Позитивные изменения. Том 2, №4 (2022). Positive changes. Volume 2, Issue 4 (2022)

«Ведь в чем самая глобальная суть этого процесса? Люди сами выбирают, что они хотят делать, сами выбирают, как они это хотят делать, сами участвуют в процессе реализации этого проекта, в приемке этого проекта и в эксплуатации этого проекта. У инициативного бюджетирования огромное будущее в том случае, если не только горожане готовы доверять друг другу и чиновникам, но и правительство тоже готово».

When Good Deeds Do Go Unpunished: How to Be Involved in the Distribution of the Local Budget

Irina Laktyushina

DOI 10.55140/2782–5817–2022–2–4–28–35

Lighting a street and paving the road to a house, erecting a monument, organizing a hiking trail or renovating a staircase in a building — these issues, and many others, are ones in which the public itself is entitled to decide on and get the funding to implement these ideas. Projects proposed by local residents are implemented today in most subjects of the Russian Federation in the form of so-called “initiative budgeting.” How it works, what territories need it and on what conditions — that's what this article is about.

Irina Laktyushina

Journalist, Program Coordinator, Impact Hub Moscow

WHAT IS INITIATIVE BUDGETING?

In 1989, one-third of the population of the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre lived in slums, with little to no access to clean water, sewage, hospitals and schools. This was not an exceptional situation for Brazilian cities at the time, but the combination of two factors — an active civil society and the new left-wing city government — made Porto Alegre the originator of the tool called participatory budgeting.

The politicians coming to power suggested that local residents themselves decide what the budget money would be spent on, because the locals were much more aware of most of the problems of their territories. This worked, and soon the situation in Porto Alegre began to improve.

Originating in Brazil, the tool soon became known in other Latin American countries, and in 1996 the UN Habitat conference[36] in Istanbul recognized it as one of the best social practices, subsequently spreading around the world[37].

In Russia, this practice is known as “initiative budgeting” (IB), but the principle is the same — active participation of the local residents in the process of addressing socially important issues. Initiative budgeting programs are adopted by the regional authorities and implemented by local governance bodies: residents choose the facilities on which funding will be spent, and then monitor the implementation of projects, including control over the spending of budgetary funds. After that, the facility built or repaired as a result of the project, such as a playground, would be put on the books of the municipality.

By participating in budget spending decisions, residents can have a practical effect on various issues of state and municipal administration in their territories, including the execution of powers, for example, in areas like education and health care. In addition, the initiative budgeting technology can be used to organize educational and training activities in schools, secondary and higher educational institutions.

But no matter what the aim of the project is, it must meet the main criteria of initiative budgeting. Head of the Center for Initiative Budgeting of the Financial Research Institute (NIFI) under the Ministry of Finance of Russia Vladimir Vagin identifies five such criteria:

1. The public is involved in nominating the projects.

2. The public is involved in selecting the projects.

3. The public is involved in discussing the projects.

4. The public is involved in implementing the projects.

5. The public is involved in scrutinizing the projects.

An important prerequisite for the implementation of initiative budgeting is an independent ‘bottom-up' engagement of the public in the state municipal administration system, rather than the ‘top-down' pressure. “Every state engages the public quite often. The government comes up with a project and says: “We want to engage you, citizens. Come join our projects. We have invented them for you, it's all done for the public good.” But that's not how it works,” Vladimir Vagin stresses.