Knowledge is Power: innovating how citizens learn and shape public budgeting in Brazil

The Municipality of Osasco designed a methodology of active learning for citizens about public budgeting to promote informed participation.

Introduction

Brazil has a long-lasting tradition of involving the public in the budget cycle. The now internationally famous participatory budget was created in Porto Alegre in 1989, and the Brazilian legislation makes mandatory to involve citizens in shaping the budget through workshops and open meetings[1]. The municipality of Osasco in Brazil has been implementing open government reforms[2] to enhance social engagement in public policy development, transparency and democracy strengthening technological initiatives.

In recent years, Osasco’s economic development has been favorable, becoming in 2022 the 7th largest GDP in the country among 5,570 Brazilian cities. Within this economic context, public authorities in Osasco face the challenge of overcoming a history of inequalities by encouraging social development and sound public budget management. To address this challenge, the Municipality of Osasco recognised the growing importance of involving the public in the budget cycle.

Since public budget can be a complex topic, we asked ourselves: how can we empower the population through knowledge, and how this information can be delivered in an appealing manner?

The Open Government and Citizenship Strengthening Department partnered with other public authorities[3] to design more interactive, creative, and fun ways to approach public budgeting issues. The result was the creation of the “Contando as Contas”[4] methodology.

Contando as Contas: Becoming a public manager for a day

The main activity is an interactive workshop to inform and simulate the budget process with the participation of both public authorities and citizens. Participants are purposefully selected to assure diversity in terms of gender, race, age, etc.

The activity usually lasts between 1–1.5h, and starts with a round of welcome presentations of civil servants and participants, a brief introduction to the principles of Open Government and Osasco’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) action plan. Then, relevant authorities present the legal bases for budget planning and control such as the Brazilian Constitution, the Fiscal Responsibility Law, and the operational laws of the public budget including the Pluriannual Plan (PPA), the Budgetary Guidelines Law (LDO) and the Annual Budget Law (LOA). The Sustainable Development Goals are presented as concrete blueprint for of budgetary classification of revenue and expense by actions.

After providing participants with this information, citizens join a simulation game to apply the theoretical concepts related to the budget. The game is divided into different stages.

(1) Priority Choice: participants need to select three budgetary axes (urban development, health, and public safety, for example). Each selected axis must include 6 concrete actions. Two of them are already committed in the budget, as they are routine public management expenses (i.e., purchase of medicines or urban cleaning for example). The remaining 4 actions are prioritised by participants. To do so, participants are divided into small groups for 10 minutes to discuss and collectively decide on the actions to prioritise.

(2) Allocating Resources: a fictitious budget of $10.000.000,00[5] is distributed to each group. Within a 10-minute time limit, participants discuss and decide which actions predefined in the previous stage should be financed. The allocation represents participants’ priorities and goals for societal development. Then, the expected cost of the selected actions is made public, and depending on the surplus or deficit, a final round of group discussions allows participants to reallocate resources if necessary.

(3) Feedback and reflection: To conclude the workshop, participants are asked to provide feedback and evaluate the activity to ensure continuous improvement. Each participant receives a comic book Telling the Accounts, written in simple and accessible language, summarizing the concepts of public budgeting addressed during the workshop. More copies are provided, so that participants can share it with their network or community.

Learning through Experience: Testimonials and Impact

This methodology has received an overall positive evaluation by participants. Some testimonials include:

“During the game I had a lot of difficulty choosing where I would invest the money. I put myself in the shoes of the public manager. I felt empathy.” — B., social development activist.

“I was so focused on my interests that I hadn’t remembered that in the city there are countless other matters to deal with as important as mine” — P., cyclist activist.

“In 15 years as a counsellor, it was the first time I participated in an activity like this, so didactic and important to understand the public budget… I wanted everyone to participate in this workshop” — M., activist for the Rights of Children and Adolescents.

“I believe it would be a gain for the city if the workshop were implemented as a permanent public policy” — W., activist of the environment.

The workshop was also featured in a critical review of its learning model by Economics students at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) and was nominated for the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy (IOPD) 2022 Award “Best Practice in Citizen Participation”.

Civic education can increase the impact of participation

This methodology has proven to be a promising and replicable citizen empowerment tool through learning and education. Active learning allows citizens to better understand the budget cycle, but also creates empathy and trust towards the difficult choices and trade-offs that civil servants face regularly. When informed, citizens are then more eager to participate in other processes such as the municipal participatory budget. In the future, this methodology could be combined with more advanced forms of participation, like a deliberative process.

Similar initiatives of civic education could also be applied in other contexts, such as climate change or mobility, to promote an informed participation, ultimately building public policies in an integral, creative, and collective way.

— —

Felipe Tannus is Program Coordinator in the Department of Open Government and Citizenship Strengthening, as part of the Secretary of Planning and Management at Osasco City Hall. With a fervent dedication to promoting transparent governance, he orchestrates innovative initiatives that bridge the gap between administration and citizens, fostering engagement and inclusion.

[1] For more information on Brazil’s participatory landscape, please see OECD Open Government Review of Brazil (2022): https://www.oecd.org/gov/open-government/open-government-review-of-brazil-3f9009d4-en.htm

[2] Osasco joined the Open Government Partnership Local cohort in 2020.

[3] Budget Planning Department, the Strategic Planning Department, the Government and Public Policy Laboratory and the art and design team, both from Secretary of Planning and Management.

[4] Can be translated as Telling the Accounts or counting the budget.

[5] €1,891,821.30 (EUR) as per the exchange rate of October 2023.