Participatory Budgeting in the city of Recife, Brazil - the world’s most participative public agency?

Other outcomes

Over the 10 years of PB in Recife, all choices made by citizens in respect of project priorities have been respected – this has built credibility with citizens. Interestingly, over time it has been recognized that the choices made by citizens are now similar (sometimes even better than) those made by ‘technical experts’ in the City Council. An example of the ‘common wisdom’ exhibited by citizens of the ‘morros’ (hills) is that there was no technical agreement by the city’s engineers on the best way of building a paved road system linking the hills, so this became a project in the PB process, where people voted for the parts of the road system which were most important. These were eventually joined up and the approach was seen to have been a very effective way of working out the best solution.

A critically important outcome of the PB process is that people have the chance to be heard – particularly people who were previously excluded socially and politically. Now more than 100,000 people participate in the process every year (those attending forums and those voting online). Participation in the favelas is often intense, as they feel they have the most to gain in influencing the city’s budget decisions.

Imitation and further dissemination of the Recife approach

Although some other cities in the region of Pernambuco, such as Olinda, Jabe Otao and Cabo have somewhat similar approaches to PB, there is not really a connection – their methodologies are adapted to suit local circumstances. The state is large, with significant socio-economic and cultural differences, and PB involves political decisions on how best to help local people to participate.
However, the state of Pernambuco itself now has a PB process, which ties in with and partly finances some PB projects in Recife.