About the Conference
With the advance of democratization and decentralization reforms, Participatory Budgeting is rapidly gaining attention from governments, civil society, and development agencies as an effective platform for strengthening transparency, voice, and accountability in public expenditure management, and service delivery. Since the early experimental initiatives in Brazil, the use of Participatory Budgeting has grown exponentially in many countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and more recently, in Africa. This has created a growing demand for knowledge about how to develop and implement participatory budgeting in the African context.
Taking this into consideration, The Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA) will organize a conference on Participatory Budgeting on March 10-13, 2008 in Durban, South Africa. The event is supported by The Municipality of Durban, African Affiliated Network on Social Accountability (ANSA), The World Bank Group, The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), The Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (TFESSD), UN-Habitat, and Wagner School of Public Administration/New York University
Target Audience and Selection
The seminar targets local, regional and national level practitioners, government officials, NGOs, academics and development agencies. The first day of the event is open to a larger audience while the following four days are limited to 40 participants. The seminar will be held in English but translation to French and Portuguese will be available
A selection commission will review each application and priority will be given to:
- Participants from African (governmental and non-governmental) organizations;
- Participants representing African organizations that have a clear need for capacity building and knowledge sharing on Participatory Budgeting
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Participants who are planning to incorporate Participatory Budgeting mechanisms into their own organization or disseminate obtained knowledge back to their home country.
Application and Funding Assistance
Interested participants should apply no later than December the 17th, 2007. Please see the attached application form for further details or register through the web form for registration
The sponsors of the Seminar will be able to support a limited number of participants with travel, accommodation, training material or full board. Priority will be given to African organizations which have solid justification to send representatives to the event, but cannot fully cover these costs. Self-funded candidates are also welcome to apply.
If you need additional information or clarification, please contact:
George Matovu
MDPESA Executive Director
gmatovu@mdpafrica.org.zw
Tel: +263-4-774385/6
Fax: 263-4-774387
--OR--
Andre Herzog
Social Development Department, World Bank
aherzog@worldbank.org
Tel: +001-1-202-458-2683 (US)
Fax: +001-1-202-522-1669
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