| Brazil | Initiated 1989; sustained through 2016; replicated worldwide
What was done
Initiated by the Workers' Party (PT) administration under Mayor Olívio Dutra in 1989, participatory budgeting opened Porto Alegre's annual municipal investment budget to citizen decision-making. The city is divided into 16 districts, each holding a cycle of assemblies where residents discuss neighbourhood priorities, elect delegates to a Council of Participatory Budgeting (COP), and vote on project proposals ranging from neighbourhood drainage to citywide bus routes. The COP negotiates the final budget allocation between district and thematic priorities, which is then submitted to the Municipal Assembly. The process created a redistribution mechanism that directed investment toward the poorest districts most in need of infrastructure.
Key Outcomes
- Sewage and water connections rose from 75% to 98% of households between 1988 and 1997.
- Public housing support expanded from 1,700 (1986) to 27,000 families (1997).
- Number of schools more than quadrupled since 1986; health and education's share of the municipal budget rose from 13% (1985) to 40% (1996).
- Annual participation grew from under 1,000 (1990) to over 40,000 citizens (1999).Global influence: over 2,700 governments worldwide have adopted some form of
- participatory budgeting, making Porto Alegre the most widely replicated urban governance innovation of the past three decades.
More information:
Participatory Budgeting and the Challenge of Sustaining Transformative Change