The Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI, together with the International Charitable Organization "Eastern Europe Foundation" within the framework of the Project "Public Budgets from A to Z: Informing, Activating and Engaging Civil Society" with the support of the European Union and the International Technical Assistance Project "Partnership for Urban Development" (PLEDG Project), invite cities and united territorial communities to participate in the Project, within the framework of which assistance will be provided in the implementation of a public budget during 2017.

The support includes:

• conducting seminars, trainings;

• providing consultations and support for the process of implementing a public budget;

• conducting study visits;

• financial support for the information campaign and organization of the stages of the public budget;

• providing software for residents' voting.

 

Project experts: coordinators of public budgets of Ukrainian cities, project authors, members of working groups with experience in implementing participatory budgeting, as well as Polish practitioners of participatory budgeting.

 

If you are interested in participating in the Project, please send a letter signed by the head of the local government to the e-mail address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 23:59 on January 20, 2017, indicating the community's motivation for implementing a public budget and the expected results. It is planned that the Project activities will begin in February 2017. 8 cities and 2 united territorial communities will be invited to participate in the Project, which will be announced on the websites of the PAUCI Foundation http://www.pauci.org and the Eastern Europe Foundation www.eef.org.ua.

 

For information, please contact Konstantin Plosky, tel. +380672228065 and Leonid Donos, +380507733798, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

We offer you a brief information on the development of public budgeting in Ukraine, the opinions of participatory budgeting practitioners, and information on public budgets in cities that, with the support of the PAUCI Foundation, are implementing public budgeting in 2015-2016.

 

Development of public (participatory) budgeting in Ukraine

 

A public (participatory) budget can be defined as an instrument of direct democracy, through which citizens participate in making decisions on the allocation of budget funds for the implementation of their own projects.

 

This process in different Ukrainian cities has the following names: participatory budget, participatory budget, budget of public initiatives, etc.

 

The process consists of five stages:

1. information and promotional campaign;

2. submission of projects by citizens;

3. verification of projects by experts of executive bodies;

4. voting for projects by citizens and calculation of results;

5. implementation of projects by executive bodies and evaluation of the process.

 

The history of participatory budgeting in Ukraine began in 2015, when three Ukrainian cities: Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Poltava, with the support of the PAUCI Foundation within the framework of the Polish-Canadian Democracy Support Program, adopted relevant constituent documents and created working bodies to implement the process. Chernihiv and Cherkasy city councils began the participatory budget cycle in the same year and in 2016 already implemented about 20 projects of residents. Also, in 2015, the city of Lutsk began implementing its own public budget model. With the support of the Foundation, six more cities introduced a public budget in 2016: Sumy, Zhytomyr, Pryluky, Romny, Berdychiv, Irpin. Residents of these cities submitted more than 550 community development projects, of which 124 projects were selected for implementation in 2017. With the help of other civil society institutions, in particular the Institute of Budget and Socio-Economic Research (IBSER), as well as local governments themselves, the participatory budget was introduced in more than 20 more Ukrainian cities in 2016. The amounts allocated by local councils for the public budget ranged from 50 thousand to 16 million hryvnias.

 

In November 2016, the First Forum of Participatory Budget Practitioners in Ukraine “When the City is Managed by Residents” was held in Irpin, which brought together representatives of more than 20 cities.

 

Public Budget Practices of Ukrainian Cities About Their First Experience

 

Orest Fayfurka - Coordinator of the Public Budget of the City of Lviv

 

- The public budget of the city of Lviv is interesting in that it was created on the initiative of very different people. The idea of ​​creating this mechanism came from city council officials, public activists, scientists and deputies, who eventually sat down at a round table, consulted, discussed and jointly developed the draft Regulations. On June 30, at the plenary session of the Lviv City Council, deputies of all political forces represented in the council voted for the Regulations on the public budget of the city of Lviv! And this is not surprising, because the public budget is a unique tool for active Lviv residents to take a direct part in city management. City residents can independently initiate and choose what exactly to spend the city budget on, how to improve the landscaping of their yards, streets and districts. It is important that they do this together with their neighbors - they meet, discuss ideas, improve them, and vote. People learn to plan together, create projects, conduct information campaigns, work with budget funds and influence what is being done around them. Knowing the activity of Lviv residents, we planned 16 million for the public budget of Lviv - the largest amount at that time among Ukrainian cities! There were many skeptics who doubted whether the residents would have so many ideas to use this amount in the first year, or whether people would vote. As a result, we received 265 projects for 140 million UAH, and more than 23 thousand people took part in the vote. As a result, the city will implement 67 projects in 2017 for the amount of over 17 million UAH. These are the modernization of parks and squares, libraries and schools, the creation of children's and sports grounds, public spaces, places for walking dogs, the purchase of necessary medical equipment, and many other ideas that will be implemented! A public budget is not just a determination of the priority of certain expenditures in the city budget. It is an open and transparent dialogue between the authorities and the community about its needs and sore spots. It is the formation of a new generation of public activists who will create changes in their communities and will have the necessary legal instrument for this. It is necessary that proactive residents have such an opportunity in all cities of Ukraine.

 

Roman Shyrokykh Member of the working group on the implementation of the Participatory Budget in Poltava

 

What were your expectations from the project at the beginning of its implementation? What was implemented and what was not?

 

- At the beginning of the project, I first of all expected to understand the mechanisms of direct democracy and participation in a practical aspect. At the beginning of the project, I set myself the goal of finding a point of communication between the authorities and local residents. A point of understanding and the beginning of cooperation on common issues and projects. Regarding what was implemented and what was not. This is a difficult question, because the first shoots have already been planted, but it will take five years to finally achieve the goal.

 

Who participated in the process and what relationships developed between the participants? What positive trends could you note in the community dialogue?

 

- During the implementation of the Participatory Budget, the working group included five representatives from the employees of the City Executive Committee, the deputies, and public activists. The greatest burden of project implementation fell on the shoulders of the employees of the City Executive Committee. To be honest, the deputies of the city council took a more passive role in the preparation of regulatory documents and planning the implementation of the Participatory Budget, but some actively joined the popularization of the Participatory Budget and individual submitted projects. The role of public activists was more advisory and situationally practical in the process of implementing the initiative.

 

What do you think was the key to the fact that the project continues to be implemented in your territorial community?

 

- The main reason for the implementation of the project to this day, I believe, is the altruism of the main people in the implementation of the initiative, who did not give up in the face of great difficulties, certainly the support of PAUSI and teamwork.

 

Has the participatory (public) budget become something more for your community than one of the city council projects? If so, what exactly helped to achieve such a result?

 

- Yes, it definitely did. Probably because this project is qualitatively new for Ukraine and cities in general. This project cannot be implemented for a "tick", and it is necessary to constantly put your soul into it and consult with residents, listen to them and draw conclusions. Only together can we achieve a quality product that will suit both the city government and the city residents. I believe that this is the main difference between ordinary city government projects and the Participatory Budget.

 

So that you can advise colleagues who will implement a public budget from your own experience?

 

- First of all, it is to start speaking on the same “wave” between the project organizers. To choose a team not “convenient” for yourself, but people with the same values, who would like to bring positive practices to their communities and structurally change the thinking and communication between the population and the city authorities.

 

Lyudmila Protsenko Member of the Coordination Council for the Implementation of the Public Budget in Cherkasy

 

- It is worth noting that people who joined the Coordination Council became its participants for various reasons. There are people who are rooting for their city, as well as those who were discharged, some joined for the sake of prestige, some from distrust of the authorities with a desire to control the process. As a result, when the question of inclusion in the work process arises. People who do not root for the unhindered implementation of the tasks set are absent, and the work that should be done by everyone and quickly is done in small numbers and for longer. Public participation is very important and necessary at many stages of the cycle of the implementation of the public budget. As the experience of implementing the Public Budget in Cherkasy has shown, there are also negative moments at different stages of the cycle. I would like to note that there are much more pluses in the implementation of the Public Budget than minuses, and therefore it is necessary to implement such ideas in life. As a result, we will definitely have a society united by a common goal - to make our living space better. We will promote the involvement of the population in the decision-making process at the local level, increase the level of citizens' trust in local authorities. At the same time, this will ensure the openness of the activities of local self-government bodies and the transparency of the decision-making process by providing city residents with the opportunity to directly influence budget policy. Thanks to the submitted projects, we have an objective assessment of the problems that concern city residents the most. This, in turn, is a guideline when forming tasks for the authorities for the following periods.

 

Tetyana Kharenko Deputy Head of the Coordination Council for Public Budget Issues, Deputy Head of the Financial Policy Department of the Cherkasy City Council

 

What were your expectations from the project at the beginning of its implementation? What was implemented and what was not?

 

- At the beginning of the project implementation, Cherkasy was one of the first in Ukraine to start implementing the public budget back in 2015, so the expectations of the first stage were to overcome the resistance and non-perception of the project, which took place both among public activists and among the deputy corps. In addition, support was expected from the participants in the process, in particular the city residents. Considering that the indicators of the public budget of Cherkasy for submitted projects, the number of voting participants and the amount for the implementation of ideas for the second year increased by two times, we can confidently say about the successful implementation of the project in the city and the justification of the first expectations. However, the adoption of one program does not change the generally accepted relationship between the public sector and self-government, between structural divisions of executive bodies within it and the quality of work performed by contracting organizations. Therefore, improving these relationships today are unachieved tasks and expectations for the future in the process of implementing the public budget in the coming years. And it is the qualitative improvement of these areas that should change not only the indicators and perception of the public budget, but also society as a whole.

 

Who participated in the process and what relationships developed between the participants? What positive trends could you note in the community dialogue?

 

- In the process of introducing and implementing the public budget in Cherkasy, socially active residents of the city took part: city council employees, public activists and deputies. And if at the beginning of the process it was quite difficult to negotiate, by the second year the coordination of the implementation stages and the definition of the movement vector was much faster and more constructive. About 4% of Cherkasy residents took part in the public budget processes at different stages. This is a fairly high figure given the rather strict conditions for identifying a person in Ukraine. And this made it possible to see the problems and wishes of residents from the opposite side, unusual for other programs. At the same time, it is necessary to try to "fit" public budget projects into other, already existing rules and programs of the city. And this is the most difficult task and the key to the successful functioning of the public budget in the long term.

 

What do you think is the key to the continued implementation of the project in your territorial community?

 

- The implementation of the project over several years is due to the successful formation of the team that worked on it, high-quality and constructive support from independent experts from PAUCI, the optimism of the participants and the creation of a sufficiently transparent mechanism of action. In addition, the possibility of improving this mechanism in subsequent periods allows it to develop and adapt to the realities of Ukraine.

 

Has the participatory (public) budget become something more for your community than one of the city council projects? If so, what exactly helped to achieve such a result?

- The public budget in Cherkasy was able to combine the enthusiasm and flexibility of the public sector with the real capabilities of the authorities, which other projects have not been able to do before. This result was achieved thanks to the factors mentioned in the previous paragraph.

 

So that you can advise colleagues who will implement a public budget from your own experience?

 

Regarding the wishes for your colleagues:

• do not be afraid of high activity of participants at the beginning - after a year only the most persistent and truly interested in the process will remain;

• when studying the experience of others, do not forget about the peculiarities of your own territory;

• involve those who criticize and object in the organizational process, most people's enthusiasm lasts for a maximum of six months;

• immediately determine those responsible for coordinating the process, since the dynamism and consistency of the process depends on the coordinator.

 

And in the end, I would like to wish you optimism and a good team for working on the public budget, because "where there are more friends, there are also stronger ones"!

 

Olena Kanavets Coordinator of the Public Budget of Pryluky

 

What were your expectations from the project at the beginning of its implementation? What was implemented and what was not?

 

- The implementation of the public budget is another mechanism for activating the community in solving local issues. Residents will have a real opportunity to offer their alternatives in the development of the city, and not just criticize. I was aware that all procedural issues of the public budget will be limited in time, and accordingly will require teamwork and methodological support from the PAUCI Foundation. This year's results: activity in submitting projects and their support by residents.

 

Who participated in the process and what relationships developed between the participants? What positive trends could you note in the community dialogue?

 

- To implement the public budget and develop regulatory documents, a working group was created, which included employees of the City Executive Committee, the public, and city council members. Most of the members of the working group are participants of the PAUSI seminars, and therefore there is an understanding of the essence of the public budget.

 

What do you think has become a guarantee that the project will continue to be implemented in your territorial community?

 

- The guarantee for the successful continuation of the implementation of the public budget is, of course, the implementation of the winning projects themselves. Therefore, if in 2017 the initiatives of residents are successfully implemented, then accordingly we will have interesting ideas, cooperation in the preparation of real proposals, and active participation in voting.

 

Has the participatory (public) budget become something more for your community than one of the city council projects? If so, what exactly helped to achieve such a result?

 

- The number and variety of projects, as well as the activity in voting for projects, indicate that residents want to be involved in the development of the city. The public budget has united many active residents, public organizations have become more effective and have new plans and projects.

 

So that you can advise colleagues who will implement a public budget from your own experience?

 

- I would advise colleagues to pay attention to the time frame for implementing the stages of the public budget and in general to the distribution of functions of those responsible. Also, teamwork and full support of the city's top officials will contribute to the effective implementation of the idea of ​​a public budget. The public budget should be free of politics and political parties.

 

Source: http://pauci.org/one_news.php?id=162