On January, 27 in Lviv, the subgrantee of USAID’s MFSI-II Project NGO “Institute for Regional Development” held Forum “Participatory budgeting: efficient partnership of the authorities and civil society”. The Forum gathered more than100 participants from 18 cities of Ukraine, including representatives of the cities willing to implement the participatory budgeting in the nearest future.
Participants discussed the Lviv’s and other cities’ experience in the implementation of participatory budgeting and how this mechanism intensifies the
collaboration between authorities and community.
Director General of IBSER Vyacheslav Zubenko has noted that the interaction between the government and the general public is at the core of participatory budgeting. As the result of such collaboration, the government becomes more open to citizens, and the community is united and steps up its efforts to improve living standards in their cities.
Speaking during panel discussion, representatives of the government, project winners, and active citizens have discussed such issues: Whether or not do Ukrainian cities need participatory budgeting? What citizen initiatives have good prospects for success? And how to monitor the process of project implementation?
Glyanec