Does participatory budgeting empower residents? The case of the city of Medellin in Columbia
Moderators:
Anna Bednarczyk
Inga Hajdarowicz
Time: 1. Day (Thursday, May 28.), hrs.15:45-17:45
Location: III floor, zone E
Format: discussion session
When, 10 years ago, the discussion about participatory budgeting had just started in Poland, few believed that such a ‘radical’ tool could be implemented. Nowadays this mechanism is used in big as well as in small cities. Many are faced with a dilemma how participatory budgeting should be developed and what role it should play in managing cities. Some people see it as a chance to improve the quality of life and the relationships among the civic actors. Some, however, think that such a small-scale democracy is just a pure marketing scheme and will not contribute to social justice.
We believe that at this stage we should go back to the question: why do we need participatory budgeting? Why do we care about implementing this tool? What are the outcomes that we expect? One of its basics objectives is just redistribution of financial resources. One should, however, remember that in theory participatory budgeting was meant to support emancipation and higher involvement of citizens in local governments, thus leading to a radical political and social transformation. What is the situation in Poland in that matter?
Together with people engaged in the field of participatory budgeting in Poland we would like to provide an answer to all these questions. We shall base our debate on the case of Medellin. In our presentation we shall focus on empowering groups that have constantly been ruled out from the public debate, and we will look at the mechanisms and instruments that might have caused that.