Background:

The African continent has in the last few years showed signs of embracing the participatory budgeting practise which has taken deep root on other continents especially in Latin America where it all began.  Participatory Budgeting (PB) is well recognized innovation in promoting citizen demand for good governance with respect to participation, equity, transparency, and accountability.  PB has been seen as an effective policy instrument for responsive governance, offering a platform for citizens to learn about public expenditure management, voice their preferences in budget planning, scrutinize procurement practices and monitor the delivery of services and infrastructure.  Gender responsive budgeting is a form of participatory budgeting that allows for ‘gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality’. Indications from countries and cities where PB has been implemented reveal that it has the potential to improve the transparency of public administration, efficiency in public expenditure,  revenue generation,  collective prioritization and co-management of resources, empower citizens to participate in decision-making and monitor the use of public funds,  and also generate increased trust between the government and the population.

Objective

• To build capacities and facilitate the practice and culture of participatory and gender budgeting in local governments in order to contribute to good urban governance and sustainable development
• To institutionalise training and capacity building for participatory and gender budgeting in Africa
• To catalyse the replication of participatory budgeting practises at the local government levels
• To promote knowledge and information sharing on participatory budgeting

Activities

• Undertake sub-regional Training of trainers on participatory and gender budgeting for national training institutions and relevant government ministries in Anglophone east and southern Africa and Francophone Africa
• Develop curriculum for PB training to be used by national training institutions
• Implement national training events for local authorities jointly with relevant national institutions in selected Anglophone and Francophone countries
• develop national guidelines for Participatory and gender budgeting in selected  African countries
• Organise study tours for selected local governments to other municipalities already implementing participatory and gender budgeting
• Document and widely Lessons and best practises on PB from the African under for example  the  UN-Habitat led programme in  Congo, Mozambique and Senegal on PB and gender budgeting and the UNIFEM programme in ten countries  on integrating gender responsive budgeting.
• Develop a dedicated website on Participatory budgeting
• Create a Network of practitioners and institutions on gender and participatory budgeting in Africa

Target group

Nine municipalities in Mozambique, Congo DR and Senegal through training and technical support to implement the PB process at the local level