Participatory Budgeting and Local Environmental Governance

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a fiscal tool that engages citizens in discussions on public expenditures and resource allocation. First implemented in Brazil at the end of the 1980s, it has enhanced citizens’ participation and inclusion, as well as their sense of ownership, responsibility, and accountability. It has also been seen as a tool for budgetary transparency and governance. Although it has been adopted worldwide, its use has declined in Brazil over the past two decades. Indeed, implementing and coordinating it is time-consuming, costly, and complex. Its practice demands intensive consultation and negotiation among the various stakeholders, which may create delays, conflicts, and inefficiencies. In addition, only a very small percentage of the total government budget is usually decided through PB. This presentation explores several cases of PB in Brazil, analyzing successes and innovations that have been made to cope with the common predicaments.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Monica Pinhanez is a professor, researcher, and international consultant. Shestarted her career as a lawyer in Brazil, working with human rights and urban and land property rights. She then received a master’s degree at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil. Her Ph.D., from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2007, was on international development and public finance. She has taught for more than 25 years in Brazil and abroad, including at New York University, Rutgers University, Yokohama International University, and the University of Toronto. Dr. Pinhanez has participated in the training of public officers both in Brazil and Mozambique in the 1990s. In Brazil, she was a professor at the Public Administration School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation from 2009 to 2018, and at the Insper Institute of Education and Research from 2018 to 2023. She has been a fellow at the International Labor Organization and a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization. She was a founder and the former CEO of Zeka Education, an edtech company created to provide training and education for adults to finish their high school education, for which she received the award.