Promote citizen participation in developing budgets (ES0072)

What is the problem/need that is desired to resolve with the commitment? The need for the citizen to be able to participate in the process of making decisions about the budgets of the autonomous regions and thus delve deeper into matters of open government and democratic implementation.

Objectives of the commitment To promote the incorporation of the citizenship in the process of making decisions of economic nature, participating in the preparation of budgets of autonomous regions.

Brief description of the commitment To regulate and develop a participatory budget project in the Generalitat Valenciana. To develop the first participatory budgets in the Generalitat Valenciana, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, with the establishment of certain budgetary line entries that will be subjected to a participatory process in order to be deliberated by the Valencian citizenship.

How does the commitment contribute to solve the problem or cover the need? It decisively contributes, given that it takes a further step towards integrating the citizenship in all aspects that influence the collective governance. Open government feeds off the activities in which the citizenship takes power and actively participates in public affairs, thus approaching one of the spheres traditionally restricted to elected representatives, thus making it possible to delve deeper into a democracy based on the commitments expressed. Thus, this commitment strives to improve the public services by developing a more effective management of the public resources.

Why is the commitment relevant with respect to the values of Open Government? It promotes, strengthens and improves the quality of participation in the public management, allowing the citizenship to participate in making public decisions with the objective of achieving better results and better democratic quality. For the citizenship to participate in drafting the participatory budgets, as well as at the autonomous region level, which strengthens and improves the quality of the participation in public management because they participate in the decision‐making, it increases the collective awareness of the citizenship and generates greater co‐responsibility in the institutional economic performance, prioritising the resolution of public problems as a collective issue. It delves deeper into transparency, open data and accountability of Public Administrations through carrying out actions aimed at its improvement and the evaluation of the results of the plans and programmes The citizenship has all of the information related to the budgets in order to be able to act responsibly and collectively. This implies greater effort in the institutional transparency, data openness and to the extent in which the citizenship increases their interaction with these matters, which promotes greater and better accountability of the Public Administrations. 167 It contributes to building a system of public integrity, strengthening the ethical values and mechanisms to bolster the integrity of the public institutions and reinforce the trust of the citizenship The trust of the citizenship is notably increased by them feeling part of the solution to the problems that they face. Since the end of the eighties in the city of Porto Alegre (Brazil), the participatory budgets initiatives have been disseminated throughout the world with adaptations and different versions. In Spain, the so‐called "governments of change" that entered the institutions after the municipal elections of 2015 incorporated them into the political agenda as a priority. Since then, the experiences of growth and "digital participation" have not stopped and have also contributed to their transformation with implications that are worth analysing. A greater progressive interaction with the citizenship in the decision‐making has derived from this, which strengthens the feeling of belonging with respect to the collective group, thus reinforcing the confidence of the citizenship in the public task by being aware of the way in which these activities are carried out and being able to actively participate in them. It raises awareness among society and civil servants about the values of Open Government, contributing to the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda in order to advance towards a just, peaceful and inclusive society. Raising awareness with respect to the public work increases the involvement of the citizenship in tasks directly related to public decision‐making. In addition, they are based on economic matters and the orderly selection of public priorities and not based on individual and subjective criteria. On the contrary, they are the expression of a collective reality that clearly strengthens the assumption of public duties as a task as citizens and as a group as a whole. It also promotes raising awareness with respect to the work of the civil servants, because the citizenship will be more aware of the task they are carrying out. In the end, it involves bringing public representatives and civil servants closer to the citizenship in an effective fulfilment of the highest level within the scenarios of citizen participation about making joint decisions between public representatives and the citizenship. This generates the perfect mix to progress towards fulfilling the SDGs. Practically all of the SDGs are reinforced by the citizenship assuming a decisive position in preparing the participatory budgets. Investments can be channelled, which make it possible to reduce inequalities that have traditionally bee addressed in the Porto Alegre process, the inspiration of all the subsequent ones (SDG 1, 2, 10). It also puts the focus on a raising more awareness of the environment among the citizenship (SDG 7, 11, 12, 13). Lastly, all of this is obviously from a perspective of gender and inclusiveness of all groups who form part of society (SDG 3, 5, 16). 168

Additional information Online seminar: Participatory budgets, strengths and weaknesses carried out 9 July 2020. This seminar seeks to create a space of reflection, in a balanced manner, about this instrument of the democracies that aspire to be more participatory and deliberative. It is also intended to value its application at the Autonomous Region level

Activities of the commitment Start date End date Preparation and approval of the decree of the Council along with the Ministry of Finance, which will establish the procedure of drafting the participatory budgets. The regulatory base is essential in order to be able to develop a participatory framework sustained on a clear and recognisable base so that this activity is very simple to verify 15/10/2020 30/06/2021 Preparation of the first participatory budgets The participation of the citizenship as a key piece in democracy was essential when asking citizens for their active participation in carrying out their commitment to society. This phase is also verifiable by being completely public and with the due advertisement 01/07/2021 15/10/2021 Execution of the participatory budgets The ultimate aim of the activity is that the citizens establish the priorities regarding public expenses, such that the materialisation of the budgets in the resulting process of execution of the budgets is the culmination of the budgetary activity. Transparency and disclosure of the public activities implies clear verificability of the actions 01/01/2022 31/12/2022