From participatory budgeting to community-led services: The co-production journey of Çanakkale in Turkey

Change management

The participation process in Çanakkale Municipality was strongly driven by the Agenda 21 process and the development of the 2006-2010 Strategic Plan.

Inspired by the introduction of so-called ‘participatory budgeting’ in Porto Alegre, the Mayor wished to involve citizens in the priority setting process. At the same time, he also involved staff in the drafting of the strategic plan, something which is not common in the hierarchical culture of Turkish local government.

The participatory budget pilot in 2007 for preparing the 2008 local investment budget consisted of a three-step process, including:

1. an awareness-raising campaign,
2. a citizen survey to assess the willingness of citizens to take part in the new participation process,
3. public debates at neighbourhood level and the voting of citizens on investment priorities.

The campaign was designed to raise awareness of local citizens about their right to participate in the decision-making processes around investment priorities. The campaign included meetings with residents over a period of almost three months at neighbourhood level and the distribution of 10,000 flyers to households. Furthermore, a representative citizen survey conducted during the awareness-raising campaign showed that 30 % of citizens in Çanakkale were ready to be a part of the process of participatory budgeting, even though it was a new and unknown method back in 2007.

Public meetings were held to familiarise local people with the investment projects and the participation process and to recruit volunteers who would be interested in taking part in the monitoring and evaluation process. Local citizens were provided with information on the local budget, with a focus on the expenditure levels in previous years and forecasts of required resources. Based on this information, participants were asked to define the investment priorities of the city and their neighbourhood by ranking various options.

The community organisers at neighbourhood level – the Muhtars – played a key role in the participation process by assessing the infrastructure needs of neighbourhoods which were summarised in local investment demand lists.

Elected community organisers at neighbourhood level in Turkey

The Muhtars are a traditional institution in Turkey who are elected by local citizens at neighbourhood level. They play an important role in liaising with residents in their neighbourhood and passing on the complaints and requests of local people to the municipality or other agencies concerned. In the 2009 national elections, Turkish voters elected 18,607 Muhtars – only 2.3% being female. Muhtars discharge certain functions relating to both municipal and central government services, including:

• Administrative functions relating to the citizenship status of residents
• Management of social assistance or disadvantaged residents, in co-operation with public agencies
• Recording complaints of residents related to infrastructure issues and passing the complaints to the agency concerned (municipality, utility company or governorship).

The Muhtars also informed citizens about the participation process and built trust. They contributed to the work of the Investment Planning Committee and provided inputs to the evaluation report prepared by the Municipality.

The results of the local prioritisation was used for the 2008 investment planning by the Investment Planning Committee of the local council and municipal planning officers. Once the investment planning had been completed citizens were provided with feedback on the decisions of the Mayor in a second set of neighbourhood meetings.

Whenever possible, the investment planning respected the priorities voted for by local citizens. Obviously, the local council also had to be concerned about carrying out the local infrastructure works as efficient as possible. For example, it was impossible to prioritise road works in one neighbourhood and sewage in another neighbourhood, as most of the infrastructure projects had to be implemented district-wide or even city-wide. Therefore, the Mayor decided not to repeat participatory budgeting with infrastructure projects any longer.

However, the experience with a small community fund which was set up in 2007 to encourage citizen-led projects (related to the theme “greener, cleaner and safer”) was much more positive and sustainable. In 2007, four applications were received on improving green spaces and keeping them clean, and one application on community safety. In order to increase future participation and interest, all the applications were accepted and funded without. Three of these citizen-led initiatives related to improving and maintaining green spaces are still active in 2014. The municipality continues to encourage citizens to take ownership of their neighbourhood and to manage public spaces. At the same time, Çanakkale Municipality now tries to engage NGOs in running larger public spaces, such as picnic areas and tea gardens, which are currently managed by the municipality.

In another neighbourhood, citizens took on responsibilities for the maintenance and security of fire hydrants. In particular, the Municipality trained Roma people in using and looking after fire hydrants, as there had been lots of incidents where Roma people had removed and sold metal from fire hydrants. As more Roma people took part in the training the problem reduced.