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

Performance indicators

Over 7.5% of the population are now involved in the PB process. The process is sustainable and part of the city’s fabric - indeed, it is unlikely that it could now be dropped by any of the political parties. However, the approach is continually tweaked in order to keep it interesting and to keep participation levels up.

The projects undertaken through PB have had major effects on the quality of life of local people – consequently, there has been great feedback, with many testimonials and favourable comments to the mayor and the City Council.
The main challenge now in the PB process is to increase the speed of project implementation  . Already, the average time taken to implement projects has fallen to under three years but the target is now two years.