The Harare Communiqué on Participatory Budgeting in Africa 8 March 2007

Key Recommendations Emanating from the Harare Communiqué on PB in Africa

1.       Linking participatory budgeting to improving the quality of live of citizens, that is through improved service delivery and infrastructure development

• The people know their needs as well as the community’s such that they will make their needs known - identification of service gaps and implementation of priority projects

• Cheaper to use local labour thus improving the quality of life of local residents

• The local people will own the projects and as such will be responsible for the projects i.e. the community  will monitor, evaluate and own the services & infrastructure

• Ward based meetings, integrated development planning and stakeholder engagement workshops will be used as key tools to make sure that the lives of the citizens are improved and taken care of.

• Appropriate allocation of funds through participatory budgeting clarity-e.g. as is the case in Ecuador

• Publication of the quality of life of citizens before and after the implementation of Participatory Budgeting

• Setting of tariffs is agreed upon to enhance improved collection of local resources

3.   The percentage of the total municipal budget that is allocated for participatory budgeting.

• The general consensus was that the whole budget should be subjected to the participatory budgeting process.

4.   Increasing the resource base for participatory budgeting

• Expand the revenue base with the support of central government

• Financial capacity building within the municipality

• Increase the taxpayer’s base so as to have more people paying tax

• Sensitize people through civic education on the need to pay tax

• Central government, regional and international partners should increase the transfer of resources to the local authorities

5.   Creating interest in councilors and technocrats to join participatory budgeting.

·         It is the role of the council officers and practitioners to sensitize councilors and technocrats on the need to implement Participatory Budgeting

·         There is need to identify means and ways to motivate councilors i.e. explain the benefits of participatory budgeting to the councilors and the technocrats

·         Train Councilors and technocrats on the participatory budgeting process

·         Include Councilors in participatory budgeting structures

·         Expose them to other cities/countries practicing Participatory Budgeting

6.   Opening up the formal structures for the citizens to start participating in participatory budgeting.

·         Form stakeholder committees

·         Create a schedule of consultative meetings

·         Create a profile of stakeholders

·         Institutionalize the process

7.   Sustaining participatory budgeting process taking into consideration all constraints

·         Full disclosure of all information

·         Clear criteria for representation

·         Apolitical approach

·         Periodic reporting and feedback

·         Minimum bureaucracy

8.   Developing a framework to measure participatory budgeting performance taking into account cost and benefits

• Participatory budgeting should be subjected to measurement for effectiveness

9.   The role of national government in promoting participatory budgeting

• Create an enabling legal and policy framework

• Create facilitative regulatory framework

• Budgetary allocations

• Political will and commitment

• Carrot and stick

• Less bureaucracy

10.        Tools that can be used to popularize participatory budgeting

• Media

• Workshops

• Awards

• Manuals (Training materials and e-learning materials)

11         Building blocks in participatory budgeting

• Marketing the concept to the local authority, the Government, the community and the private sector (get a buy-in of the concept through communication)

• Sensitization of the concept

• Integrate with legislation

• Training

• Profiling of stakeholders

• Structures to be in place-committees

• Resources –human and capital

12         Developing criteria for selecting pilot municipalities

• Willingness to implement

• Readiness

• Already taken initiatives to start Participatory Budgeting

• Should be Influential

• Champion Municipality

• Should be accessible to the stakeholders

Follow-up 

The participants acknowledged the need for networking, knowledge dissemination and development for the purposes of enhancing competences. A call was also made to international cooperating partners and respective national governments to provide support and other incentives to local authorities that have embraced the participatory budgeting approach to local governance. It was also the wish of the participants that those local authorities that were identified should immediately start to implement the participatory budgeting process. To this effect, countries that had not identified pilot cities are to do so on or before Wednesday, 14^th March 2007. Where possible the selected local authorities should also submit letters of support from their respective central governments, local authority mayors or chairpersons, local authorities association and area members of parliament.

The participatory budgeting knowledge and action support facility will assist the identified pilot municipalities to network with each other and to share materials and experiences, knowledge exchange with other regional centres through a common web page or virtual learning environment in the spirit of south-south cooperation.