the campaign do?

• reviews the orientations of economic politics
  emerging from the Budget Law and from the State
  Budget
• develops alternative proposals about how to use
  public expenditure for society, environment and
  peace
• Prepares reports for national distribution
• Collects signatures to sustain budget proposals
• Makes amendments to the Budget Law (moved 57
  amendments already)

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The campaign alternative proposals focused on

• The Fiscal Lever
• Defending Welfare
• Environment for Sustainable Development
• Disarming the economy
• The company of different economy