BUDGET ANALYSIS, ALTERNATIVE BUDGETS & PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING Part II: Porto Alegre, Canada, Italy and the Philippines by PROF. LEONOR MAGTOLIS BRIONES Co-Convenor Social Watch Philippines Presentation at “Building an Asian Community of Practice on Monitoring and Budget Analysis” 9-11 July 2008, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

two ways by which the population can participate:  territorially in one of the 16 city regions were they live  thematically, relating to the process is via subject matter participatory process started in 1989 Participatory Budget (PB)

For territorial/regional: regions select their top four priorities out of a list of 14 budget headings which include: health transport leisure areas sports and leisure economic development culture, and environment improvement sewers and drains housing social services paving water supply education street lighting

For the thematic: Priorities of a more city-wide character are decided There are thematic meetings to partly offset the problem of parochial bias and partly to bring in the non community sectors like the unions and business associations. Each regional and thematic groups elect candidates for the delegate forum which will also be candidates for the PB council

The Participatory Budget (PB) Council permanent yet voluntary body which has overall responsibility for managing the PB process it meets twice a week and is tasked with combining and reconciling the priorities put up by the regional and thematic meetings The regional and thematic delegate meetings are staged once a month and are in charge with translating the general demands discussed at the community meetings into specific proposals.

The Local Political Structure Mayor’s Office (Executive) - Prepares the budget Chamber of Deputies (Legislature) - Ratifies the budget GAPLAN (planning office) Coordination of Relations with the Communities (CRC) (manage the budgetary debates with city residents )

First round plenary of the citizens per region relating to the themes - March meetings between the citizens and the executive (mayor’s office) follows – April (to review investment plans of the previous year, discuss proposals for the new year) Second round plenary of the citizens per region relating to the themes - June meetings between the citizens and the executive (mayor’s office) follows – July (election of 44-member Council of Participatory Budgeting (COP)) COP submits budget to legislature in September The Process Chamber Debates – October to December 6

a change to local spending priorities to the benefit of the economic periphery, collective mobilisation of the poor and working class, leading to a rise in class morale and political consciousness. The Outcomes

CANADA Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) the fundamental premise of the AFB has been that budgets are about choices. AFB starts from a set of social justice values: human dignity and freedom, fairness, equality, environmental sustainability, and the public good embraced by representatives of a broad spectrum of civil society organizations

AFB is a 108 page document that was produced with a view of making the budget process democratic through:  introducing a more transparent, participatory and democratic budget process  requiring that all new budget and regulatory initiatives involve a comprehensive and publicly available impact assessment by the newly established Parliamentary Budget Office

 requiring that budgets establish goals and targets  requiring that the Treasury Board and the Parliamentary Budget Office monitor and publicly report on our overall progress The goals in coming out with AFB are: economic literacy to build policy consensus among civil society organizations fuel popular mobilization. an exercise in public accountability

ALTERNATIVES TO NATIONAL BUDGET LAW ITALY Since 1999 Sbilanciamoci! has proposed alternatives to the Italian budgetary policies, arguing for social and environmental priorities. Sbilanciamoci! is a campaign involving 45 associations, NGOs and networks working on globalisation, peace, human rights, environment, fair trade, ethical finance.

reviews the orientations of economic politics emerging from the Budget Law and from the State Budget develops alternative proposals about how to use public expenditure for society, environment and peace Prepares reports for national distribution Collects signatures to sustain budget proposals Makes amendments to the Budget Law (moved 57 amendments already) What the campaign do?

The campaign alternative proposals focused on: The Fiscal Lever Defending Welfare Environment for Sustainable Development Disarming the economy The company of different economy