Participatory Budgeting in Asian Cities: A Pathway Towards Achieving The New Urban Agenda

Kota Kita Foundation, The Development Planning Unit (DPU-UCL), and the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy propose to showcase and discuss Participatory Budgeting as an important process towards implementing the NUA and achieving the SDGs in Asian cities. Understanding and identifying successes, challenges and synergies from different experiences will allow for the elaboration of a set of recommendations in a proposal for the development of participatory practices throughout Asia. Our goal is for Participatory Budgeting to be included and considered in the international agenda as a viable and democratic process for the sustainable urban development of our cities that strengthens participation, reducing inequalities.

Participatory Budgeting is an innovative and democratic way of empowering and engaging citizens to produce and change their environment and quality of lives. It gives inhabitants real power over the allocation of public financial resources designated to their living area, enabling them to be actively involved in the making and shaping of their neighborhoods. Participatory Budgeting is an inclusive way of governing, taking into account the voices of marginalized and disenfranchised segments of the society (elderly, persons with disabilities, undocumented immigrants, urban poor, among others). It fosters governmental transparency and accountability, as it encourages informed citizens' engagement and democratic processes locally.

The event brings worldwide Participatory Budgeting experts and related fields to discuss how to further promote and have this process as an implementation tool of the NUA and SDGs. The cases present during the event aim to: (a) showcase successes and struggles from Participatory Budgeting experiences in Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, and South Korea, and also Russian cities; (b) identify commonalities and possible synergies between them; and (c) debate recommendations and suggestion of a course of action for the NUA implementation, in particular regarding participation and SDGs achievement that takes Participatory Budgeting into consideration for public financial decision-making and planning.