Senior officials representing governments, local authorities and NGOs from 29 African countries gathered from 10-14 March 2008 in Durban, South Africa, for the first Africa Regional Seminar on Participatory Budgeting. Participatory budgeting (PB) is a system that gives the public a say and an eye on how municipal funds are spent. From an experimental innovation in Brazil, PB initiatives have been growing exponentially in many countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and more recently in Africa.

At the Seminar, the ministers responsible for local government in Rwanda and Somalia said they intended to see how they could introduce public participation into their municipal budgeting cycles.

The Conference was organized by the Harare based Municipal Development Partnership Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (MDP-ESA), with support from The World Bank and others.

UN-HABITAT and the MDP-ESA launched their new publication on PB at the conference [1].

[1] Matovu, G. and Mumvuma, T. (2008). Participatory budgeting in Africa : a training companion with cases from eastern and southern Africa. 2 vol. (Vol. 1. Concepts and principles. Vol. 2. Facilitation methods). Nairobi, Kenya, UN-HABITAT and Harare, Zimbabwe, MDP-ESA. Download here

Related web site: ParticipatoryBudgeting.org

Contact: MDP-ESA, Zimbabwe, region@mdpafrica.org.zw, http://www.mdpafrica.org.zw

Source: UN-Habitat, 18 Mar 2008

Tags: capacity development, participatory management, policies & legislation