| IN BRASIL |
| 22nd, 23rd and 24th May 2001 - Practices in Brasil Meeting with Ms Marcia Da Conceiçaõ, Luciano Brunet and Ebrahim Shahim - Office of the vice mayor of Porto Alegre www.prefpoa.com.br The participatory budget started in 1989 in Porto Alegre. It was launched by the PT (Partido dos Trabalhadore - The Party of the workers), with the Frente Popular (The left wing parties). It also exists in other cities now where the PT has been elected. How does the participatory budget work? 1,3 milion inhabitants live in Porto Alegre. The city is divided in 16 districts by the Brasilian Institute of Statistic Geografy. A district is made of neighbourhoods, comunities, slums... Each district has its own reality. - The first round of the participatory budget starts in March : Each district has a general assembly, where the comunities try to bring a maximum of people and associations. There are also general assemblies for each issue (which concern the whole city), which are : health and social welfare; education, sports and hobbies; culture; economic development and taxation; city organisation; urban and environmental development; circulation and transportation. During these sessions, the city government (municipal administration) gives the figures of the investment plan of the last year and plans the investments for the next year. The aprticipants also vote for delegates (one for each 10 participants). - After this first round, in each district and issue, the delegates are going to discuss with the comunities to debate about questions and demands and to propose them to the district or city. - Then, in June/July, starts the second round. The delegates vote for counsellors (2 for each district and issue and 2 substitutes) and together they define priorities. - The counsellors in the participatory budget council. in the council, there are also 1 representant of the municipal association of the inhabitants of Port Alegre (Uampa), 1 representant of the municipal civil servants union (Simpa) and 2 representants of the municipal administration (the latter don't have the right to vote). During the council, the government (popular administration) and the counsellors are going to discuss the priorities in accordance with the financial resources indicated by each direction of the administration. The result of this is the plan of investments for the next year. - The GAPLAN (planning departement) synthetizes then what has been decided during the participatory budget council. It designs a frame with the priorities of each district and issue. This is done through a balance between progressive criterias, the population of the district, the priorities dicided by the region and the lack of services in this district. - After the discussion in the council, the budget is transmitted to the city hall (legislative power), which will or not vote it. - It is then sent back to the municipal administration (executive power) to be presented publicly in november. There is also a city congress once a year where the municipal administration (technicians, civil servants), representants of the comunities and the counsellors meet to discuss issues that prevent Porto Alegre from progressing. Our interlocutors consider that the participation of the inhabitants is important (40000 persons in 2000), but that is has to be even higher. There is a real partnership between the comunities and the government and the people pressure the political power. For instance, in 1998, when the French shopping mall, Carrefour, was built, the issue was discussed during the participatory budget council. On the 23rd and 24th May, we went and visit with Marcia and José the southern and northern district. She explained us several interventions of the municipal administration and the participatory budget. Some of them follow : - In 1989, the mayor had to intervene to maintain the price of the tickets in the transportation (private buses) and to fix the periods when the prices could be increased. - There are slums in Porto Alegre that the participatory budget is trying to relocate in sanitated municipal housing. For example, in the neighbourhood of Chapeu de Sol, 500 families benefitted from municipal housing, whereas they used to live near the river without any sanitation. Thanks to the participatory budget, the land was bought and the housing was built. There are now 600 houses, a school, a park and a plant to clean the water. The school even obtained from the UNO the prize of better quality of life in Brasil. - In another housing neighbourhood, Cavalhada, the municipal administration built a recycling plant. There are 48 associates from the neighbourhood who work ther and earn wages of 240 reais a month (104 US$) (the minimum wages are of 120 reais a month - 52 US$). |