BUILDING PARTICIPATION
THE PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
AN EXPERIENCE TO BE SHARED
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
INDEX
Introduction
- Background: A brief historical review for context
- Methodology at the service of participatory democracies
I SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE PARTICIPATORY BUDGET
1.1 Actor participation before the intervention
1.2 Pre-existing forms of participation
1.3 Implementation of a participatory process methodology
1.3.1 Stages and time frames
1.3.2 Guide to the PMB methodological steps
1.4 Actor roles and objectives
1.5 Resources and instruments
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III THE PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET: LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES
3.1 A threat to municipal power
3.1.1 Priority level of the Participatory Budget for the Town Hall
3.1.2 The Municipal Budget and participation
3.1.3 Town Hall commitment to works
3.1.4 Appropriation of the PMB by the Town Hall Council Members
3.1.5 Audience and registry of budgetable priorities
3.1.6 Identification and technical support for compiling the PMB
2
II PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROGRESS
2.1 The new rules
2.2 Legal mechanisms introduced on the basis of the Participatory Municipal
Budget experience
2.3 The new participatory experience
2.4 Forms of interaction
2.5 Changes originating from the Participatory Budget
2.5.1 Impact on the life of the leaders participating in the
Participatory Budget
2.5.2 A critical look at the relationship between municipal authorities and
community leaders
2.5.3 Understandings, attitudes and positions towards traditional roles
among municipal servants
2.5.4 Changes to the civil society organisation system
2.5.5 A new local government agenda
2.5.6 A gender-focused Participatory Budget
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
3.1.7 Degree of communication and dissemination of the PMB initiative
3.2 Participatory Budget challenges and opportunities
IV FINAL ASSESSMENT
4.1 Lessons learnt
4.2 Challenges and tests
4.3 Conclusions about the experience
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V BIBLIOGRAPHY
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
INTRODUCTION
This publication responds to CIIR-PROGRESSIO’s undertaking to systematise the
experiences gained by its partner organisations and delegates in the Caribbean region.
This preliminary study aims to show how the Participatory Municipal Budget has been
implemented in the Dominican Republic, what its benefits, lessons and limitations have
been, and what challenges it has identified for the future.
In the process of developing and implementing the Participatory Municipal Budget,
significant knowledge has been generated and new practices have been established. In
this study we try to bring all of these together in order to share them for the benefit of
other projects.
Much has been said and done in relation to the Participatory Municipal Budget in the
Dominican Republic (hereinafter PMB), with particular reference to creating methods, and
to their application, role and sustainability. However, there is still a lack of serious analysis
of the real impact of the PMB on the community and municipal administration. Therefore,
this study seeks to outline the various thematic and practical aspects that have arisen
during the development and implementation of PMB projects in five municipalities in the
Dominican Republic.
In order to achieve our aims we have reviewed institution documents and carried out
interviews with delegates, local leaders, and public and municipal officials.
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We hope that this study will allow readers to reflect on the social, political and cultural
impact of the PMB and to evaluate the limitations and successes that it has had, and
continues to have, in the Dominican context.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Background:
A brief historical review for context
As an international organisation working for sustainable development and the eradication
of poverty, one of CIIR-PROGRESSIO’s (previously CIIR/CID) main aims has always been
getting people to participate in creating change. Through its delegates, PROGRESSIO has
sought to give direct support to its partner organisations, primarily civil society
organisations, for their own strategies to build greater public participation with social and
gender justice, and to strengthen these organisations.
Within the scope of this work, in the Dominican Republic there arose the initiative of
involving citizens and civil society groups in municipal government through their
participation in designing and preparing the Municipal Budget.
Sonia Vásquez, former Progressio coordinator, recalls the origins and motives of the PMB
that was implemented in the Villa González municipality:
“Perhaps the first experience dates back to 1997-1998, when we started to support the Villa
González municipality. We were following the pattern of the majority of agencies and NGOs, which
was to give greater support to strengthening civil society, without taking into account what was
happening in local government and town halls. At that time it was not so common to work with the
governmental authorities. Basically civil society here, for many, many years, had its back to - and
rather was opposed to – everything related to the State.
“In Villa González we started working with the authorities because we realised that on the one
hand civil society was empowering itself through associations and neighbourhood committees
whilst very little was happening at the authority level. This was the initial discussion that
Progressio had with the delegate who was supporting Villa González, and it was a positive step: To
what point is it valid to support one of the pillars of development, which was civil society, and not
do anything with the other pillar that is the State? This made us reformulate our support in this
municipality. All of this was done through the NGO Fundación Solidaridad (Solidarity Foundation).
At that time the municipality was led by the mayor Victor D’Aza, who is now the Executive Director
of FEDOMU (the Dominican Federation of Municipalities). With them we developed what was the
first Participatory Municipal Budget in the country.
“Initially, even within Progressio, this caused much debate as it was the first time in the Latin
American region that the organisation had become involved with the authorities, even if this was
at the municipal level.
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“The second motivation to understand was that by working directly with the municipality there
was the possibility of having greater direct influence on poverty reduction, that is, you could see
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
the results immediately. At the national level, with the ministries, things happen differently to the
way they do at the municipal level, where the people are right there close by.” 1
PROGRESSIO started working with the PMB by supporting five municipalities: Villa
González, Altamira, Puerto Plata, Dajabón and Villa Altagracia, and with the same number
of partner organisations. The aim was to try to get these organisations involved in decision
making at the local government (or town hall) level, thus contributing to decentralisation
(from the central government to the town halls) efforts and municipal development
initiatives.
Currently, the PMB exercise has been implemented in the five municipalities for 14 years
and Villa González was the first Dominican municipality to have used it. Furthermore, all
these municipalities include strategies to incorporate a gender perspective in their work
within their Strategic Development Plans.
Traditionally, the municipal town councils operated under rules marked by clientelism,
with poorly qualified and low paid employees who were often hired informally without
any defined role. Furthermore, the execution of impulsive and unplanned ‘public policies’
was a normal operating method for local governments, creating an inefficient
management style.
Today, some municipal authorities have broken with this tradition and seek to manage
their town councils in an appropriate manner by following strategic management norms,
defining action policies that can respond to citizens’ basic needs and planning for the
future. However, such examples of ‘good practice’ are still insufficient nationally, although
there is a certain optimism on behalf of civil society for seeking the reorganisation of the
municipalities in order that they succeed in responding effectively to the problems in their
jurisdictions.
Methodology at the service of participatory democracies
We can begin by recalling that a budget is a planning tool that is not only conceived as a
financial expression of a government plan, but also as a political proposal in which
priorities for promoting local development are condensed.
Taken from an interview with Sonia Vásquez, former Progressio coordinator.
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The PMB does not contradict this definition, but rather it redefines it, conceiving of the
municipal budget more broadly and enriching it with public participation. It can be said
that the PMB is a system for formulating and monitoring the municipal budget through
which the population determines, via debates, consultations and agreements, where
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
resources will be invested, and what are the priorities, works and activities to be
developed by the local government. In other words, the PMB adds the aspect of public
participation and collaboration to the design and planning of municipal spending.
“Public proposals arise from the dissatisfaction generated by the models of formal
democracy in use. They do not constitute a common response, nor in many cases are they
consistent with the tools, but they represent a search. For this reason, neither is there a
single type of participatory budget that fosters participatory democracy, instead there are
various proposals and solutions arising from the different participatory budget
experiences; although, as we have already said, it is true that participatory budgets as a
tool arose from this concern to deepen democracy and then subsequently recognising their
broad uses and applications… The key issue is using participatory budgets in such a way
that people collectively appropriate the municipal budget as a necessary additional
community resource in their daily lives.”2
The concern raised by the Progressio delegate cited above highlights the initial questions
for a project working with the PMB. These questions are: what should a PMB look like and
what should its methodological characteristics be?
The first characteristic of a PMB is that it should arise from ‘inclusive’ processes. On the
one hand this means that it does not restrict citizens’ participation and rather that it
promotes the inclusion of the largest number of participants in the whole decision-making
process, in order to make public policy processes coincide with citizens’ individual and
collective interests. In this process a ‘collective subject’ must be created, i.e. that subjects’
participation becomes collaborative, overcoming prejudices, social divides and personal
interests, etc.
At this stage, the ‘sensitive’ issues that arise are: the relevance of municipal policies to
neighbourhood needs, institutional communication strategies, the development of citizen
networks, the creation of new complicities and initiatives, how to counteract pre-existing
clientelistic networks, the coordination of participatory budgetary decisions with other
municipal decisions, and the evolution of the process and the people participating in it.
2
Interview with Fernando Umaña, Progressio delegate.
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A second methodological aspect is the effective distribution of the power generated by
the PMB. This distribution means that the people participating succeed in expressing their
opinions on which aspects to include in the budget and how the group agrees to define
the priority actions for consideration according to the degree of benefit they have for the
entire community. Some problematic issues at this stage are: creating true autonomy in
the participating individuals, groups or bodies, the birth of new interdependencies and the
roles and functions that the participants (including the town council and government
team) acquire as the process progresses.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
A third relevant aspect is the generation of knowledge during the PMB construction
process. This means that the knowledge brought by the participants (technical and
experiential knowledge) and the knowledge gained during the process itself should be
evaluated in such a way that the participants reflect on, compare and construct their own
criteria for decision making, or as Paulo Freire would say, “reading and writing their own
world”. Some problematic issues within this aspect are: who teaches and about what,
what knowledge is deemed relevant, self-criticism, and who evaluates and how.
This methodology constitutes a challenge to the municipal management styles that we
know, however there are already various experiences of applying it that are generating a
body of original and useful knowledge and, above all, an enthusiasm that cannot be
discredited.
I Social Impact of the Participatory Budget
1.1 Actor participation before the intervention
In recent years, the Dominican Republic has been going through a process of
strengthening its democratic system, including the modernisation of the State and the
continuation of structural reform processes begun in the 90s.
For its part, civil society has been supported in various organisational moments, which has
allowed it to achieve significant progress in identifying the strategies that work to
promote and strengthen more equitable human development.
A particular characteristic of these processes is that they have been marked by State
guidance. Since 1990, this role has been shared by the majority parties, who are
hegemonising power (executive-legislative-judicial-municipal-electoral) by defining the
execution of strategies in public policies. This has born witness to a notable absence of
social actors within this process.
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Civil society in the Dominican Republic has been demanding participation spaces,
demonstrating that it is open to dialogue and capable of collaborating due to its lack of
8
For the reason set out above, the relationship between representatives and represented is
of concern, not only due to the growing population, but also due to the increase in
demands made of the government and its functions. In this scenario, decentralisation
appears to be one option for creating a balance between social demands and public
policies, where decentralisation is interpreted as being a mechanism for rationalising the
decision-making system within the administrative, financial and political fields at national,
regional and local level, and which facilitates and channels civil society’s capacity to fully
assume its civic rights.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
interest in occupying government, its awareness of the biased nature of its demands and
for its openness, which constitutes a great contribution to the construction of Dominican
democracy. Many of these social subjects have taken on, through various institutions,
primarily NGOs, special prominence in promoting human coexistence projects, relatively
efficiently channelling economic and human resources that governments have not been
capable of capturing.
1.2 Pre-existing forms of participation
Before the start of this process, relations between the town council and civil society
organisations and the communities that they represented were limited to superficial
activities aimed at meeting the personal needs of those who requested the help of the
local government. Consequently, there was no sense of relevance, nor did citizens have an
understanding of their duties and rights, just as there were no mechanisms for democratic
government or claiming needs.
“Things were resolved in a random way, on a day to day basis. If the mayor decided to
build some kerbs it was because he had decided to do it and not because this was needed,
or laying a pipe in place x, or a speed bump, but not because there was a consensus, not
because perhaps the community had asked for this. Things were managed in a very
individualistic way…”3
3
Interview with Ramón Toribio, President of the Villa González Strategic Development Council, CONDEVILLA.
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Chart 1 illustrates municipal budget flow since 1994. (Prepared by Gloria Moreno – Progressio
delegate)
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
MUNICIPAL BUDGET FLOW IN 1994
Individual and informal
relationship between the
Community and the Town
Hall.
Works are requested
The Mayor listens
and visits the
communities
Step A
Resolved on request
as a favour
Mayor decides if under
RD$ 100,000
Mayor promises to
resolve the issue
Step B
The Mayor submits
request to the Town
Council if above RD$
100,000
“From the 90s, before the participatory budget, there were some neighbourhood
committees and some clubs, but after the budget began to be implemented urban
neighbourhood and rural community organisations began to flourish in Villa González…”4
In this context the PMB acts as an instrument that fulfils citizen expectations and improves
on traditional government processes. Its implementation was encouraged by the express
will of the Mayor of Villa González5 to practice participatory and transparent government.
To this end he began publishing a newsletter in which the community was kept informed
and accounted to about the running of their respective town councils. This initiative was
supplemented with a radio programme, aired in conjunction with the Navarrete Town
Hall, aimed at advising and informing the inhabitants of the two municipalities about
these issues.6
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4 Interview with Alfonso Díaz, President of the Development Agents Association (AAD).
5 Victor D’Aza.
6 Aceveda, J.; Castillo. J.; De la Torre, M.; Rodríguez, J.; Diagnóstico a la Gestión Municipal de Villa González (Assessment
of Municipal Administration in Villa González). Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santiago, Dominican
Republic, April 1999.
7 Idem.
10
Another favourable condition was that, from the outset, the town hall drew up a weekly
agenda with the days available for meetings with different municipality groups.7
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
In this municipality the majority of political groups, especially those with influence in the
town hall, had a common interest in addressing the population’s demands whilst trying to
ensure that the communities had the opportunity to express their opinion on municipal
investments. This will led to the promotion of citizen participation and the town hall
passing Resolution8 9-99 of 24 June 1999, through which it was decided to “develop
municipal administration from a participatory and integrationist point of view, within the
framework of a democratic and participatory strategy that allows citizens to be
protagonists in the development of our municipality, aware of the community’s problems
and involved in their solution.”
Furthermore, this resolution set out the decision to direct municipal administration
towards the solution of needs that are a priority for the communities and their
organisations. This normative statement made by the authorities in 1999 was an indicator
of the town council members’ consensus will to prioritise public participation in the town
hall.
1.3 Implementation of a participatory process methodology
1.3.1 Stages and time frames
The stages that will now be introduced are the work of the Fundación Solidaridad with the
contribution of Alice Auraduo, Miguel Cid (Progressio delegates) and Juan Castillo
(Executive Director of Fundación Solidaridad); they were turned into a staggered process
model that has been maintained over time and is still in implementation, having
celebrated its fourteenth anniversary.
8
Town Hall of the Municipality of Villa González, Santiago Province, Resolution No. 9-99 of 24 June 1999.
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(See chart No. 2. Villa González Town Hall Budget Cycle).
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Villa González Town Hall Budget Cycle
December
December
Municipal authority/public meeting to
agree on the priorities and needs that
will be tackled with the town hall’s
funds
January
-Municipal budget prepared by the
Mayor
-Budget submitted to the town
council members for checking and
approval and sending to the
Dominical Municipal League
- Major event to introduce the
selected public and municipal budget
priorities and needs
January/December
November
Draft budget prepared by the Mayor
-Execution of budget
April
-Monitoring and control of budget
execution by the delegates and public
-Meetings between citizens and
delegates
-Partial internal audit if needed
-Accounting meeting
- 1 external audit under mandate
September/November
-Public consultations: Area and Group
Meetings held
- Municipal authority/public meetings
August
-Public accounting meeting
-Municipal authority/public meeting
to organise Area and Group Meetings
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Taken from the Fundación Solidaridad Methodological Guide. Prepared by Alice Auraduo, Miguel
Cid (Progressio delegates) and Juan Castillo.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
1.3.2 GUIDE TO THE PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET’S METHODOLOGICAL STEPS
METHODOLOGICAL STEPS
ACTORS
1
Preparation: motivation of key actors, creation of a coordination team and process planning
2
Hold public consultations: define and prioritise citizens’ needs; divide consultations into municipality areas
and groups (women, productive sector, professionals, etc.).
3
Systematisation and socialisation of results: basically consists of a whole series of aspects that includes the
preparation, organisation, compilation and documentation of the information, and drafting the results
summary. Furthermore, the results are put into context with the elected delegates and the team
coordinator.
Presentation and negotiation of priorities with the municipal authorities: working and negotiation session for
both parties and the formalisation of agreements that will form the basis for drawing up the municipal
investment plan for the year.
Formulation and approval of the municipal budget: this falls to the Mayor assisted by the treasurer and the
officials that the Mayor deems necessary. They are advised by technicians from the Liga Municipal
Dominicana (Dominican Municipal League) (LMD). Public priorities as defined in each consultation are
taken into account and the authorities prepare a proposal to be presented to the Town Council Members for
evaluation, analysis and approval.
Dissemination of the approved budget proposal to the public: the coordinating team organises the budget
dissemination stage. For this, all available media for announcing the budget to the population of the
municipality may be used. This can be via a mass public event, publication in local media, posting on the
Town Hall information board, etc.
This step brings budget formulation to a close in a participatory way. Ideally it should be the Mayor who
announces investment provisions in the municipality. This is also a time when the Mayor acknowledges the
delegates elected during the citizen consultations to monitor budget implementation.
Budget implementation and monitoring: these two activities should be conducted in parallel, with the equal
responsibility of the municipal authorities who implement the consensus budget and the elected team of
delegates who have the duty of overseeing and monitoring budget implementation.
Technical facilitation team, coordination team,
delegates, municipal authorities.
Accountability: an activity through which the Mayor and the treasurer present in detail the expenditure and
income that have occurred during the year. First the municipal authorities present the difference between
the planned and actual budget; furthermore, they explain the way in which the budget was administered
and the factors that prevented its planned implementation. The second part comprises a discussion in
which citizens’ concerns and questions regarding the fulfilment of the priorities set during area meetings are
expressed. This is a space for dialogue that aims to clarify and make transparent public resource
management at the level of the issues determined by citizens the previous year.
Mayor, treasurer, technical facilitation team,
coordination team, delegate monitoring team,
general public.
4
5
6
7
8
Technical facilitation team, coordination team
INCLUDING a panel of key municipality actors such
as authorities and municipal officials, community
leaders, women’s groups, professionals, etc.
Technical facilitation team, coordination team,
authorities and municipal officials, community area
leaders, etc.
Technical facilitation team, coordination team,
municipal authorities, delegates.
TOOLKIT
Activity cycle work plan, posters, leaflets,
announcements, list of participants, etc.
Flip charts, sticky tape, ballot box, ballot
papers, municipal map, need prioritisation
card, list of elected delegates, list of
participants, etc.
Consultation meeting reports, need
prioritisation cards, preliminary report with
results, priority work and service costing
sheets, etc.
Final consultation results report
Mayor, treasurer, technical facilitation team,
coordination team, municipal authorities, monitoring
delegates.
Final consultation results report, budget
Technical facilitation team, coordination team,
municipal authorities, Mayor, treasurer, delegates.
Budget, investment plan, final report.
Municipal authorities, delegate monitoring team.
Budget, investment plan, monitoring card
that serves to evaluate the timing of the work
being carried out, and its real cost and
respect for quality norms; summary card of
priorities taken into account in the budget.
Budget, investment plan, summary card of
priorities taken into account in the budget,
delegate monitoring team card.
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Taken from the Fundación Solidaridad Methodological Guide created by Alice Auraduo, Miguel Cid (Progressio delegates) and Juan Castillo
BUILDING PARTICIPATION
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
The experience’s starting point was Fundación Solidaridad’s decision to implement the
Cooperation and Municipal Development project in collaboration with Progressio in 1997
in the municipality of Villa González, which aimed to create a dialogue process between
local government and civil society. This project envisaged an implementation period of
two years.
On the other hand, at the same starting point we should note the election of Víctor D´Aza
as the new Mayor of the Villa González Town Hall in 1998, who wanted his mandate to be
characterised by citizen participation.
Between January and October 1999, within the framework of the “Cooperation and
Municipal Development” project, Fundación Solidaridad and Progressio ran a training
course for local development agents attended by 24 representatives of grass-roots
organisations from the Villa González municipality. The aim was that these people would
have a multiplier effect, passing on the foundations of the course syllabus. These people
were the ones to later manage and oversee the area meetings for the participatory
budget.
The executive decision stage took place on 1 May 1999, when the Mayor convened a
meeting called “Let’s get to know the town hall and work together”, which was the
beginning of what today is the Participatory Municipal Budget. The idea of holding area
meetings came from this event9 and these were held between September and November,
culminating in a suggestion and dialogue event with the town hall to include solutions to
prioritised needs in the budget.
The previous step was ratified by the legal decision of the Mayor and council members
and the town hall issuing resolution10 9-99 of 24 June 1999, through which it was decided
to “develop municipal administration from a participatory and integrative perspective”,
which was held up as an example of their willingness to promote public participation. This
resolution also set out the decision to “channel municipal administration towards the
solution of those needs that are priorities for the communities and their organisations.”
The meetings held were: Palmar district meeting, El Limón and Macorís del Limón district meeting, Centre, Palmarejo and
Las Lavas district meeting, Quinigua district/Banegas district meeting and Villa del Yaque community, Quinigua district
meeting.
10
Resolution of the Villa González Town Hall, No. 9-99 of 24 June 1999.
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The local level stage was realised through the area meetings held in different parts of the
municipality. Through the holding of five such meetings, the priority needs of the
residents in these areas were defined both at the level of their community in particular
and the municipality in general. This stage of the process was implemented between 25
July and 17 October 1999, with organisational support from Fundación Solidaridad and the
participants of the Local Development Agents course.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
At the end of 1999, Fundación Solidaridad, together with Progressio and the Villa González
Town Hall, convened the seminar “Local Governance and Participation: challenges for the
future”, with the aim of disseminating, informing and critically assessing the project’s
experiences and results.
In December 1999, the Villa González municipal town hall decided to appoint Fundación
Solidaridad as technical advisor to the municipality in order that it could provide
methodological supervision to the participative processes in progress.
The consolidation of the Participatory Municipal Budget happened in June 2002, with the
town council members’ decision to approve the Regulations for Public Participation in
Municipal Administration, which established different mechanisms for community
participation aimed at “…creating formal and institutional spaces for communities and
residents to set out and channel their requests to the local authorities.”11
1.4 Actor roles and objectives
There are basically three actors directly involved in and responsible for the Participatory
Municipal Budget experience in the municipalities studied: the municipal town hall, the
community organisations (FS, FUDEVA, Centro Puente and Consejo de Desarrollo) and the
NGO or partner organisation – Progressio.
The municipal town hall fulfils an administrative and local government management
function, and demonstrates its interest and will by supporting the implementation of the
project. As a municipal authority, it acts to both receive proposals and implement them.
Both the body of council members and the Mayor maintain their role as representatives of
a political party.
The community organisation representatives actively participate in the area meetings to
diagnose and prioritise community needs. They are representatives of grass-roots
organisations and as such they are a bridge between project promoters, the municipal
authorities and the communities. Through their participation in the process they are
assigned the role of knowledge multipliers.
Regulations for Public Participation in Municipal Administration. Villa González Municipality, Altamira, Puerto Plata,
Dominican Republic, June 2002.
12
Moreno, G.: Sistematización de una experiencia: Villa González, un proceso, varios actores, una historia para contar…
(Systematisation of an experience: Villa González, one process, several actors, one story to tell…) Final report on results,
Santiago de los Caballeros, November 2000.
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15
The objectives expressed by these actors through their involvement in the process are the
following:12
 Helping our community
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET



Better support for the groups with which I work and to improve personal
understanding of the social reality
To learn and share, and to raise awareness among our communities and
neighbours
The need for men and women to participate in guiding and organising our town, in
order to be in a better position to negotiate our demands with the authorities.
The NGO or partner institution fulfils a role of capacity and resource manager, project
promoter, town hall interlocutor and public meeting coordinator, and also plays an
important role in public education.
The commitment to the PMB process is aimed at the consolidation of local democracy,
together with the implementation of a process of raising awareness within municipal
government as regards public participation in, and public responsibility for, its
management, which form this initiative’s focal points. The objectives sought by the
institutions were as follows:

Promoting community participation, expressed in:
a) the setting up of a municipal council composed of town hall and community
representatives;
b) the holding of open town meetings twice a year.
 Raising municipal government awareness as regards recognition of the public:
participatory elaboration of a local development agenda.
 Encouraging public responsibility as regards the public presentation of and
accounting for the use of municipal resources.
However, during planning for implementation, changes were made so that the results
could be stated as follows:



Compilation of a list of organisations and groups that operate in the municipalities.
A significant number of people trained as Local Development Agents.
Internally strengthened community organisations that are equipped for
negotiation and coordination.
Improvements to the town hall’s administrative capacity.
Institutionalisation of participation and coordination mechanisms to solve
community issues.
Participatory drawing up of a local development agenda.
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1.5 Resources and instruments
16



BUILDING PARTICIPATION
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
As part of the initiatives undertaken, the town halls have formalised a working agreement
together with the local NGOs for support in devising and implementing the process that
begins each year. The main purpose of this is to promote a process of public participation
aimed at cooperation between the authorities and civil society, to strengthen local
democracy, institutions and the harmonised management capacity of development agents
in order to assist governability in the municipality. This project took place over two years
and was funded by the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) and the International Cooperation
for Development (CID), now the international cooperation agency PROGRESSIO.
Another aspect related to the implementation of the process is the technical capacity of
Progressio’s team. Staff consisting of two promoters, a coordinator and a delegate were
made available for the project’s implementation.
II Participatory Municipal Budget Achievements and Progress
2.1 The new rules
The new vision of participation within a government structure, where it is incorporated as
a means of supporting the operating structure, implies a reassessment of the form of
participation and its implications. This needs to be used, in order to make its objective
viable and to be able to define it in a way that is coherent with the new focus.
This is how the various social actors assess governance as a result of having ensured their
participation.
This is a situation that is explained in the various Rules and Resolutions that promote and
guarantee participation, such as:

Resolution No. 9-99 on Social Participation within the Town Hall of the
Municipality of Villa González, passed on 24 June 1999.
Page
17
In this it is stated: "to develop municipal administration from a participatory
and integrationist point of view, within the framework of a democratic and
participatory strategy that allows citizens to be protagonists in the
development of our municipality, aware of the community’s problems and
involved in their solution.”
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
This resolution also sets out the decision to “channel municipal administration
towards the solution of those needs that are priorities for the communities
and their organisations”.13

Regulations on Social Participation in Municipal Administration of the Villa
González Town Hall, approved by the Town Council Members of the Villa
González Municipality Town Hall on 7 June 2002.14
“The aim of these regulations is to set out the foundations for guaranteeing
citizens of the Villa González municipality access to decision making on issues
of interest to the public life of the municipality, through the exercise of
democratic practice in the following mechanisms: Open Town Hall Meetings,
Area Meetings, Participatory Budget, Public Consultations, Register of
Organisations, Budget Monitoring and Supervision Committee and the
Municipal Development Council.”15

Regulations for monitoring and supervision of priority works in the
Participatory Municipal Budget. Dated 25 July 2007, this technical instrument
was approved by majority vote.
“These regulations serve to guide and facilitate the work of the PMB Municipal
Monitoring Committee and the Area and Group Monitoring Committees that
were formed during the implementation of the Participatory Municipal Budget
process.”16

Participatory Municipal Budget Coordination Committee Regulations
“This is a mechanism comprised of an Alliance between the Villa González
Town Hall, the Development Agents Association, the Community Budget
Monitoring Team and Fundación Solidaridad, as a technical advisor to the
participatory municipal administration process.
Town Hall of the Municipality of Villa González, Santiago Province, Resolution No. 9-99 of 24 June 1999.
Town Hall of the Municipality of Villa González. Regulations on Participation in Municipal Administration. Villa González,
Dominican Republic, 2002.
15
Idem.
16
Regulations for monitoring and supervision of priority works in the Participatory Municipal Budget. Villa González,
Dominican Republic, 2007.
14
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13
18
“It focuses its actions on strengthening public participation in budget
compilation and the monitoring of its implementation, guarantees
transparency of tenders and reports to the population on Town Hall
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
expenditure and income, and furthermore it should encourage reflection on
strategic planning of municipal development.”
Likewise, other normative provisions referring to participatory instances that have
stemmed from the participatory budget have been enacted. These are:

The Municipal Development Strategic Plan for Villa González 2005-2010.
Approved by the Town Council Members of the Villa González Town Hall on 16
February 2005 (see Annex No. 21).

The Municipal Policy for Gender Equality in Villa González. Approved by the
Town Council Members of the Villa González Town Hall on 12 April 2005.

The Villa González Municipal Policy for Youth. Approved in the meeting hall of
the honourable Town Hall on 26 January 2008.
2.2 Legal mechanisms introduced on the basis of the Participatory
Municipal Budget experience
Based on the experience developed by the Villa González municipality, the Participatory
Municipal Budget was instituted by Law 170-07. This Law was subsequently incorporated
in full into Law 176-07 of the Distrito Nacional and the Municipalities. It encompasses all
the points contained in the Participatory Municipal Budget law and expands on it.
One of the Law’s deficiencies is the lack of regulation of its effective application. On the
initiative of Progressio’s partner organisations and delegates, the following mechanisms
have been created:
Page
At the end of the consultation the following mechanisms are formed:
19
Formation of a Technical Team: this is responsible for the study, design and allocation of
funding for the investments proposed and agreed in the Participatory Municipal Budget.
This team is formed of the Municipal Office for Planning and Programming, which
coordinates it, and staff members of the Treasury, Community Participation and Municipal
Works Departments, plus any others that the Mayor considers advisable, including a
minimum of three (3) civil society organisation representatives.
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Community Assemblies: The local men and women of a community or sub-area gather in
these assemblies to identify priority needs and the investment projects that satisfy these
needs. In these assemblies, delegates are chosen to attend the Area Assemblies in a
proportion of one for each 20 participants. A substitute is chosen for each incumbent
delegate. The number of male and female delegates should be balanced.
Area Assemblies: These are the meetings of the delegates elected by the Community
Assemblies of a Participatory Municipal Budget Area to decide on the projects and works
that the area will present to the Municipal Assembly and to elect the members of the
Group or Area Monitoring and Control Committee.
Participatory Municipal Budget Municipal Assembly: According to the law that governs
Dominican municipalities, this Assembly, which is also called an Open Town Meeting, is
the event that approves the Municipal Investment Plan containing the highest priority
needs identified, as well as the projects and works agreed, that the town hall must
execute the following year. It elects the Municipal Monitoring and Control Committee.
The timing of these mechanisms must be controlled. Below is how it is suggested that the
Participatory Municipal Budget is developed in three (3) stages:
 Preparation, which takes place between January and May
 Public consultation, which takes place between June and September
 Monitoring, implementation and transparency of the municipal investment plan,
which takes place between October of the current year and December of the
following year.
The consultation and approval mechanisms for the municipal investment plans entail the
application of a monitoring policy for which the following instruments are proposed:
a) Municipal Monitoring and Control Committee: this is comprised of the people
chosen during the Municipal Assembly and its members must be ratified by resolution of
the Municipal Council. It is suggested that gender equality be ensured in its composition.
Page
c) Community Maintenance Committee: The Public Auditing Committee becomes
the Maintenance Committee upon completion of the construction work that was being
monitored, and its purpose is to contribute to the maintenance of this work, together with
the Town Hall.
20
b) Works Public Auditing Committee: this should be comprised of the people
chosen by the Community Assembly and tasked with monitoring a specific work from
those included in the municipal investment plan, which is to be built in their locality or
neighbourhood by the Town Hall.
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Law 176-07 of the Distrito Nacional and the Municipalities is, without any doubt,
together with Law 200-04 on Access to Public Information, one of the greatest milestones
in the democratic history of the Dominican Republic.
The importance of both legislative instruments stems from putting citizens at the centre of
the running of the State, both in support of and as recipients of this.
The Municipal Law establishes as one of its principles public participation in public
administration (paragraph J of Article 6). In accordance with this principle it introduces
various bodies and channels for social participation.
Three bodies are established by law: the Municipal Economic and Social Council, the
Municipal Monitoring Committees and the Community Councils (Article 231).
The participation channels created by the law are: the right to petition, the municipal
referendum, the municipal plebiscite, the open town meeting and the participatory
municipal budget (Article 230).
Furthermore, the law establishes the public policy initiative (Article 115).
In order to facilitate understanding of the public associational trend the law orders the
creation of the Municipal Register of Non-profit Organisations (Article 228) and in order
to promote and support the activities of these organisations it establishes the Non-profit
Association Grant Fund (Article 227).
As the law itself establishes, the creation of supplementary rules that should be approved
by the Municipal Council is necessary for this wide range of bodies, participation channels,
neighbourhood association and consensus management support mechanisms.
17
Interview with Edgar Noguera (Progressio delegate).
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21
In the case of the Puerto Plata municipality for example, Progressio, in response to these
supplementary regulation duties set out by Law 176-07, has implemented working
meetings between civil society organisation representatives and local government
authorities in order to come to a consensus on Rules for Public Participation in Municipal
Administration that are suitable for the situation in the Puerto Plata municipality. As E.
Noguera explains: “… there is much fertile ground in Puerto Plata. The development of
social capital in this municipality is growing each day and is seen in the fact that people,
whether they are ordinary men and women or whether they are exercising a municipal
public function, are more firm in their conviction and are acting accordingly, opening and
consolidating permanent dialogue spaces between the population and the local
government authorities.”17
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
2.3 The new participatory experience
Progressio was the first international cooperation organisation to support Participatory
Municipal Budget processes in the Dominican Republic, beginning in the Villa González
municipality in 1999, where other mechanisms for public participation in municipal
management were implemented, either through the Municipal Development Strategic
Plan or through a gender-focused Municipal policy.
To date, Progressio has worked in 38 municipalities in the country through 12 delegates
specialising in territorial planning, local development and public participation. Work has
proceeded from a double focus: technical cooperation in the municipalities supporting
both civil society organisations and local governments, and placing special emphasis on
strengthening capacities. This has been combined with an undertaking of active
participation in spaces of impact at the national level on the subject; in particular, a
reform of the Dominican legal framework has been advocated in order to make this better
coincide with the needs of the people (municipal law, law promoting non-profit
organisations, Constitution, etc.). Progressio also supports the Dominican Federation of
Municipalities (FEDOMU). Likewise, Progressio has set itself up as a reference organisation
on this subject.
2.4 Forms of interaction
What this public participation process shows is that, at the first stage, a rapprochement
between the promoting NGO, community organisations and the town hall is achieved.
Page
22
At the second stage, a tighter and more committed relationship exists between leaders
and their respective grass-roots organisations. Whilst at the third stage, dialogue between
the community organisations and the town hall emerges in the search for participatory
budget planning (see chart No. 3: Diagram of relations between actors).
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Leaders
Managers
Grass-roots
organisations
NGOs, CSO
Progressio
Organised
Community
Promotion & dissemination
Training
Endorse and support
Technical Team,
Leaders
Organised
Community
Multipliers
Implement the
municipal budget
Manage
Resources
Meeting hall
Mayor
Public Administration
(Town Hall)
Town Hall
Advisor
NGO, Partner Institution
Progressio Delegate
It should be emphasised that in the case of Villa González, the people known for their
leadership skills acted as links between the NGO and the communities or grass-roots
organisations; the NGO, as well as being a promoter, performed a role as a link between
the organisations, leaders and the town hall. “In this way the process generated a linking
thread between the organised sectors of civil society and the municipal authority.”18
Moreno, G.: Sistematización de una experiencia: Villa González, un proceso, varios actores, una historia para contar…
(Systematisation of an experience: Villa González, one process, several actors, one story to tell….) Final report on results,
Santiago de los Caballeros, November 2000. Pg. 42
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18
23
It should be clarified that political parties and international cooperation organisations do
not participate directly in the process. The international cooperation organisation does
not appear in the diagram of direct actors in the process as its relationship is tangential,
given that, while it is the funder of the process, its relationship is directly with the
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
managing institution. A similar situation is true of the political parties, which act in direct
relation with the town hall municipal authorities.
The directly participating actors and their roles in designing the participatory budget
process, according to that set out by Gloria Stella Moreno (Progressio delegate in
Systematisation of an Experience), are as follows:
 Promoting Organisation: manages the resources for funding the project, promotes
the project and is the town hall interlocutor; assumes the coordination of the area
meetings as spaces for participation in municipal administration; and establishes
methodology for training purposes.
 Municipal Authorities: give support to the project; act as receiver of proposals and
coordinate and seek support of municipal administration.
 Development Agents: participate actively in the area meetings. They are
representatives of grass-roots organisations and have been a bridge between
project promoters, the municipal authorities and the communities; furthermore,
they assume the role of multipliers of the knowledge gained in training sessions.
The implementation of the Villa González project (that we are using as a model) was
approached in three stages. In the first of these the Fundación promoters disseminated
information in twenty community organisations, primarily Neighbourhood Committees;
they also held workshops that served to motivate and raise awareness of the issue among
the leaders of the participating organisations.
A second period, or stage, was the implementation of the Community Development
Agents course. The programme for this course sought to establish a commitment from the
attendees to train as development agents, which implied that they would pass on their
experience to their organisations under the theory-practice principle.
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The third stage was carried out at the initiative of the town hall, and it joined Fundación
Solidaridad as advisor for the coordination of the area meetings with the communities. In
these meetings, the needs of each community were discussed – as self-diagnosis – and
priorities were identified in order to be proposed to the town hall and to find it solutions
with the resources available in the budget. On 1 May 1999, the first “Let’s get to know the
town hall and work together” meeting took place, which was the beginning of what today
24
The activities were alternate courses/workshops and follow-up days. The former were 18
hours over a weekend and the follow-up days lasted six hours. This methodology sought
to combine the ability to assimilate knowledge and to put it into practice within the
organisations (theory/practice). The purpose of the follow-up days was to evaluate
whether the activity was carried out within the organisations, if there had been any
difficulties and what results were obtained.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
is the Participatory Municipal Budget. From this came the idea to hold meetings by area.19
These were held between September and November, culminating in a suggestion and
dialogue event within the town hall to include solutions to the needs prioritised in the
budget.
2.5 Changes originating from the Participatory Municipal Budget
The experience has triggered a series of processes that have facilitated the inclusion of the
organised public in certain aspects of municipal administration, as the following testimony
demonstrates:
“The Participatory Municipal Budget has been an instrument that has helped the
implementation of very strategic collateral actions like the establishment of accountability
mechanisms and the introduction of work tender policies… The Participatory Municipal
Budget is also an opportunity to get works and services that otherwise it would not have
been possible to obtain. Frequently, the town hall does not have the economic capacity to
solve many of the community’s needs. For example, the town hall had to seek credit and
funding for the construction of a road in Banegas. The project had a cost of six million
pesos and the Town Hall’s budget was only one million. The public’s demand was more
than sufficient to be able to get this work done. Dozens of other community works have
also been undertaken.”
“It is important to conclude by saying that this whole process serves to strengthen
governance. If we men and women citizens manage to realise our needs, governance
becomes balanced and local democracy is strengthened, as we have space for dialogue. All
this reduces the protest method that was used previously; we are moving towards
dialogue and cooperation and are becoming objects of change, and ceasing to be simple
observers to become protagonists in our own history.”20
The PMB subscribes to the hypothesis that the sustainability of changes at the municipal
government level should be seated, among others, in personal transformations in those
who assume public office and in the public involved in participatory and electoral
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The meetings held were: Palmar district meeting, El Limón and Macorís del Limón district meeting, Centre, Palmarejo and
Las Lavas district meeting, Quinigua district/Banegas district meeting and Villa del Yaque community, Quinigua district
meeting.
20
Interview with Carmen Luz (Villa González PMB municipal leader).
25
19
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
democracy. These transformations are more likely to occur when they coincide with the
progress of municipal institutional development and local development, as the process of
public participation and training produce reflective, critical and open human beings who
are ready for change and to reduce poverty.
In these processes, civic education and the innovative practices of organisations and
institutions, in relation to local development and the management of public institutions
and projects, are accumulated.
The experience demonstrates how men and women who have experienced this process of
awareness-raising, training and consultancy in a context of permanent action and
reflection on the democratisation of social relations, have enriched the municipal
administration procedures established by the State: One of the participants summarises
the impact of working with the PMB at a personal, institutional and community level well:
“The members of the committees for the implementation of the PMB consultation
assemblies emerged from a municipal meeting of 120 people in the area development
committees (ADC) proposed by the organisations and communities. People started to see
the actions that were needed in the municipality and they also attended to obtain
information in open sessions that we sometimes held with TV coverage. Sometimes these
actions ended conflicts. The Municipal Budget committee was strengthened by the
training, as previously the corporation’s sessions were closed to the public. The
Participatory Municipal Budget was compiled with the participation of the trainers, the
municipal commissioner, the transparency committee, the national police, the Board of
Directors of the market, the Chamber of Commerce, the Community Members Committee,
the town council members, the secretariat and the auditor. This helped me to not make
mistakes. The current Mayor participated in approving the Municipal Budget and also the
council members. There are records of all this.”21
21
Jacobo Reyes, interview.
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26
2.5.1 Impact on the life of the leaders participating in the Participatory
Municipal Budget
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
“When we are taking part in workshops we express many things to improve the
functioning of municipal government, but very few of them are implemented. Municipal
transparency will cause more conflicts, as there are many people in office in the
municipality that are authoritarian. Currently, it is not very strong. But, now the people
know and understand how the municipality is run because they have been taken into
consideration. Before, people judged without knowing where taxes went or how things
were run. There is a little awareness to complain and also conscience to pay the taxes. The
participatory municipal budget makes the people believe in the authorities.” Interview
with a delegate of the PMB Monitoring Committee in the Villa Altagracia municipality
Understanding the responsibility of representation is fundamental for understanding the
importance of the participatory municipal budget; knowing how much the local society
organisations contribute and how they reduce institutional costs.
In the five municipalities where the experiments took place, each organisation has its own
history marked by the promises of political party candidates on occupying public offices in
the municipality. Most of the organisation members come from poor families with a low
level of education and their experience is confined to community infrastructure works
influenced by some churches, cooperatives, unions and professional associations. Their
relations with the municipal authorities and political parties were characterised by
insecurity, mistrust and authoritarianism due to a lack of knowledge of the laws and their
limits, a lack of resources to negotiate and cooperate and the adoption of a conformist,
opposition or defeatist attitude towards the positions of public officials. On the other
hand, their relations with the communities and the organisation that they represent are of
belonging and of identification with the municipality, neighbourhood or rural
communities. They hope for better personal, community and local development
opportunities in general, and tend to develop relations characterised by cooperation,
negotiation and a search for solutions to community organisations’ problems and projects
that affirm them as citizens.
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They tend to develop horizontal relations between themselves and they perceive these as
democratic. They adopt critical and reflective stances when there are changes among the
authorities and are concerned about the continuity of processes that are favourable to the
development of the communities that they represent, as the determination of a
community leader from the Altamira community summarises well:
27
As regards the relations between them and the municipal authorities, these are
characterised by solidarity and social responsibility provided that the social contract or
public promises are kept.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
“We left our homes and jobs to bring about the construction of the road in our community
and they are telling us that it is not in the Investment Plan. At the open town meeting they
approved it and budgeted for it. We still continue to manage it despite it having been
included in the Participatory Municipal Budget.”
2.5.2 A critical look at the relationships between municipal authorities and
community leaders
The personal history of men and women participating in municipal administration has
been decisive as regards conceptions, attitudes and values of the Participatory Municipal
Budget and the investment plan, among others. The challenge of participating with social
responsibility has been met by the local organisations and institutions and by the town
council during the period.
The participants agreed on the importance of public participation in municipal matters
with the aim of promoting change at the level of social relations, improving tax collection
and municipal government interventions, and gaining experience of the Participatory
Municipal Budget.
However, there was not consensus among all the municipal town hall staff and a worrying
silence from the political society on the matter. These aspects were a constant during the
process and had implications for its technical sustainability and for the recognition of the
rights of the local population. Likewise, at election time, the change in authority interrupts
the process and is destabilising, due to the change in the actors representing the
municipality. A community leader from Altamira points out this problem:
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The people who participate in the participatory municipal budget process have a sense of
responsibility towards the social order and citizens’ rights, of the scope of municipal
autonomy, of managing institutional transparency and of auditing public resource
investments.
28
“When there are municipal elections and a change in municipal authority they all appoint
as employees or technicians those that the governing party names, or friends of the
Mayor. There are people who have been appointed and when you look at the tax payment
register, their moral values leave a lot to be desired.” (Interview with a Community Leader
from the Altamira municipality)
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
The process experienced in the Dominican Republic has consequences for the behaviour,
attitudes, roles and hierarchies of municipal government. In the participatory
methodologies applied, the use of the public voice aroused the need to review the ethical
and moral qualities of the municipal authorities, the organisations and their leaders. This
aspect sets the direction for future training themes, not as a transfer of syllabus through a
training programme, but as a norm with measurable indicators.
Throughout their intervention in the Participatory Municipal Budget process, the
delegates have sought that the participants critique and make proposals as regards the
Participatory Municipal Budget, taking into account the municipal laws, public
participation and transparency in order that they fall within the framework of the law in
force.
The elements that facilitated this critical view of building revamped social and political
relations between the local population and the municipal authorities were the need for
the recognition and acceptance of community capital as a pillar in strengthening municipal
autonomy and reducing poverty in the municipal area.
Likewise, the experiences of organised citizens and the municipal authorities’ explicit
willingness in the project have meant that a local management network has been created.
This serves to support the new authorities in giving coherent and objective responses to
municipal institutional development and to the implementation of local strategies to
improve local people’s quality of life.
2.5.3 Understandings, attitudes and positions towards traditional roles
among municipal servants
22
Alfonso Díaz, PMB manager in Villa González.
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29
“Income and expenditure are presented at consultative meetings with the population.
Then, the investment plan is introduced, which contains the communities’ needs. These are
selected, prioritised and expressed in the investment plan and this is how the budget for
the year is prepared. This has an impact, as the municipal authorities listen to the
communities’ and neighbourhoods’ projects. The people know what the taxes and public
resources are being used for. Before, people judged without knowing their rights and
duties. It is a positive experience, as the people know what the town hall is going to do
during the year. The fear is that it won’t continue.”22
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
As can be deduced from the testimony above, the understandings, attitudes and positions
of the representatives of local society organisations and the municipal transparency
committee are now in favour of a greater presence and participation in the public and
political sphere. However, a problem faced by local organisations and Town Hall
technicians is that they do not have the necessary technical knowledge or the resources to
negotiate the various public issues (economic, social and cultural) without the support of
the parties. Another problem that still exists is populism and dependency on outside
assistance, in which many local organisation leaders and officials locate themselves. This
means that the community is not viewed as an initiator of development, and that they
limit problem analysis to ideological confrontations between political parties.
2.5.4 Changes to the civil society organisation system
The organisation system has seen important changes through legislative mechanisms that
should be reviewed. In 2005, law 122-05 on the Regulation and Promotion of Non-Profit
Organisations, previously law 520, was passed. This law states that non-profit institutions
are of great importance for the strengthening and development of a plural, democratic
and participatory civil society, as they work on fulfilling aims that are in the public interest
or that benefit the whole of society.23 In practical terms this law promotes the processes
of democratisation in which individuals can obtain civil, political and social rights through
demands and negotiation, which together establish a feeling of belonging to the national
community and encourage participation in community life.
Non-profit associations translate public initiatives stemming from public will to participate
in building a society that promotes processes of democratising change in political culture
and practice, making it possible to achieve greater social control over public
representatives’ actions.
23
24
Villa González Strategic Plan 2005-2010.
Replacing Organic Municipal Law No. 3455 of 21 December 1952.
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Law 176-07 has deemed the municipalities and Distrito Nacional to be the basic bodies of
the territory in which the community performs all its activities and is represented by its
town halls, which, being the local governments that they are, should guarantee and
promote social and economic wellbeing and the efficient provision of services to all local
people. For the implementation of their activities, the town halls, as public administration
30
A new municipal regulatory framework was established through Law 176-07 of July 2007
of the Distrito Nacional and the Municipalities, which created new parameters for
municipal administration. Among the most prominent aspects is the creation of a chapter
on information and public participation, in which the regulations for the implementation
of the Participatory Budget can be found.24
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
bodies that form a part of the State, need to have a regulatory framework that clearly and
coherently defines the political, administrative and institutional grounds in order to
guarantee the democratic participation of their inhabitants in local government decisionmaking. Due to the time that has elapsed since they were passed, Laws Nos. 3,455 and
3,456 on Municipal and Distrito Nacional Organisation, of 21 December 1952, were not
adapted to the organisational and operational needs of the municipalities, making their
thorough revision necessary. It is pointed out that the municipal legal regime should
respond to the new trends of reforms, institutional modernisation and decentralisation,
taking into account the fact that the town halls are the institutions that are closest to the
public and, therefore, guarantee the services that are inherent to their position.25
As regards civil society organisations, in the Villa González municipality, in 2004 (the town
hall’s most recent register update)26 105 community organisations were registered.
However, a middle level of organisational institutions also exists that brings together
other groups, as is the case with the Strategic Alliance of Organisations for the
Development of Villa González, which unites the Development Agents Association, the
Municipal Association of Women of Villa González, the Villa González Public Participation
Committee, the Villa González Association of United Youth, the Strategic Development
Council, Fundación Solidaridad and the Municipal Town Hall of Villa González.
In this municipality, the coordination capacity between the civil society organisations
associated with the Participatory Budget has also been fostered by creating the Municipal
Budget Coordination Committee. This mechanism has as its foundation the Community
Monitoring Teams agreed by the Area Meetings. Furthermore, the creation of the
Community Action Department should be highlighted. This is an initiative that was
implemented by Mr D’Aza’s administration, to deal with the municipality’s different
community organisations.
2.5.5 A new local government agenda
25
It is important to highlight that the participatory municipal budget was approved by Law No. 170-07, but as the text of this
has been fully included in Law 176-07 its promulgation has been replaced by this new municipal law.
26
Law 176-07 of the Distrito Nacional and the Municipalities.
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31
This process has generated relevant changes in local administration and, as long as it is
carried out in a participatory manner, people feel included and interested in participating.
This has weakened the clientelistic and paternalistic culture of traditional politics and has
strengthened a process of empowerment and self-management of local development
through participation.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Likewise, the processes are subject to constant organising, planning and evaluation.27 In
parallel to the development of civil society organisations’ capacity to make proposals and
negotiate, the town hall’s response level has risen, something which is seen in the number
of proposals that have become resolutions or have received a favourable response from
the authorities.
The municipal town hall has issued various Municipal Resolutions establishing
participatory government as an official policy and approving regulations to guide this.28
The appointment by the then Mayor, Víctor D’Aza, of Mr Rafael Clase as the person in
charge of the Community Action area, an office that did not previously exist, is a decision
worthy of note. It expresses in a concrete manner the will to link the work of the town hall
with the communities. This is related to other actions aimed at coordinating the town hall
and civil society for which specific initiatives have been launched, such as the organisation
of the patron saint’s day celebrations, the task of which used to fall to the Catholic church,
but is now managed by a broad committee comprised of all sectors of the municipality
and headed by the town hall.
Likewise it is important to point out that the town hall periodically accounts to the
communities.
In a presentation given by the Mayor of Villa González, César Álvarez, he refers to how the
experience has been a tool for solving public problems in his municipality: “We believe
that the deeper and broader the public participation in local government is, levels of
governability rise by the same amount and the risk of there being protests at any given
time is practically zero.”
Peguero, R.: Villa González: Sistematización de una experiencia (Systematisation of an experience). Participatory
Municipal Budget, Dominican Republic, January 2004.
28
Castillo, J, Rodríguez, J,: Rol del Ayuntamiento en la promoción en instauración de mecanismos formales de participación
ciudadana dentro de la gestión municipal (The role of the Town Hall in the promotion and establishment of formal
mechanisms for citizen participation in municipal management). Masters dissertation to obtain the degree of Master in Urban
Planning and Municipal Management. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. Santiago, June 2000.
BUILDING PARTICIPATION
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27
32
In the Dominican Republic, the legal framework that sets the income received by town
halls is Law 166-03, which passes on eight per cent of incoming funds received by the
State in taxes and that are set out in the Income and Public Spending of the Nation Budget
Law. From 2005, “ten per cent (10%) shall be allocated, including additional income and
surcharges”. In this sense, town halls’ financial capacities, whilst limited, are tending to
rise, which without doubt constitutes an incentive to activate local government work at
the service of the communities.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
2.5.6 A gender-focused Participatory Budget
“An important element contributed by Progressio is in attempting to encourage a gender
focus in town halls and in the municipalities. We took Villa González as a model for an
initial study that we conducted to see where the municipality’s money was going, and
what resources were reaching women and projects with a gender focus. This analysis into
the attention that women were receiving in hospitals and schools, and their participation
in municipal social works, meant that Villa González became the first municipality with a
gender policy and a municipal office for women.”
“The PMB experience developed by Progressio should note the efforts made to ensure that
Law 176-07 had a gender focus. One could ask: what great gender focus does this law
have? Well, what it has is what it was possible to achieve, as all this is a negotiation with
the political and social forces that were influential in Parliament; and often this is not so
easy to achieve.”29
Budgets with a gender focus constitute one of the ways in which governments can fulfil
their gender promises effectively. Such a focus often highlights the gender bias of the
majority of policies.
This bias implies a social cost that manifests itself as: 1) inequality between men and
women; 2) poor policy results; 3) lower development of people’s capacities; 4) worse
welfare for men, as well as women.
The difference in social and economic position between men and women means that
many policies and budgets that are considered to be gender neutral affect men and
women differently. For this reason it is important to give budgets a focus that takes
women into account, so that they are not ‘gender indifferent’.
This focus does not mean assigning resources to programmes that are specifically aimed
at women, which frequently represent no more than a tiny fraction of public budgets.
What is more, the majority of public spending is not specifically targeted at men or
women. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the impact of gender on public spending is
neutral, and nor are tax collection methods.
29
30
Interview with Sonia Vázquez (former Progressio coordinator).
Interview with Juan Castillo (Executive Director of Fundación Solidaridad).
BUILDING PARTICIPATION
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33
“A gender-focused budget is an analysis tool in which the government budget is broken
down and the effect of income and expenditure policies is analysed, especially for women
with few resources.”30
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
The experience shows how the methodology used by the PMB has kept gender-sensitive
budgets in mind, challenging both the economic policies in vogue and the ideological
frameworks from which they derive: it is a pragmatic opportunity to bring gender
perspectives to the forefront, throughout all stages of programmes and projects or
municipal strategies (budget conceptualisation, design, implementation and evaluation),
questioning whether the interests, needs and priorities of men and women, and boys and
girls are really included in the budgets.
III The Participatory Municipal Budget: Limitations and
Challenges
3.1 A threat to municipal power?
Since the enactment of Law 17-97 and the increase in the parties admitted to the town
halls by the central government via the Dominican Municipal League (LMD), municipal
power and the Dominican town halls’ discretion has risen significantly. This could be
threatened by the PMB, given that its development constitutes an instance of balance and
counterbalance to traditional municipal power.
In the Dominican Republic, the executive functions exercised by the mayor and the power
of the town council members, due to their legislative and regulatory functions, are often
exercised vertically and with little sense of involving the public in this process. In many
cases the decisions and resolutions emanating from the town council members do not
recognise the opening up of spaces for social participation and of public access to town
hall investment planning.
Page
34
The resolutions issued by the town council members of the districts where the project was
implemented sought to strengthen social participation in municipal administration. They
did this by granting greater stability to consultation spaces, which serve in order for both
the Mayor and the Council to broaden the media available to them to listen to people’s
opinions and to take decisions that are closer to the public’s aspirations. In the case of the
districts with which the project worked, this provided the possibility of giving power to the
public and involving them in managing the municipal budget. Did this greater public
participation undermine municipal power? Do the Mayor and the officials perceive the
PMB as a threat to their work? We obtained the following impressions from a survey:
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
How key PMB actors perceive the PMB
GROUPS ANALYSED
o
o
o
o
SIGNIFICANT
THREAT
MODERATE
THREAT
LOW THREAT
VERY LOW
THREAT
Mayor, Council Members and
Municipal Officials
Participatory Municipal Budget
Monitoring Committee
Neighbourhood Committees,
Community Organisations,
Development Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians who support
the Participatory Municipal
Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
From this table it can be seen that the officials do not perceive the PMB as a threat to the
town hall’s municipal power. When the PMB is applied, it becomes another municipal
management tool that benefits the town hall by harmonising decisions. However, the
neighbourhood committees and the NGOs perceive the PMB as a certain threat to
municipal power, given that it is a powerful instrument to control and channel the work of
the town hall.
3.1.1 Priority level of the Participatory Municipal Budget for the town hall
Another of the important aspects for evaluating the PMB experience is its priority level for
the municipal town halls. It should be understood that when a programme or project is of
high priority for an administration, this is because the political leaders and local managers
accept it as part of municipal public policy.
Page
In all the districts where the PMB proposal has been worked on, it has become a public
policy. The factors contributing to this situation are:
35
This is what has been happening in the districts where the proposal is supported; in those
in which a public policy of local development has been established, instituted and
formalised by the successive municipal administrations. In some cases, such as Villa
González, new administrative practices are being established in local government, based
on public-private municipal coordination, through the institutionalisation of these
relationships and the reinforcement of innovative practices.
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET

The demand for works dealt with within the PMB in the town hall is very frequent
and high.

The works sought and requested in the PMB are very significant as they have an
impact on community health.

The majority of the works sought are easy to execute and the Town Hall can either
implement them alone, or by joining with a state body for their implementation.

There are resources available to fulfil the requests made.
PMB priority level demonstrated in the town halls
GROUPS ANALYSED
o
o
o
o
HIGH
PRIORITY
PRIORITY
LOW PRIORITY
VERY LOW
PRIORITY
Mayor, Council Members and
Municipal Officials
Participatory Municipal
Budget Monitoring
Committee
Neighbourhood Committees,
Community Organisations,
Development Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians who support
the Participatory Municipal
Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
Accordingly, we can see that in the districts where the proposal was implemented, of the
four groups consulted three stressed the PMB’s priority as a municipal public policy.
However, the less enthusiastic appraisal expressed by members of the PMB Monitoring
Council should be taken into account.
Organisation of PMB participation in the territory
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This is one of the great strengths that has been crystallising during the support of this PMB
initiative: social participation. With this project, a new perception of the municipality, its
neighbourhoods, its districts and its localities has opened up. Similarly, the citizen realises
that his/her participation is decisive in improving the environment in which he/she
develops and lives. The people see the municipality as something belonging to them, and
which they can access by participating in the town council and the Municipal Assembly.
36
3.1.2 The Municipal Budget and participation
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
GROUPS ANALYSED
o
o
o
o
VERY
ORGANISED
ORGANISED
POORLY
ORGANISATION
VERY POORLY
ORGANISED
Mayor, Council Members
and Municipal Officials
Participatory Municipal
Budget Monitoring
Committee
Neighbourhood
Committees, Community
Organisations,
Development Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians who
support the Participatory
Municipal Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
As can be seen in the table, all the groups believe that the level of public participation in
the PMB is high and sufficient. In the districts where the experiment was implemented,
the various basic social groups showed adequate inclusion and coordination.
3.1.3 Town hall commitment to works
In the final part of the negotiation process it is important that the various actors involved
enter into a social pact with the PMB, with the purpose of carrying out the designed and
approved plans and projects.
A social pact is grounded in a solid political commitment, as it brings together the wills and
forces required for its implementation. But what is more, the pact with the PMB is also of
a moral and ethical nature, in order that its actions maintain the necessary respect for
democracy and human rights.
Page
The PMB also involves a financial commitment, because the resources to implement the
works and investments are obtained and managed transparently and efficiently. We can
say that in essence, the PMB is a public commitment, as it involves society as a whole:
employees, traders, manual workers, professionals, agricultural workers, students and all
those who occupy a place in the fabric of the municipality.
37
In this way, the PMB tests the morality of the politicians who pass through the
municipalities. Likewise it allows us to monitor the deficiencies or efficiencies of the
operation of the town hall as a public institution. Thus it contributes to politics ceasing to
be a source of uncertainty and disheartenment and shapes social ethics that are
characterised by solidarity, which brings social cohesion and adhesion.
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Town Hall commitment to PMB works
GROUPS ANALYSED




VERY
COMMITTED
COMMITTED
LOW
COMMITMENT
VERY LOW
COMMITMENT
Mayor, Council
Members and
Municipal Officials
Participatory
Municipal Budget
Monitoring
Committee
Neighbourhood
Committees,
Community
Organisations,
Development
Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians
who support the
Participatory
Municipal Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
As we can see, in the districts where the PMB initiative was implemented, it succeeded in
obtaining the commitment of diverse social groups, which is evidenced by the high level of
commitment towards the initiative’s agreements and results in the municipality.
3.1.4 Appropriation of the PMB by the town hall council members
The town hall council members are the legislative body at the local level; consequently,
they are the body in charge, at the municipal level, of making social participation spaces
and initiatives a municipal order, regulation or law.
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The council members adopted the PMB as a social participation mechanism. This being a
body that brings together municipal power, it has all the conditions to make this process
sustainable. In the districts in which we worked, a proactive attitude among mayors and
town council members has been observed, encouraging participation, removing obstacles
and formalising mechanisms that give viability and support to participation within
38
Participation in the municipal field will only be sustainable when it is granted specific,
formal and institutionalised mechanisms that will serve as its foundation, and when it can
channel the concerns and interests of local people and guarantee adequate coordination
between the different actors of municipal life.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
municipal administration. The following table indicates how the PMB has managed to
penetrate the municipal fields.
Appropriation of the PMB by the town hall council members
GROUPS ANALYSED




Town council
members have
very good PMB
knowledge
Town council
members have
good PMB
knowledge
Town council
members have
poor PMB
knowledge
Town council
members have
very poor PMB
knowledge
Mayor, Council Members
and Municipal Officials
Participatory Municipal
Budget Monitoring
Committee
Neighbourhood
Committees, Community
Organisations,
Development Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians who
support the Participatory
Municipal Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
3.1.5 Audience and registry of budgetable priorities
Page
It is in these Area Meetings that, through public participation, the PMB is elaborated and
designed and decisions on public spending are made. It is these consultations that
evidence the existence or creation of audience spaces by the municipality town hall, in
order to ascertain and define the needs of the different communities in a consensual way;
in these consultations there is analysis of which social works or investments approved in
the previous budget were carried out, and which it was not possible to carry out;
investment is planned according to the resources that the municipality receives; and the
possibility of the town hall and the community jointly solving the problems expressed by
the participants is examined.
39
The inclusion of the Public Consultations as an activity agreed by consensus and duly
regulated at the end of the last quarter of the year has been sought. These have been
called Area Meetings and are held in each rural district and in the urban centre. They
include meetings with the private sector and a final meeting with the whole municipality
in the town hall to present the consensus proposal to local people.
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
The sustainability of this process is guaranteed by the extent to which it is made
participatory, which in the long-term will be reflected in strengthened, democratic and
equitable local power that facilitates the rational use of human and economic resources.
Audience and registry of budgetable priorities
GROUPS ANALYSED




PMB priorities
are listened to
and registered
PMB priorities
are listened to
but not
registered
PMB priorities
are barely
listened to and
registered
PMB priorities
are not listened
to and not
registered
Mayor, Council Members
and Municipal Officials
Participatory Municipal
Budget Monitoring
Committee
Neighbourhood
Committees, Community
Organisations,
Development Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians who
support the Participatory
Municipal Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
According to Minerva Díaz and Alfonso Díaz of the Development Agents Association, there
is a high organisational level of audience and registering of budgetable needs and
priorities. They also stress that “we have to avoid the situation where in some cases,
although they listen, the works are not executed. Sometimes they make commitments that
are favourable to the execution of works that have not been requested by the municipality.
Sometimes they are, but other times they are not listened to sufficiently.”
On the other hand, the participation of different organisations and neighbourhood
committees allows us to carry out a critical self-diagnosis of the quality of their previous
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The processes of analysing the municipal administration context are linked to decisionmaking in the different communities, in that these serve to identify the trend of social
forces and the foci of public policies. This type of analysis allows us to recognise the
priority community and administrative management needs to be considered when
designing the PMB.
40
3.1.6 Identification and technical support for compiling the PMB
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
management, which also fosters the dissemination of the experiences of the previous
PMB and promotes processes of horizontal cooperation between the town hall and civil
society.
This support from the organisations stimulates and motivates the elaboration and design
of a new PMB, stemming from the successes and errors of the previous one. In this way,
the culture of evaluation is reinforced as it calls on multiple actors involved in local
development.
Identification and technical support for the PMB process
GROUPS ANALYSED




SUFFICIENT
MUNICIPAL
ANALYSIS BEFORE
PMB
INSUFFICIENT
MUNICIPAL
ANALYSIS BEFORE
PMB
NO MUNICIPAL
ANALYSIS CARRIED
OUT BEFORE PMB
Mayor, Council Members
and Municipal Officials
Participatory Municipal
Budget Monitoring
Committee
Neighbourhood Committees,
Community Organisations,
Development Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians who
support the Participatory
Municipal Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
As the previous table tells us, while the work carried out in the municipalities has
strengthened institutional structures and public participation levels, there is still the belief
that the support given by the various organisations is insufficient technical assistance.
Therefore, the supplementary support that can be offered to the town halls should consist
of methodological tools that are suitable for the implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of the PMB.
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We are aware that both in Latin America and in the Dominican Republic, the Participatory
Municipal Budget is in its early stages and it is still an innovative local development
process. The challenge for the municipalities that share this initiative is to turn it into a
41
3.1.7 Degree of communication and dissemination of the PMB initiative
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
consolidated tool of municipal administration. In this way the PMB will be an instrument
for local development and social empowerment.
Degree of communication and dissemination of the PMB initiative
GROUPS ANALYSED




VERY HIGH
LEVEL OF PMB
DISSEMINATION
HIGH LEVEL
OF PMB
DISSEMINATION
LOW LEVEL
OF PMB
DISSEMINATION
VERY LOW
LEVEL OF PMB
DISSEMINATION
Mayor, Council
Members and
Municipal Officials
Participatory
Municipal Budget
Monitoring
Committee
Neighbourhood
Committees,
Community
Organisations,
Development Agents
Association (ADD)
NGO technicians who
support the
Participatory
Municipal Budget
Source: Interviews with actors from the districts involved
As we can see from the previous table, two of the groups questioned think that the PMB’s
dissemination is very high and two others state that its dissemination is lower.
To move forward and improve the PMB’s dissemination, the training of people to facilitate
its usage, as well as experts in this assertive and proactive social technology, is important.
Creativity also needs to be encouraged, promoting innovation and the definition of local
development tools and methodologies. Finally, its accessibility and the benefits that it
offers should be communicated at both community organisation and political party levels.
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“When beginning a participatory process it is normal that we have countless doubts: how
is it possible to organise a process for many people, what can we do in order that many
people think about and decide on something together, what can we do so that there isn’t
any sectarianism in the process, how do we reach people, what happens after a
participatory process… Giving ourselves time to reflect on these questions is a key element
as, even though we will not find answers to all of them at the beginning, it makes us think
the progress through from start to finish within the specific context in which we are
42
3.2 Participatory Budget challenges and opportunities
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
working (and not exclusively resorting to ‘ready-made solutions’) and will allow us to stay
alert in the face of each of the situations that arise, helping us to define the strategies that
we will use throughout the process”.
“A participatory process requires people working to make it possible; it is a professional
exercise. The designing of a project of this type implies setting objectives (what you want
to achieve), planning (how you will do it), having the timeframe more or less clear (when
you will do it) and organising the work spaces by targeting them at a purpose, whilst being
mindful of the heterogeneity of those participating and connecting them using a logic that
gives them meaning. These elements can’t be left to chance: we must think about the
participatory process from beginning to end, even if later on we have to go on
reconsidering it and rethinking it.”31
In almost all the experiences of the municipalities studied there is a participatory budget
cycle, in which the public participates at different levels and by doing different things,
depending on the point in the cycle. More or less everyone participating knows why they
are participating and what is involved. Consequently, we will concentrate on the other
two dimensions associated with mobilisation: on the one hand, what can we do to get the
public to come and take part in the participatory budgets and on the other, how can we
organise the participatory process so that the participants get involved in its development.
31
32
Interview with Fernando Umaña (Progressio delegate).
Interview with Miguel Cid (Progressio delegate).
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In addition to these reflections on the process’ objectives and methodology, we should be
aware that participation needs a product to give the action meaning for those that decide
to participate. The idea that we should keep in mind is that participation has to go hand in
hand with achieving products, i.e. whenever we think of participation we cannot think
only of people’s goodwill. Participation is not about will, it is above all an action that
43
“In any case, you have to work very hard on mobilising people, both so that they attend
the participatory process and so that they get involved once they are there. It is true that
there is great concern about people attending organised events en masse, and of course
this is important, but the quantity of participation should not mask a series of questions
about what we should be doing as regards the quality of this. The organisation of any
participatory experience should make us reflect on who is participating, how, and in what,
and not just how many. That 1,000 people participate might seem ideal in certain contexts
but, are they always the same people? Is the number of participants increasing or
decreasing? Do the participants solely belong to the formal associative fabric or have we
managed to reach the informal networks - other groups that are not so used to
participating? Do they only attend the meetings or are they getting involved in other
spaces? … We believe that a plural and heterogeneous process has greater potential than
a large but homogenous process.”32
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
should have meaning for people. For this reason, the PMB experience should gradually be
evaluated on the basis of the concrete achievements obtained each year, and in each
municipal administration.
IV Final Assessment
4.1 Lessons learnt
Among the main lessons which emerge from analysis of the experiences developed by
Progressio’s intervention in the Participatory Municipal Budget are the following:
 Timely participation and cooperation initiatives can be successfully implemented
without these necessarily being formally institutionalised. This is confirmed in the
municipalities studied, where the town hall and civil society organisations had
initiated collaboration experiments for specific initiatives.
 It has been found that, independent of the opinion that community organisations
have of municipal management, the former recognise the town hall as the
competent authority to resolve the municipality’s problems, including those that
do not fall within its competency.
 In the small municipalities, promoting participation initiatives is seemingly an ‘easy’
task as it depends on the will of only a ‘few’ actors. However, there are difficulties
in consolidating these and making them sustainable due to the scarce availability of
technically capable people.
 In the light of the weakness of small town halls and their poor management and
planning capacity, by taking advantage of their technical capacity and resource
mobilisation the NGOs put themselves in a privileged position to influence
community organisations and promote initiatives, and to take on roles that should
fall within the authority of the local government.
Page
 Where there is a greater concentration of organisations, primarily Neighbourhood
Committees, greater town hall intervention is registered. The relationship between
the town hall and the organisations translates into infrastructure works.
44
 The local authorities’ view of the actors called upon to take part in a public
participation process within the municipal administration is very often limited to
involving the Neighbourhood Committees, to the exclusion of other social groups.
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
 There are instances or models of participatory local administration in the
experiences given, that is, coordination processes, whether in the form of round
tables, neighbourhood committees or others, that constitute permanent
coordination spaces and that are a product of the local development planning
processes.
 Similarly, the participatory budget actors are primarily representatives of grassroots civil society organisations. This does not rule out the direct participation of
individual members of the public, but does reinforce the democraticrepresentative nature of the experiences.
 In the processes it is observed that leadership is in many cases exclusively in the
local government, and the levels of effective public participation in decisionmaking vary in degree and effectiveness.
 The activities carried out by the various sectors (education, health, safety and work
among others) and by private institutions (non-governmental organisations,
churches, businesses, etc.) also need to be included in the discussion of the
locality’s total budget. The inclusion of these activities will contribute to
harmonised decisions that prioritise the solution of the most urgent problems
identified by the community itself.
 The PMB contributes to a change in the traditional way of making spending
decisions at the sub-national level: the decisions should be made on the grounds of
participatory diagnostics (problems and opportunities), and not on the basis of
seeming the best to the authority in power.
 It allows greater social involvement in public matters: it reduces corruption
incentives.
 Development of a greater awareness of the tax system (complementary policies
are needed supporting local income generation).
 Spaces are created for listening to the voice of the poorest and most excluded.
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 The experience developed by the Progressio delegates represents a Shared
Learning School, in which the participants teach and are taught. In it, the public
break down the ‘myth’ of the secrecy and hiding of information and the ‘mystery’
in decision making.
45
 In turn, the PMB is an avenue for the democratisation of local power and public
development. While it is important that they govern for the public, what is much
more important is that they govern with them.
PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
4.2 Challenges and tests
The experiences developed have been built from a social practice that is worth
considering as a benchmark for the participation of citizens in municipal administration,
reflecting on and promoting the teachings that it produces; understanding that when
assessing this participation one needs to situate oneself in the context of a small
municipality in the Dominican Republic, where a centralist and authoritarian tradition still
continues to predominate. Despite the progress and successes achieved, limitations and
challenges exist that must be addressed and confronted with the aim of consolidating
progress and successes and foreshadowing the overcoming of the tests that the future will
bring.
 A false view exists that the town halls are not capable of managing large resources,
which in practice constitutes an obstacle to a genuine decentralisation process, as
without an increase in the financial resources coming from both local and national
sources, local sustainable development will not be possible.
 Another element is the still limited level of public awareness of citizens’ rights and
duties in the municipality. Usually there is a greater level of awareness of rights, but
not of duties, which are expressed in the negative as paying municipal taxes, in
handling solid waste materials and the upkeep of municipal public assets.
 Despite majority popular will in favour of participation, there are political strongholds
that are opposed to participation and that have sufficient force to cause a reversal of
the successes achieved. This situation means that a systematic supervision and
monitoring programme must be maintained in order to consolidate the results
obtained and facilitate the development of the culture of participation and shared
responsibility, as opposed to the authoritarian political culture that still prevails in the
country.
Page
46
By way of conclusion, it can be said that the experiences that have been developed while
working with the PMB confirm that Progressio’s vision of cooperation, which understands
this as a construction process that should be open to learning, is very positive. It has
succeeded in promoting civil society participation in its own development, not only
allowing the participation of any man or woman citizen in municipal administration, but
also consolidating the principle that everyone should participate in order to obtain good
municipal governance.
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PARTICIPATORY MUNICIPAL BUDGET
4.3 Conclusions about the experience
In the light of the experiences presented we could say that participatory budgets, in
addition to being consistent with the general principles of sustainable development,
should be built on the foundations of certain specific principles, which are:








Clear rules for participation
The promotion of debate and the participation of citizens in the decision-making
process
Citizen access to sources of information and general and thematic discussion
forums
Municipal neutrality in the use of participation mechanisms, i.e. avoiding the
manipulation of the process by biased or personal interests
Flexible procedures
Technical assistance for the actors involved, so that each time they proceed with
greater knowledge of the consequences
Commitment on behalf of the municipal authorities to respect consensus
Transparency in management of the economy.
Work with the PMB implies questioning traditional political praxis in its most concrete
form, the municipal government. The practice of democracy exercised by the PMB is not
limited to electing the municipal authorities, but goes beyond this: it allows citizens to
participate in municipal administration by identifying priority communal problems and
finding solutions to these. This practice makes people aware of their rights, and in turn of
their responsibilities as social actors who should be in charge of their own development.
Page
The implementation of the PMB also implies questioning the forms of domination and
culture based in guardianship, clientelism, corruption and the manipulation of social
needs. It is furthermore a means for tackling citizens’ lack of information, as it promotes
information and transparency in municipal governance, undermining the arbitrary actions
of officials and authorities. Obtaining information on municipal income and spending, the
reasons for assigning resources and public tenders, procurement and hiring staff, among
other aspects of municipal administration, contributes to democratising the State starting
from its most basic institutions.
47
In times of economic crisis, corruption, resource scarcity, poverty, unemployment and
violence, experiences of collective cooperation can be a means to confront the problems
that affect all men and women, which often do not get the attention of the central
government or the local authorities. The PMB represents a space in which people can
discuss, seek and realise strategies to tackle critical situations like those mentioned.
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V BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Moreno, Gloria (Progressio delegate): Sistematización de una experiencia: Villa
González, un proceso, varios actores, una historia para contra… (Systematisation of
an experience: Villa González, one process, several actors, one story to tell…) Final
report on results. Santiago de los Caballeros, November 2000.
2. Interviews with Municipal Actors (Mayors, PMB Managers, PMB Coordinators,
Progressio Delegates).
3. Presupuesto Participativo y Democratización
Democratisation). Domingo Matías, PARME, 2004
(Participatory
Budget
and
4. Acevedo, J.; Castillo. J.; De la Torre, M.; Rodríguez, J.: Diagnóstico a la Gestión
Municipal de Villa González (Diagnosis of Municipal Administration in Villa
González). Postgraduate programme in Urban Planning and Municipal
Administration. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santiago,
Dominican Republic, April 1999.
5. Town Hall of the Municipality of Villa González, Santiago province. Resolution No.
9-99. 24 June 1999.
6. Regulations for Public Participation in Municipal Administration. Municipality of
Villa González, Altamira, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, June 2002.
7. Annual Participatory Budget Reports of the Town Halls of Altamira, Villa Altagracia,
Dajabón, Villa González and Puerto Plata.
8. Municipal Rules for the Monitoring and Supervision of Works Prioritised in the
Participatory Municipal Budget. Villa González, Dominican Republic, 2007.
9. Town Hall of the Municipality of Villa González. Regulations for Participation in
Municipal Administration. Villa González, Dominican Republic, 2002.
10. Law 176-07 of the Distrito Nacional and the Municipalities.
13. Castillo, J, Rodríguez, J, Rol del Ayuntamiento en la promoción e instauración de
mecanismos formales de participación ciudadana dentro de la gestión municipal.
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12. Peguero, R.: Villa González: Sistematización de una experiencia. Presupuesto
Municipal Participativo (Villa González: Systematisation of an experience.
Participatory Municipal Budget), Dominican Republic, January 2004.
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11. Villa González Strategic Plan 2005 – 2010.
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(The role of the Town Hall in the promotion and establishment of formal
mechanisms for citizen participation in municipal administration) Masters
dissertation to obtain the degree of Master in Urban Planning and Municipal
Administration. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. Santiago, June
2000.
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