Participatory budgeting enables the citizens to decide how and where to allocate public money, to set local development priorities and to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the community. Furthermore, this develops civic engagement and activism at the local level and an efficient and constructive dialogue between the mayor’s office and the citizens and encourages the citizens to identify financial resources for co-financing the proposed initiatives. These are some of the conclusions presented in a national conference of SCOs entitled “Resilience in Times of Crisis”, which was organized by the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, IPN reports.

According to the participants, within participatory budgeting the citizens can propose projects that refer to urban mobility, social infrastructure, building/repair of sidewalks, alleys and parks, laying out of public places, rehabilitation of green areas and playgrounds, smart city etc.

“There is the practice when a working group or a local commission is formed and this consists of representatives of the local public authorities and of civil society (activists, citizens). This joint working group chooses initiatives based on an assessment process,” said Diana Enachi, public procurement expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul”.

It was noted that some of the Moldovan localities started to implement participatory budgeting, such as Ialoveni, Budești, Bălți, Chișinău, Florești, Ungheni, Cahul, Cimișlia. In 2017, there were submitted 47 projects and 22 of them, to the value of about 2.2 million lei, were implemented. In 2018, there were presented 73 projects and 20 projects, to the value of about 3 million lei, were accepted.

“We covered a lot of situations when, by consulting the citizens, through this very and very interesting and attractive process of proposing and approving projects by public vote, projects were financed and very nice things for the community were done,” said Petru Macovei, executive director of the Association of Independent Press.

The national conference “Resilience in Times of Crisis” was staged by the Legal Resources Center of Moldova in the framework of the project “Promoting rule of law in Moldova through civil society oversight” that is implemented by the Center with support from USAID. On September 4, there was held the last presentation of the conference titled “Participatory Budgeting at Local Level”.