Report on Pilot Training Workshop on Participatory Budgeting in Africa Nansana Town Council
20 th - 22 nd June 2007

Aide Memoire and Program | List of Participants | Proceedings Report

The Participatory Budgeting Pilot training in Nansana, Uganda took place from the 20 th - 22 nd of June 2007 and it was official opened by Mr. Tom Mate, Principal Director in the Ministry of Local Government, Uganda. The workshop was attended by about 49 participants who included the Secretary General of UAAU Mr. John Behangaana, the chairman of Wakiso District under which Nansana fall, Engineer Ian Kyeyune, the local chief Mr. Robert Mubiru, residents, management staff, councilors, local development partners, civil society organizations as well as local government practitioners. Like in Ruwa, the pilot training programme was well received to such an extend that at the end of the workshop, as a way forward participants crafted an action plan to address some of the constraints and challenges that were blocking the further deepening of the practice of participatory budgeting within the local authority. Actions to be taken include activities such as capacity building of all stakeholders, raising awareness about the budgetary process, and dissemination of information through brochures, flyers and newsletters, etc. Various stakeholders were assigned to implement these actions and these include church leaders, the town clerk, councilors, children, cultural leaders, Nansana Participatory Budgeting committee, NGOs, CSOs, MDP-ESA, multilateral institutions like the World Bank and UN-HABITAT, Ministry of Local Government, different line ministries and Members of Parliament.

Emerging Issues from the Pilot

Like in the Ruwa workshop, participants in Nansana came up with a list of constraints to practicing participatory budgeting in their locality, outlined their causes and proposed some solutions on how to overcome them. They also proposed the types improvements they though should be carried out in order to further improve the training companion. The list of some of constrains that were identified during the workshop deliberations includes the following:

• Poor communication strategies and inadequate information sharing;
• Poor political mobilization;
• Limited involvement of stakeholders
• Inadequate skills in budgeting;
• Limited knowledge about participatory budgeting;
• Inability by local politicians to separate politics from civic/development issues;
• Lack of appropriate venue for undertaking participatory budgeting meetings;
• Poor timing of participatory budgeting meetings;
• Lack of durable partnership between civil society organizations and the council;
• Monopolization of budget information and work by a few people;
• Negative political pronouncements that have the effect of discouraging people from participating in the budgeting process;
• Lack of awareness among the various stakeholders; and
• Negative attitudes towards participation by members of the community.

What ought to be emphasized here is that the problem of politicking was singled out as a serious challenge to the further deepening of the participatory budgeting process in the town. It was pointed out that whilst the council will be busy mobilizing for participation, the local politicians will be busy demobilizing the same citizens not to participate and this is often done along political party lines.

Pictures from the Event