These annual meetings are organised by the IOPD (International Observatory of Participatory Democracy) and cities in Portugal and Spain that are relevant in the implementation of participatory budgets. In this case, the event was also supported by the Diputació de Barcelona. Rosa Borge, leader of the CNSC group, presented some of the results of the DEMOC2023 project, including some of the most important aspects of the deployment of participatory budgets in Catalonia: number of participants, diversity of channels used (digital platforms, face-to-face activities and workshops, electronic voting), typology (city, neighbourhood, sectoral), relationship with the size of the municipality and adoption according to the political colour of the local government. There was also a debate on how to improve these processes, for example, to increase participation through budgets in which people can decide on spending and services, and not only urban investments. Good practices were also analysed, such as the good functioning of participatory budgets for young people in many Catalan town councils. According to Rosa Borge, participatory budgets are quite institutionalised in Catalan municipalities because there is not much discontinuity and they have reached more than 80% of the Catalan population, being used mainly in large and medium-sized municipalities. However, small municipalities that deploy participatory budgets tend to achieve greater citizen participation.
Photo: Sergi