1. Porto Alegre Innovation is a very efficient and systematic Participative Budgeting process.
2. It is a process of decentralised and equitable socio-economic development.
3. This process is in practice and proved very effective in Porto Alegre since 1989.
4. Thru this systematic, yearly cyclic process, Porto Alegre became the city with the best quality of life in Brazil.
5. Lack of funds was the most important reason for introduction of the process in Porto Alegre.
6. It resolved the city’s financial problems very fast in about five years.
7. Decentralisation up to the wards is the most important feature of this process.
8. Local residents prioritise their infrastructure requirements in all the 16 wards of Porto Alegre, separately.
9. Local residents elect two PB Councillors for one year, to implement and supervise the development work.
10. The Council of Participatory Budgeting of 42 members negotiates with the Mayor and the City Council.
11. In Porto Alegre the Mayor and the City council are separately and directly elected.
12. A notable feature of the Porto Alegre Innovation is that the COP has been working on an honorary basis.
13. The nature of the process helped very much to eradicate corruption almost completely from the city.
14. Positive effects, persuaded investment in infrastructure increase from 2% in 1989 to about 20% in 1996.
15. It was the NGOs in Porto Alegre who campaigned for peoples’ participation in city administration.
16. Its benefits caused people’s participation increase from about 700 in 1989 to over 40,000 in 2004.
17. It is adapted in more than 250 communities - cities, towns and villages in Brazil.
18. This excellent process is adapted even in Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain etc.
19. England has declared PB as the national development strategy, in March 2008.
20. Because of its merits, it is being adapted in about 40 developing and developed countries world wide.
The items pre-selected by experts and prioritised by the local residents in Porto Alegre are: 1. Housing, 2. Health, 3. Education, 4. Sewage, 5. Social assistance, 6.Transportation, 7. Pavement, 8. City Organisation, 9. Economic Development, 10. Sports & Leisure, 11. Leisure Areas (Parks, swimming pools etc), and 12. Culture.
Porto Alegre is the capital of the Brazilian state Rio Grande da Sul. The city became bankrupt in 1988, by spending about 96% of its revenue for salaries and routine expenses. The most decisive feature of Porto Alegre Innovation is that it introduced the new power house of the Council of Participatory Budgeting (COP). It share power with the directly elected Mayor, and the City Council; this reduced the opportunities for corruption. Because of this feature, politicians will not favour this new power sharing arrangement. This is also the case with the ‘Panchayathi Raj Act’; it is in the Indian constitution of 1950, and was amended in 1994 for better and quicker implementation. But, still it is not fully effective in all Indian states and territories. Because of this difficult situation, intellectuals, NGOs and the civil society must jointly pressure the politicians to implement Panchayati Raj Act and the Porto Alegre style Participatory Budgeting process in India, urgently and immediately.
Copying is the easiest, quickest, most economical and a very efficient way of doing things. Computers, cars, Jumbo-jets and even human beings are copies. A copy can be better than the original or even worse. Therefore, special attention should be given to copy the process without losing its decisive features. In the meantime, essential adaptations should be made to make it feasible in the Indian context. There is no other way for FAST Socio-economic development in India.
