Source: PAUCI Foundation
On October 26-27th, Irpin hosted the International Forum of Participation Practitioners, which welcomed more than two hundred participants from Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Armenia, Moldova, the UK, and Germany.
The event is remarkable for cooperative work of the teams composed of representatives of authorities, civic activists, authors of projects from more than 95 communities, cities, villages, and municipalities. The Forum took place in the open space format, where participants were hand in hand to find answers to the question: “Lost Illusions of Public Budget: How to Support and Transform the Public Budgeting Process?”. It was offered to discuss almost fifty various topics related to participation budgeting implementation in cities and communities, procedural issues, involvement of NGOs and young people into participatory budgeting, its transparency, raising public trust, etc. The talking points focused both on public budget as such (start-ups, voting project implementation) and on other participatory practices such as revitalization of public spaces and facilitation of participatory events. Following the Forum’s results, “The Open Space Book” was created, documenting all the groundwork. The guests from Georgia, Moldova, and Poland took an active part in the Forum by showing their developments in the field of implementation of participatory budget, positive changes and disadvantages of this process. The Georgian experience in choice of public budget projects was of special interest, which consisted not in the voting process but in the achievement of consensus at the meeting of delegated representatives of the municipality forming localities.
Krzysztof Filcek, Director of PAUCI Foundation, noted that he was glad to work at the third forum of participation practitioners already as far as public budgeting was promising in Ukraine. Currently, Ukraine numbers about 140 local authorities that have implemented public budget, which, among other things, is included in the index of city democracy together with other indices. Below are the speaking notes of key speakers and key audience member.
For detailed information, use the link: ІІІ International Forum of Participation Practitioners “Between Values and Procedures: Supporting and Transforming the Public Budget”.
The Organizers of the Forum:
- Irpin City Council
- Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI
- The international technical aid project “Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance” (PLEDDG Project).
- The international solidarity fund (Solidarity Fund PL);
- The Project “Support for Ukrainian Territorial Communities in view of Increasing Number of Internally Displaced Persons”, which is an initiative in the framework of the structural program for Ukraine implemented by the German Federal Company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, entrusted by The Cabinet of Germany;
- The Project “Integrated Development of Ukrainian Cities” implemented by the governmental company “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH”;
- Open Space Works Cooperative
- International public organization “Foundations for Freedom”