Global PB Hub 2020 Priorities

The following projects were identified as priorities for the global growth of participatory budgeting (PB) by the 35 members of the Global PB Hub’s Research and Support Boards.

The projects were developed through initial brainstorming, feedback from dozens of other PB practitioners and researchers, and then revision and a final vote by the Boards. In 2020, the Hub is focused on launching or raising funds for these projects, with partners.

Resources for practitioners

1. Online Resource Center (FUNDED)

• Create an accessible and user-friendly website to provide PB implementers and supporters with the vetted resources and tools most relevant for them. The site will consolidate, organize, and disseminate the most useful PB guides, materials, videos, research, and data in an accessible format. It addresses one of the top priorities identified through a global co-design process: consolidation of research and tools. There is a large and growing body of resources, but practitioners have found it difficult to identify and access the quality resources that are most useful for their situation. The resource center will use tags and customizable searches to connect PB implementers and advocates with relevant resources and support.

2. Rising Stars and Guiding Stars Mentorship Program (FUNDED)

• Limited access to relevant practical guidance has been one of the main challenges for new PB implementers and advocates around the world. When confronted with tough questions and problems about PB design or implementation, leaders are often unsure who to reach out to for guidance. Rising Stars & Guiding Stars is a mentorship program that aims to address this problem by connecting rising PB leaders to seasoned PB implementers around the world. The program will match and connect new implementers and advocates with questions to on-the-ground experts who can address those questions, starting with an initial cohort of at least 10 mentors in 2020.

3. PB for Climate Change (FUNDED)

• Promote knowledge sharing on how to use PB to advance climate change mitigation and adaptation. First, produce a landscape analysis on how local governments and civil society have been using participatory democracy to address climate change. Then, develop recommendations on how local governments and civil society can use PB to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. Finally, share these recommendations and resources via webinar and short accessible digital materials for practitioners.

4. PB for Equality and Inclusion (FUNDED)

• Provide core information and guidance on how to make PB processes more inclusive and use PB to engage marginalized communities. Start with four areas: Gender, People of Color, Disability, and Economically Disadvantaged communities. We will provide practitioners with key approaches, strategies, and tactics to include in a PB process to make it more inclusive, including case studies and success stories. For each focus area, we will produce a short video, a leaflet or info sheet, a blog post cross-posted with partners, and a webinar.

5. Youth Peer to Peer PB Network (FUNDRAISING PRIORITY)

• Create a youth PB peer to peer learning exchange for young aspiring PB leaders to share good practice, challenges, and commonalities. Develop young PB leaders who will train more young people in their own countries to be PB leaders and facilitators. For 2020, begin to develop this network by supporting and advising a new global PB pilot program developed by partners, in which young people around the world are deciding together how to allocate a shared pot of money to address global threats and opportunities. By matching students at schools in multiple countries in a joint PB initiative, the program will give young people power to address global issues, something they are increasingly mobilizing to do. A pilot is underway in two countries, and the program will soon be ready to expand. In addition to the traditional benefits of PB, the experience is designed to nurture shared identity and social trust, and incentivize collaboration and compromise. 

6. PB Outreach Task Force (FUNDRAISING PRIORITY)

• Provide focused outreach support to government officials in key regions and sectors, to strategically expand the quantity and quality of PB processes. While PB has spread widely around the world, the level of commitment varies. Many governments do not invest enough funds on implementation or share enough decision-making power with residents. Meanwhile, PB is not yet established in some regions (e.g. Eastern Europe, sub-saharan Africa) and sectors (e.g. schools, universities). Individualized outreach is one of the most effective strategies to increase support from decision-makers. The digital platform Consul, for instance, secured government support in over 100 cities globally by dedicating a small staff team for video meetings with cities to help them get started. Modest resources can inspire dozens of governments to open channels for participatory democracy. The Outreach Taskforce will partner with a few regional and sectoral partners to reach out to governments (local, regional and national) and help them start and deepen PB. 

Research projects and case studies

1. Mapping and assessing PB models

• Map and categorize the diverse existing models of PB, to lay the groundwork for a further stage of evaluating and comparing impacts across models, and to provide implementers with more guidance on design options. There is an extensive literature on PB and increasing efforts to map PB processes around the globe. Nevertheless, we do not have a common language or taxonomy for understanding the variations in rules, models, and designs worldwide. Cross-country global research via a large-n study of processes has yet to capture and assess PB models. This research project will map a broad range of PB processes using purposeful sampling until theoretical saturation is reached, to build a grounded definition of PB and categorize diverse existing models of PB and their certain, conflicting, and alleged effects. 

2. Large-scale impact evaluation: PB’s impacts on democracy, governance & quality of life

• Use a comparative methodology to identify how PB program designs, socio-political contexts, political motivations, and state-capacities affect its impact on democracy, governance, and quality of life. Research on the impacts of PB in these areas can help implementers improve their own PB processes, and it can help advocates promote PB by providing evidence-based analyses and answers for those considering adopting PB. More limited versions of this impact evaluation could be conducted for specific models, such as PB in schools and educational institutions, or for specific continents or regions. Research methods would include collection and analysis of meta-data across sites, and if possible randomized control trials in specific sites. 

3. Why does PB disappear, and how can it be more resilient? 

• Analyze different cases of PB's abandonment to identify the main factors that lead to its disappearance and strategies to make PB more resilient and adaptive. Are local contexts the main factor for processes ending, or are there common patterns that transform engaging democratic innovations into tedious public participation rituals? Does PB's lack of centrality in public policy make it disappear? Or, on the contrary, does the high visibility of flagship PB projects make opposition political administrations discontinue successful processes? The study of PB abandonment can shed light on various factors: poor PB design and institutional architecture, shrinking political support, weak civic engagement, boycott by interest groups, and traumas such as wars or natural catastrophes. The study will use comparative qualitative and quantitative methods, and include cases of early and late PB processes.

4. What are the strengths, weaknesses, and impacts of digital PB tools?

• Assess the use of digital tools in PB processes. Just as democracy was presented as unstoppable in the 19th century, so are the advancement of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their impact on the forms of relating, knowing, and informing. Both phenomena caused disruptive transformations because both have to do with our everyday life. In turn, in times when democratic political representation is questioned, ICTs can reduce the gaps between voters and representatives. We will conduct interviews and secondary research to prepare a report and practical materials for PB implementers. Do ICTs strengthen face-to-face participation? Are they a new territory of participation? What moments of digital participation strengthen information, deliberation, consultation, and choice? What is the link between the online and offline worlds of political life? How do they impact inclusion, innovation, deliberation, and other indicators of the quality of participation.

5. National PB laws: Best practices 

• Assess the recent wave of National PB Laws and identify best practices. There are currently 9 to 11 countries that have passed PB laws, and there are also several countries that are currently debating whether to pass a law. The laws (or proposals) vary greatly in design and scope, including whether they impose PB at the local level or provide incentives for it. Current research suggests that this is a very complex way to undertake PB but there are no studies that explore a comprehensive set of cases. For this research project, the researchers will first develop a list of countries with national laws, compare the similarities and differences among the cases, and summarize their legal frameworks. Next, the researchers will review the literature that evaluates these efforts (mostly case studies). Finally, the researchers will present a list of best practices and develop a short list of questions that remain unanswered in order to help define a future research agenda. The final document will be a short white paper that summarizes these issues.

6. What role does PB play in authoritarian countries?

• Explore how PBs work in non-democratic or authoritarian contexts, where formal institutions of democracy do not exist or coexist with visible authoritarian approaches and a lack of political autonomy of decentralized institutions. There are two main research questions for PB in these contexts: 1) Genesis: How and why do decision-makers introduce PB? 2) Effects: How do PBs change governance, the people, and relations between different social actors and the governing institutions? The genesis question is primarily about the motivation of public officials (so-called ‘authoritarian puzzle’: why do the officials care about public participation in a context when there is no political need for it). The effects question is about the spillover effects that PB may have: Does PB help to enhance government efficiency? Does it strengthen authoritarian regimes or, on the contrary, lead to a more stable and demanding civil society. The researchers will conduct a qualitative comparative analysis of PB processes in different authoritarian or unstable countries.

Research infrastructure

1. Research evaluation toolkit 

• Develop a guide and sample materials for conducting evaluations of PB processes. A toolkit with research instruments will help with data collection and comparability. With shared methodologies and language, researchers don't have to start from scratch - they can use tools that have already been created, and which can be used to make comparisons between other PB processes. The toolkit will include sample evaluation metrics, plans, surveys, and interview guides.

2. Map of researchers and research organizations

• Create a user-friendly intuitive online map and database listing researchers and research organizations working on PB in each municipality/country, with basic profiles and contact information. Sharing information about researchers and research institutions focusing on PB would facilitate building networks and increase collaboration among the researchers. This would lead to more research on PB and more knowledge sharing. This project could be integrated into the Global PB Hub’s Online PB Resource Center.

3. Thematic meta-reviews

• Review literature and findings about several key themes related to PB, and produce 1-2 page briefs on each theme summarizing the major findings and what future research is needed. Focus on PB in particular regions or types of institutions for which there is less widely accessible knowledge. This will make key information about diverse PB practices more easily accessible to researchers, advocates, and implementers.

4. FAQ and Q&A on online PB resource center 

• Create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and a Q&A textbox/form for the Global PB Hub’s Online PB Resource Center, to facilitate knowledge exchange. To develop the FAQs, crowdsource questions and answers from the Global PB Research and Support Boards, and then revise the content to make it as accessible as possible. For the textbox/form, enable people to ask other questions and PB Hub experts respond. This will share the Global PB Hub’s expertise and make it easier for practitioners to answer their questions.

5. Online videos on PB research

• Produce a series of videos to deliver more accessible communication of PB research and expand the reach of the PB research projects. Content would include PB evaluation designs, tools, and metrics; PB models and approaches around the world; major PB research and findings; and other topics. Video formats could include expert interviews, animated how-tos, and other explanatory tutorials. 

6. PB University online courses

• Develop and produce a series of online courses on PB research, to make research findings more accessible. Start by assessing target audiences, existing PB online courses, and preferred platforms for online courses. The course materials will include a range of materials and activities (e.g., articles, presentations, maps, quizzes, videos, wikis, possibilities for group work, games) and links to other PB resources. We will use existing materials on PB, as well as develop new material as part of the project. The course is likely to have a modular structure, so that students can decide which subject area within PB they want to learn about and in what order (e.g. theory, history, types of PB, implementation, evaluation, research, etc.).