What is Participatory Budgeting ?
What is Participatory Budgeting?
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a form of citizen participation in which citizens are involved in the process of deciding how local money is spent. The purpose of PB is to give citizens a direct say in local financial decision making, resource allocation and service design.
PB is about empowering local communities and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to take part, including groups not traditionally involved in decision-making. It involves open dialogue and deliberation to reach decisions that will make a difference to local communities.
The below diagram provides a brief overview of how PB works.
There are a number of benefits of implementing PB:
- It will enable communities to influence how money is spent in their local area
- It will give local people and communities a greater influence and say in decisions that affect their lives.
- It will encourage people to become more involved in decision making and democracy.