Promoting Local Participatory Budgeting (SN0009)

What is the public issue that the commitment will address? Senegal has made a lot of progress in budget transparency, including in terms of citizen participation at the local level. Indeed, the issue of participation is well taken into account in the General Code of Local Authorities which, in addition, requires local authorities to make their budgets and administrative accounts public. Therefore, local authorities hold a budgetary orientation debate open to the public and proceed to the vote and publication of the administrative account. However, citizen participation is still weak in the elaboration, implementation and monitoring of the budget at local level, as the creation of consultation frameworks, which act as forums for citizen participation, remains optional.

What are the objectives of the commitment? The main objective of this commitment is to promote the participatory budget approach at local level. In this respect, it aims at : • raising awareness of local authorities on the challenges of the participatory budget approach • encouraging the setting up of consultation frameworks • improving the handling of the population's concerns and the use of resources at local level.

How would the commitment contribute to solving the public issue? The commitment will help strengthen citizen participation in the budgetary process at the local level and improve the management of local government resources.

Why is this commitment relevant to the OGP values? The commitment contributes to the implementation of the principles of transparency, participation and accountability.

Further information The participatory budget is already being implemented in some local 35 authorities.

Important activity with a verifiable deliverable Agenda Start Closure 1. Raise awareness of local and regional authorities (AMS and UAEL) on the challenges of the participatory budget approach January 2022 December 2023 2. Advocate for the internalization of Directive n° 01/2011/cm/waemu on the financial regime of local authorities within the WAEMU. January 2022 December 2023 3. Update and popularize the citizen participation guide January 2022 September 2024 4. Create a local government portal January 2022 December 2023 5. Revitalize the Local Budget Monitoring Groups (LBMGs) and set up 10 new LBMGs January 2022 December 2023 6. Advocate for the adoption of an implementing decree organizing the consultation frameworks January 2022 December 2023 7. Set up 20 new consultation frameworks on the participatory budget January 2022 December 2023 8. Build the capacity of 200 local government and civil society actors January 2022 December 2023

Action Plan Review

Commitment 9: Promoting the Participatory Budget Approach at the Local Level

For a complete description of commitment 9, see the action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Senegal_Action-Plan_2021-2023_EN.pdf

Context and objectives

While Senegal made significant progress in budget transparency over the past decade, according to the Open Budget Survey, there is need to strengthen budgetary control and citizen participation, which was evaluated as very low in 2019. [53] This commitment seeks to enhance citizen participation in local public finances.

The OGP action plan states that the lack of consultation frameworks is an obstacle to participatory budgeting. The commitment seeks to expand the participatory budget approach countrywide by improving the regulation of consultation frameworks, setting up monitoring groups and building capacities of local governments and civil society actors. It also includes the creation of a dedicated internet portal and a guide.

Increasing participation in budget processes is a government priority in line with the national development plan and the ongoing decentralization process, according to the Director for Local Authorities at the Ministry of Territorial Collectivities, Development and Land Use Planning. [54] The Technical Committee endorsed this commitment under the leadership of the Citizen Network for Budget Transparency (RCTB) [55] and “absolutely reflects the priorities of civil society organizations” as well. [56]

Potential for results: Substantial

This commitment holds a substantial potential to strengthen civic participation in local budget processes by strengthening the national legal framework and participatory budgeting tools.

Senegal lacks national level legislation on participatory budgeting. At the local level, the General Code of Local Authorities provides, to a certain extent, for citizens’ access to information and participation in the management of local affairs. [57] The Code requires local authorities to hold a budgetary orientation debate, open to the public, and to vote and publish their actual accounts (comptes administratifs). [58] However, the Code does not currently require mayors to provide opportunities for citizen participation in developing, implementing and monitoring of local budgets.

So far, a limited but increasing number of local governments across the country have employed participatory budgeting. In a context of development partners' ever-growing interest, civil society organizations are co-ordinating and nurturing a favorable environment for citizen control over the management of public finances. In 2016, several organizations such as CICODEV, ALPHADEV, Action Solidaire International and Enda ECOPOP launched the Citizen Network for Budget Transparency (RCTB). Since then, according to the Director of Local Authorities, at least 40 projects have been documented following the approach proposed by the National Program for Local Development and Enda ECOPOP. Other reports indicate over 100 participatory budgeting experiences at local level, out of 558 “communes” (municipalities) and 46 departments in Senegal. [59]

The initial participatory budgeting experiences in Senegal have helped local governments collect higher revenues from municipal taxes and increase their budget, by improving confidence between citizens and authorities. Citizens have seen an impact on the way resources were used in services and investments, according to their interests, and have tended to reelect mayors who introduced participatory budgeting. [60] Some of the general challenges associated with participatory budgeting are the inclusion of disadvantaged or traditionally more excluded groups, such as women, youth, elderly, less educated, persons with disabilities, etc. who might face greater barriers to participating and to having their priorities reflected. However, according to UN Habitat’s analysis, participatory budgeting has proven to be an overall positive process for the building of inclusive localities, “where those who are traditionally marginalized are breaking out of the cycle of exclusion”. [61]

Therefore, the main challenge addressed by the commitment is how to expand the practice of participatory budgeting for impactful and sustainable results throughout the country. In line with the action plan's initial assessment, the President of COSEF (Senegalese Council of Women) stated that participatory budgeting is not extended because “there is no legal requirement for the mayors to set up consultation frameworks. These remain optional.” [62] She explained that “this has been a commitment of the state for a long time linked to the decentralization process, but more ambition is needed to change Article 7 of the Local Authorities Code. Where it states that the mayor "can" appoint the members of the consultation framework, it should be changed by "must". We have to formalize these consultation frameworks.” [63]

Consultation frameworks are public participation forums that include political representatives and civil society members across all sectors. These frameworks define priorities for community budgets, through interaction with elected officials and the local government. Consultation frameworks need to be officially recognized and established so that they don’t depend on political will. [64] The commitment establishes quantitative targets, such as 20 new consultation frameworks, and 10 Local Budget Monitoring Groups. More significantly, it seeks to institutionalize participatory budgeting by adopting an implementing decree that would regularize the systematic set up of these frameworks in the communes.

More broadly, another obstacle to participatory budgeting is due to the lack of public understanding of the budget process, and of civil society monitoring capacities. The commitment seeks to increase access to relevant information. [65] The internet portal for local authorities to be established “will contain data on the decentralization’s legal framework, share information on capitalization of experiences and statistics on local finances”. [66] Implementation also includes awareness-raising and training programmes on the participatory budgeting approach for a number of local governments and civil society actors, delivered together with civic organizations. Capacity-building activities will cover topics such as “participatory development of the various planning tools (town and land-use planning) and budget processes,” and “dissemination activities will be undertaken through workshops” for 200 persons and the popularization of the guide. [67]

Taken together, these objectives make the commitment relevant to the values of access to information and civic participation, and with substantial potential to open government. Most significantly, the aim to establish a national legal framework promises to address the central obstacle to the expansion of participatory budgeting across Senegal, which is currently dependent on the political will of local leaders. Furthermore, the creation of an information portal and training programme begins to address the lack of citizen budget literacy and officials' understanding of participatory budgeting. Therefore, with a strong coalition of government and civil society reformers, the commitment has substantial potential to increase citizens’ ability to participate in shaping and to influence local investments and public services.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

From a civil society perspective, commitment 9 could strengthen past achievements and engage more municipalities in participatory budgeting. They perceive political will and expect that the commitment will effectively translate into a regulatory change and contribute to a collaborative environment for participatory budgeting at the local level. The President of COSEF anticipates that regulating consultation frameworks may integrate civic participation in the budget process at the local level, as long as these frameworks become mandatory. [68] Both Action Solidaire International and COSEF stressed that CSOs will oversee the implementation of the commitment. [69] The involvement of experienced organizations forming the RCTB through awareness-raising and trainings is as well an opportunity to achieve concrete results.

Adopting the necessary regulatory change will likely present the greatest challenge. The Director of Local Authorities expressed that “with elections to be held at the beginning of 2022 and expected changes in local teams, forecasts may be upset.” [70] Another challenge mentioned by COSEF President is the need to train not only elected officials, but also the population in budget literacy, so citizens can interact with elected officials and get involved in the management of local affairs. [71]

In OGP action plans, participatory budgeting and, more broadly, fiscal openness is a popular area which has delivered good results. Among them, commitments at the local level are particularly effective: over a quarter of local fiscal openness commitments show strong early results, and over 80% of local participatory budgeting commitments are highly ambitious. [72] Therefore, Senegal can look to some of these commitments. For instance, in 2016, the Madrid city council enabled the public to allocate 100 million euros and propose potential expenditures. The population voted on the final proposals. [73] Côte d’Ivoire introduced local participatory budgeting in its first action plan (2016), piloting this approach in 10 municipalities. The government established local committees to monitor community projects and budgets, and offered training opportunities to 350 leaders in civil society organizations and women’s groups on social accountability, budgeting, and facilitation. Its third plan for 2020-22 foresees to create a participatory budgeting decree and a guide to standardize civic participation in budget formation across Ivorian communes. [74] Likewise, the government’s inclusion of civil society in validation sessions for budget guidelines begins to increase civic participation in fiscal processes. At the national level. Recently, Nigeria (2019) [75], Tunisia (2018) [76], Tbilisi (2018) [77] and Scotland (2018) [78] have made commitments related to enhanced participation in local budgets.

With these opportunities, challenges, and examples in mind, the IRM specifically recommends to: