Hacemos San Pedro: Participatory Budgeting Reform. (MXSPG0005)

Commitment ID

MXSPG0005

Commitment Title

Hacemos San Pedro: Participatory Budgeting Reform.

Problem

The Participatory Budgeting program of San Pedro Garza García is a mechanism with high democratic value because it allows residents to directly influence the use of public resources to improve their immediate surroundings. However, in recent years, the model faced challenges that limited its effectiveness, such as delays in project delivery and implementation, variability in the quality of public works, and a scheme that encouraged competition among neighborhoods rather than community collaboration.

When some neighborhoods participate but do not receive projects, or when projects are delayed, the mechanism loses its ability to demonstrate that citizen participation produces tangible results. This reduces neighborhood trust, weakens co-responsibility, and limits the potential of Participatory Budgeting as an open government tool.

For this reason, the municipality seeks to address the need to comprehensively restructure the program under the principles of equality, transparency, honesty, equity, and quality, ensuring that all neighborhoods with an active Neighborhood Committee can access resources, define priorities, and publicly follow up on the implementation of their projects.

Status quo

At the beginning of the commitment, San Pedro Garza García’s Participatory Budgeting program was in a stage of redesign. Since 2001, when “Tus Impuestos Trabajando” was created to finance citizen-proposed projects through Neighborhood Boards and Committees, the program evolved through formalization, regulatory integration, and digital modernization, becoming a permanent mechanism for community decision-making.

During the 2018–2024 period, however, the model operated mainly through competition among projects and neighborhoods. Although digital tools expanded online participation, the scheme limited the territorial distribution of benefits, since neighborhoods competed for a restricted number of projects. This reduced its potential for cohesion, equity, and co-responsibility.

The diagnosis carried out in October and November 2024 identified delays in project delivery, variations in technical quality, and the absence of a clear, fair, and verifiable formula to ensure access to resources for represented neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods were left without projects, weakening trust.

At the start of the Action Plan, the municipality already had Neighborhood Boards and Committees, interdepartmental coordination, technical review processes, supervision capacities, and an annual budget of 112 million pesos. The challenge was not to create Participatory Budgeting from scratch, but to consolidate it as a more equitable, efficient, transparent, and verifiable open government policy.

Action

With the new administration in 2025, San Pedro Garza García began a new reform stage for Participatory Budgeting, aimed at restoring equity by ensuring that all neighborhoods with an active Neighborhood Committee receive assigned resources, without having to compete against one another. This reform aligns with the “One San Pedro” vision, which promotes permanent channels for dialogue, co-responsibility, and problem-solving between government and citizens.

The commitment consists of redesigning and implementing an annual Participatory Budgeting cycle that guarantees resources for eligible neighborhoods through a public process for receiving proposals, citizen voting, and digital publication of information on project progress.

Its objective is to build a fairer, clearer, more transparent, and more community-centered process, closer to neighborhood priorities and easier for citizens to follow.

Expected results include full coverage of applicable neighborhoods with active Neighborhood Committees; projects that respond to local priorities and improve quality of life; reduced backlogs and better delivery times; and digital transparency through public information on projects, amounts, locations, progress, evidence, and fulfillment status.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?

The commitment addresses the public problem by transforming Participatory Budgeting from a model with unequal coverage and competition among neighborhoods into a more equitable territorial allocation scheme, with clear rules, feasible projects, and public follow-up.

By guaranteeing resources for all neighborhoods with an active Neighborhood Committee, the program responds to a key limitation of previous stages: some communities could be left without projects despite having concrete needs. Under the new model, access no longer depends on competition, but on ensuring that each organized community can define improvements for its surroundings.

The commitment also strengthens the process by connecting citizen proposals with technical review, interdepartmental supervision, and implementation. This creates a clearer path between participation, resource allocation, project execution, and accountability.

Digital publication improves traceability by allowing citizens to consult projects, amounts, locations, progress, evidence, and fulfillment status.

Expected products include a redesigned annual Participatory Budgeting cycle based on territorial equity; resource allocation for eligible neighborhoods; community projects subject to budget, technical feasibility, and program rules; a public list of proposals and viable projects; technical sheets; a public digital platform; progress reports; and a documented annual closing report.

What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?

This commitment is related to the long-term vision of consolidating San Pedro Garza García as a municipality where openness is the natural way of governing and where public decisions are built through citizen participation, verifiable information, and accountability.

In particular, the commitment contributes to the objective of strengthening citizen participation in the definition and oversight of public policies and services by allowing neighborhoods with an active Neighborhood Committee to participate in identifying priorities, defining community projects, and following up on their implementation. In this way, Participatory Budgeting is no longer only a mechanism for allocating resources, but is consolidated as a tool for co-responsibility between government and citizens.

It is also linked to the objective of advancing toward transparency embedded in its design, since the commitment incorporates the publication of information on projects, amounts, locations, progress, and evidence. This allows citizens to publicly verify how resources are implemented and what results are achieved.

Finally, the commitment strengthens effective citizen participation by establishing a clearer pathway between citizen decision-making, technical feasibility, institutional implementation, and public follow-up. Through this, Participatory Budgeting aligns with the long-term vision of building public trust through open data, meaningful participation, and accountability.

Primary Policy Area

Fiscal Openness, Social Accountability

Primary Sector

Cross-sectoral, Public Services (general)

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?