Implementation of Participatory Budgeting in Berdiansk
31 August 2016
A roundtable The Berdiansk City Citizen Project initiated by the NOVA Energia NGO from Kharkiv was held with support of the Berdiansk City Council on 30 August 2016. The residents of Berdiansk, civic activists, representatives of local government, and mass media came together to discuss a common vision for the phases of implementation of a mechanism of engaging citizens in the allocation of city’s budget funds. The roundtable was attended by more than 70 participants.
The City Council Secretary Oleksii Kholod has reminded the participants that the Berdiansk City Council signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Institute for Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research NGO, which is implementing the USAID Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) Roll-out Project. The Memorandum declares the Berdiansk wish to build a dialog between the city residents and municipal government in order to energize the local community towards democratization and building a conscientious civil society in Ukraine in general.
The head of the NOVA Energia NGO, Vitalii Filenko has presented the Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) Roll-out Project with regard to its assistance for implementation of participatory budgeting in Ukrainian cities as part of the component of ‘Strengthening the practices of citizen participation in the budgeting process at the local level in Ukraine’ and emphasized its importance in terms of increasing the level of citizen engagement directly in the decision-making process, in particular, the process of budget allocation for implementation of priority projects.
The history of development of participatory budgeting, its definition, and legal grounds for implementation of citizen budget have all been presented by Project Manager, Cand. Sc. of Public Administration Ivan Shkurat.
Natalia Vinnychenko, an expert on implementation of participatory budgeting in Ukrainian cities, has shared her experience of implementation of citizen budgets. All phases of project implementation have been discussed in detail – from “zero phase” to evaluation of the implementation quality of the projects to be selected by local residents for funding from local budget.
The Project Leader of the Strengthening the Practices of Citizen Participation in the Budgeting Process at the Local Level in Ukraine Project, Serhii Omelichkin from the NOVA Energia NGO has noted: “Berdiansk will be one of the first cities to implement the Citizens’ Project electronic platform, which is unique for Ukraine, to ensure organization of a process, which is objective, transparent, and easily understood by citizens, of submitting proposals and determining the level of priority of activities of municipal improvements. The electronic platform will make it possible for all those willing to participate in the contest of projects (both in the submission and the voting process), without leaving their homes: They will be able to submit their application online and track the advancement of their project at the website.”
At the end of the roundtable, the organizers and event participants have provided recommendations and justifications with regard to amending a regulation on participatory budgeting developed and approved by the City Council. Also, the community has demonstrated its great interest and capacity to support the launch of this process in the city of Berdiansk as soon as possible. Several nongovernmental organizations have expressed their intent to participate in the Coordinating committee, which will be implementing the organizational functions for implementation of participatory budgeting.
The City Council Secretary Oleksii Kholod has reminded the participants that the Berdiansk City Council signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Institute for Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research NGO, which is implementing the USAID Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) Roll-out Project. The Memorandum declares the Berdiansk wish to build a dialog between the city residents and municipal government in order to energize the local community towards democratization and building a conscientious civil society in Ukraine in general.
The head of the NOVA Energia NGO, Vitalii Filenko has presented the Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) Roll-out Project with regard to its assistance for implementation of participatory budgeting in Ukrainian cities as part of the component of ‘Strengthening the practices of citizen participation in the budgeting process at the local level in Ukraine’ and emphasized its importance in terms of increasing the level of citizen engagement directly in the decision-making process, in particular, the process of budget allocation for implementation of priority projects.
The history of development of participatory budgeting, its definition, and legal grounds for implementation of citizen budget have all been presented by Project Manager, Cand. Sc. of Public Administration Ivan Shkurat.
Natalia Vinnychenko, an expert on implementation of participatory budgeting in Ukrainian cities, has shared her experience of implementation of citizen budgets. All phases of project implementation have been discussed in detail – from “zero phase” to evaluation of the implementation quality of the projects to be selected by local residents for funding from local budget.
The Project Leader of the Strengthening the Practices of Citizen Participation in the Budgeting Process at the Local Level in Ukraine Project, Serhii Omelichkin from the NOVA Energia NGO has noted: “Berdiansk will be one of the first cities to implement the Citizens’ Project electronic platform, which is unique for Ukraine, to ensure organization of a process, which is objective, transparent, and easily understood by citizens, of submitting proposals and determining the level of priority of activities of municipal improvements. The electronic platform will make it possible for all those willing to participate in the contest of projects (both in the submission and the voting process), without leaving their homes: They will be able to submit their application online and track the advancement of their project at the website.”
At the end of the roundtable, the organizers and event participants have provided recommendations and justifications with regard to amending a regulation on participatory budgeting developed and approved by the City Council. Also, the community has demonstrated its great interest and capacity to support the launch of this process in the city of Berdiansk as soon as possible. Several nongovernmental organizations have expressed their intent to participate in the Coordinating committee, which will be implementing the organizational functions for implementation of participatory budgeting.
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