SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY STOCKTAKING EXERCISE FOR OECD COUNTRIES

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1 SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY STOCKTAKING EXERCISE FOR OECD COUNTRIES Type of interaction (iii) Participation Name of Intervention Online-Dialogue for the participatory budget of Berlin-Lichtenberg Primary Agency Running Intervention (Initiator) for the participatory budget: Bezirksamt Lichtenberg von Berlin (Lichtenberg Borough of Berlin) for the online-dialogue: Zebralog - cross media dialogues Basic Information Who is being held accountable? Location Institutional level Population Sector Year of implementation and duration Is this a one-off event or repeated regularly? The local council (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung) receive the budget proposals from the citizens and make the final decision. They give account about this decision to the public. Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany Local inhabitants Budget August July was the pilot year. Now, local council has decided to implement participatory budgeting as a regular task. Context and Scope What are the main objectives - Mutual agreement in policy decisions; - Effective and fair budgeting; - Transparency and comprehension for financial matters; - Lively discussion and unbureaucratic solutions Source: =detail&id_item=131 Who is the target audience or demographic focus? A representative, considerable number of all local citizens 1

2 Is the initiative or methodology based on legal requirements? Stage of decision-making cycle Not required Accompanying process for the whole decision-making cycle What budget and / or human resources were allocated to this SA initiative by the initiator? Approx Euro in the pilot year and approx Euro per regular year for external services (media, moderation, webdesign, etc.); plus unspecified human resources within the administration Depending of the media channel: a) Paper survey: 2 mailings, total time per citizen approx. 1 hour What are the costs to citizens and CSOs? b) Public meetings: several neighborhood meetings, total time per citizen approx. 8 hours c) Internet: 4 weeks online-discussion, information reading, newsletters, onlinepolling, total time per citizen approx hours, self-determined If the initiative concerns participatory budgeting; what percentage is it of the total investment budget? 100% of the "steerable" municipal budget. This excludes "fixed" transfers from the regional authority e.g. for social benefits. Tools & Methodologies Used What specific SA tools and methodologies are being used? Briefly describe the methodology (/ies) or tools used? a) Paper survey b) Public meetings c) Internet: Online-dialogue with detailed information section, moderated discussionforum, budget-calculator, proposal-wikis, preference-polling, newsletter, editor's interviews with politicians, etc. What advocacy and media activities support the initiative? - Posters and leaflets; - Information stands at local festivals; - Mass media coverage; - Online banners; - etc. 2

3 Were there any specific tools used to ensure that target groups were engaged? - Mini-events for minorities and fringe groups; - Free access to online-dialogue in local libraries; - Tech support for online-participants - Proactive phone support for surveyparticipants - Interpreters for hearing impaired citizens at public meetings Results and Impact What (if any) has been the impact of the initiative? The local council has passed 37 of the 42 proposed budget- and policy-amendments. The prioritized list of 42 proposals were the result of the cross-media dialogue with hundreds of single submissions. The main impact was considered enhanced accountability of local government. Source: =detail&id_item=499 Has the target group been reached? How inclusive was the initiative? In total 4000 people have participated in the different formats of the pilot year. The paper survey has reached a representative share of the local population. The online-dialogue has reached mainly young and mid-aged citizens up to 50 years of both genders. The level of education was higher than in the total population. Has the initiative been scaled up? Other boroughs of Berlin and other large German cities are starting similar budgeting initiatives. Have any partnerships been established with the government, parliaments, media, NGOs, communities etc.? Describe The Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal center for political education) has accompanied the process closely and supported the evaluation financially and in person. 3

4 To what extent did the SA methodology encourage public deliberation? (ie multilateral interactivity) Public deliberation is the core feature of the online-dialogue. Citizens name their issues, debate them with fellow citizens, and come up with concrete proposals. Members of the administration or the local council answer questions and point out their arguments about the proposal. Each proposal is voted on by entitled participants and submitted to the council. The council gives account about their decision to the public. Has the SA initiative been evaluated? What were the results? Did it lead to change / reform? The process has been evaluated by the University of Speyer and the Fraunhofer Institute IAIS. The design of the dialogue has been remodeled in various aspects, due to evaluation results and the professional practice of the project managers. As in all (online-)dialogues the two main challenges were: 1. to reach disadvantaged target groups (in terms of education or income) 2. to involve participants in the complexity of the problem (to get transparent, fair and rational results) Specific challenges identified The first challenge was worked on by the advocacy and media activities described above and had decent results. However, they will be improved steadily in the coming years. The second challenge seems to be especially important and difficult in budgeting matters. The methodology and technology of has helped a great deal to work collaboratively on the budget. There were human moderators, a shared editing function (wiki), and a budget calculator for the concrete proposals. The specific challenge was to design these tools with a simple usability, but also with a complex functionality. This will be an ongoing task for the next years to come. Other Important Information or Comments 4

5 Web sources Documents and Reports Evaluation reports have been compiled by the University of Speyer and the Fraunhofer Institute IAIS and will be published soon. Further References Mr. Hans Hagedorn Zebralog - cross media dialogues Voltastr. 5, 10.2, Elevator Berlin, Germany Resource Persons/Contacts phone: fax/voice: home office: mobile: hagedorn@zebralog.de info: 5