#PAGOF: 15 tandems of facilitators trained in participatory budgeting in Côte d’Ivoire
Each training course lasted two weeks and increased to 16 the number of municipalities supported in the implementation of the participatory budget process.
Participatory budget: participatory democracy and effectiveness of public action
Citizen participation strengthens the effectiveness of public action and increases its legitimacy, as it often breathes new life into democracy, in particular local democracy. It is often expressed during major consultations or deliberations: this is the case with participatory budgeting, a referendum process in which citizens can allocate part of the budget of their territorial authority to investment projects. This approach makes it possible to involve citizens in the management of public resources, to decide on the allocation of part of the public funds and therefore to build public policies together that are more effective, more transparent and more responsive to citizens’ expectations.
For further reading: Open Government: A guide on good practices in Francophone Africa
The main challenge often lies in the fact that elected officials and civil society are unfamiliar with the principles and methods of participatory budgeting: understand the participatory budget, train elected officials in how to implement it – which subjects to submit to participation and at which point in the process to call on citizens… –, inform about it, and raise the awareness of the population in terms of its active and necessary role.
A hub of expertise experienced in the participatory budget methods in Côte d’Ivoire
The objective of the training courses organised by #PAGOF is to create a sustainable Ivorian hub of expertise: thirty people from the local administration and civil society will thereby be able to assist municipalities with the implementation of their local participatory budget and with raising the awareness of citizens in terms of their role in this process.
For further reading: Open data in Burkina Faso: 35 data sets published
In addition to the institutional concepts and frameworks, the training courses focused on the implementation stages of the participatory budget, the methods and techniques to facilitate workshops on the preparation of participatory budgets and on the conduct and key messages of the facilitator. A practical case was organised during the second week: the facilitators led workshops on the preparation of the participatory budget in a real-life situation. About fifteen elected officials, municipal officers and representatives of civil society from the municipalities of Cocody and Attécoubé took part in the first session, and from Jacqueville for the second session. These training courses were conducted in coordination with Oo2 Formation and Bachir Kanouté, a Senegalese expert in this field.
The tandems of facilitators which have been set up, with one person from civil society in the municipality and an officer from the municipal administration, will in turn train elected officials, municipal officials and citizens in the participatory methods of the citizen budget in their respective municipalities, before extending the training to other volunteer municipalities. Furthermore, the municipal councils of the cities of Jacqueville, Agou and Akoupé have voted unanimously for the implementation of the participatory budget as a model of citizen management in their municipality, thereby marking the start of the processes for the deployment of this participatory democracy tool and bringing the number of municipalities involved in the participatory budget in Côte d’Ivoire to 16.
#PAGOF aims to support and assist administrations and civil society (including the media) in Francophone African countries that are members of the Open Government Partnership (Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire) with the achievement of their commitments to open government and the use of new technologies for transparency and accountability. It is financed by Agence Française de Développement and implemented by Expertise France and CFI.
Find out more about #PAGOF 