“Assessment of Participatory Budgeting in Brazil,” Research Assessment, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 2001-2003

Excerpt: 1.0 Executive Summary, p. 8

The main objective of the study is to assess the extent to which participatory budgeting (OP, or Participatory Budget is “Orcamento Participativo,” or Particatory ) is fostering the efficient and democratic allocation of resources and citizen involvement in the planning and management of their localities. The report draws upon extensive field research undertaken by the Center for Urban Development Studies in: Porto Alegre (population 1.3 million), the initiator of the OP in 1989; Gravatai (population 230,000), an industrial city in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area; Caxias do Sul (population 360,000) an urban center in a predominately rural area; Belo Horizonte (population 2.1 million), which implemented the first participatory housing budget (OPH); Santo Andre, (population 650,000), in the Sao Paulo metropolitan region, the city which has interlinked its participatory planning and budgeting processes; and, Rio Grande do Sul (population 10.2 million), the only state to have successfully implemented participatory budgeting.”