DIYWEberswalde is a city with 40,000 inhabitants, located in Brandenburg (Germany), about 40 km from Berlin. Since 2008, the city has organised the “Eberswalde Citizens‘ Budget” once a year. This participatory budget allows all the residents of Eberswalde from 14 years, regardless of their nationality, to make proposals on how they would like to shape the life in all areas of their city and use the 100.000 EUR made available to them.
How does it work?
The procedure of the Eberswalde Citizens‘ Budget is simple. First, proposals can be submitted all year round until June 30th in writing, by telephone, orally and electronically. These proposals are then examined (costs, responsibility, feasibility) by the administration experts. On the ‘decision day’, the people of Eberswalde can then vote directly on the proposals submitted (online and offline). With the citizen‘s budget of at least € 100,000 the most popular and therefore selected proposals can be then implemented until these funds are exhausted. A submitted project may cost a maximum of 15000 euros.
- Flipchart paper
- Markers
- Crayons
- Ballot box
- Device to show a video
- Chocolate bars
Main objective:
- Participants discuss the opportunities and challenges of civil society engagement based on the example of the Participatory Budget in Eberswalde.
Detailed objectives:
- Participants learn about the democratic innovation of participatory budgeting.
- Participant learn how to develop a project idea.
- Participants learn how to present a project idea and promote it.
1. Introduction (15 min.)
Introduce the topic of democratic innovations in general and participatory budgeting in particular (see introduction of the toolkit). Give an overview of the objectives of the workshop and steps of the activity.
2. Empowerment (15 min.)
Give each person a printed Appendix 1. Ask all participants to fill in a short questionnaire about personal strengths and talents. Encourage them to add to the list any of their strengths and talents that come to mind.
Ask everyone to read out one of their talents. This step is to show the participants that they all have strengths and talents that can be useful in developing a project idea.
3. Developing a project idea (1 hour)
Send the participants into groups of 4-6 people. Distribute Appendix 2 and explain each step on it. Observe groups while working, facilitate and answer questions if necessary.
4. Discussing Video (40 min.)
Shortly introduce a topic of Participatory Budgeting (see: Introduction of this chapter). Show the video about PB in Eberswalde.
After watching the video, start a discussion about participatory budgeting and give the opportunity to ask comprehension questions:
- What do you think about this democratic innovation? Do you see advantages and disadvantages?*.
- Would you like to participate in a participatory budgeting process in your community/school?
- What do you think about the fact that in the video, young people are allowed to vote at the age of 14? Is this the right age? Should nationality play a role?
- Who should generally be allowed to participate and who should not?
*Strengths of participatory budgeting
- Active citizenship is promoted.
- Awareness of community needs is raised among citizens and authorities.
- Democratic procedures are introduced and practised.
- Low-income groups and neighbourhoods can receive more attention and resources.
*Vulnerabilities of participatory budgeting
- Civil society gets into a competitive situation instead of acting cooperatively.
- Project promoters who are left empty-handed may be discouraged.
- If the amount of funds to be distributed is too low, citizens might get the impression that authorities are faking participation.
- Citizens may be more interested in short- or medium-term projects, which makes it difficult to initiate discussions about long-term planning.
- It could easily slip into a popularity contest, where people convince their friends and families to come out and vote for their proposal. The one with the most friends wins.
5. Presentation of a project idea and voting (1h - 1,5h)
Ask groups to present their project ideas and have everyone take notes. Remind participants of the criteria before the presentations start. Give each group equal time for presenting their project.
After the presentation of the projects, distribute a ballot paper to each group (Appendix 3). Each group can distribute a certain number of votes, similar to the procedure in the video.
Recommended procedure for voting:
- Each group gets x* votes to distribute *x= number of project ideas x 2. A maximum of half of the possible votes may be allocated per project. You may also vote for your own project. (Example: With 4 project ideas, a total of 8 votes may be awarded and a maximum of 4 for one project).
Ask one participant from each group to join the team that will count the votes. The result will be announced by the team and each group will receive chocolate in proportion to the votes received.
- Example: 1 vote = a chocolate bar
**6. Reflection (**20 min.)
Discuss with the group following topics:
Developing a project idea together:
What was it like to develop a project idea together? What was fun? What was difficult? Were the criteria helpful?
Democratically agreeing on a project idea:
How did you agree on the idea you presented at the end? (By majority vote? By seeking consensus? By compromise?) Was it a fair (democratic) process? Why? Why not? Was it an inclusive process? How or how not?
Voting on the best project idea:
Was it easy or difficult to distribute the votes? Was the process fair? Did everyone have the same chances? Did sympathy with the group members play a role? Which criteria were particularly important? Did the way of presentation play a role? Is it okay if project ideas (almost) come up empty? Is the voting procedure the best way to choose the best idea? Or what other possibilities could a city (school) offer to give citizens (students) the opportunity to realise their ideas?
Discussing the democratic innovation of participatory budgeting:
Should all cities and municipalities be obliged to distribute a certain share of their budget in this way? How high should the share be?
7. Get really involved (optional) (30 min.)
Ask the participants if they would like to implement their project. What would it take? Let them talk about it in their project groups and present their decision afterwards. Do not put pressure on them. Every result is welcome. If you have time and resources, you can support them in putting the project idea into practice.