Participatory Budgeting in Indonesia: Past, Present and Future

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This practice paper describes the work of Yayasan Kota Kita (Our City Foundation), an Indonesian civil society organisation of governance practitioners, and reflects on the history and evolution of participatory budgeting in Indonesia across six cities.

In doing so, it contextualises some of the findings of the research, and discusses their implications. It discusses:

  • the risks and opportunities of institutionalising participation;

  • how access to information and use of new technologies has an impact on participation in budget planning processes;

  • what it takes for participatory budgeting to be an empowering process for citizens;

  • and how participatory budgeting can include hard-to-reach citizens.

It’s a really interesting read and offers some sobering lessons from Indonesia where PB went from being truly participatory & democratic to a tokenistic procedural process after being institutionalised.

There’s more here.