The 8th Status Report on Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Germany has been finalized and translated and can be downloaded on buergerhaushalt.org. The report provides an overview of PB in Germany. It describes PB processes, and sketches general trends of PB in Germany.
Cities in member states of the Council of Europe are invited to express their interest in participating in a workshop on how to support and encourage participatory democracy on a local level. The workshop will be part of the World Forum for Democracy 2015 agenda.
The 7th Status Report on Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Germany has been finalized and can be downloaded on buergerhaushalt.org. The report provides an overview of PB in Germany. It sketches general trends of PB in Germany, and describes PB process characteristics.
What is the role of journalists in participatory processes, like participatory budgets? What do journalists need for reporting on participatory budgeting in a qualified manner? And how can municipalities support qualified media coverage? Some answers you can find in this article.
The first ‚new wave’ of participatory budgeting in Germany is slowly but surely fading out. A considerable number of municipalities has been continuing its participatory budgeting process for several years and is now facing numerous unsolved questions. One of these is seeking an answer to the question of how more citizens can be motivated to participate.
The second edition of the study Learning from the South: Participatory Budgeting Worldwide – an Invitation to Global Cooperation published by the Service Agency Communities in One World in May 2014 highlights a number of new trends and developments of participatory budgeting processes around the globe and confirms findings of the 2010 edition of the study. Dynamic developments and the permanent expansion of various forms of participatory budgeting over the last three years in different parts of the world called for an update of the first version.
The book contains a collection of case studies of international participatory budgeting projects. Originally published in Portugese, it is now available in English.
Mandy Wagner and Michelle Ruesch examine the characteristics of a "typical German PB". The article first appeared as a chapter in the Portugese book "Esperanca Democrática".
Syed Kausar Abbas is the Senior Advocacy & Training Officer of the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) in Pakistan. As part of an international exchange programm he lived and worked in Bonn for several months. For Buergerhaushalt.org, he describes the work of his organization, the CPDI.
Dr. Anke Knopp, spokesperson of the Gütersloh citizens’ initiative Demokratie Wagen [‘Dare to be democratic’], project manager for the Bertelsmann Foundation and outspoken advocate of participatory budgeting (PB), writes about the benefits of PB and criteria for its success.