International Forum of Participation Practitioners
Participatory budgeting is increasingly seen as a platform for enhancing social cohesion, implementing the principles of inclusiveness and accessibility in communities. Since 2016, international forums have been held in Ukraine that help to find answers to common challenges and develop a multinational community of practitioners of participation.
Forum objectives:- to exchange best practices, discuss challenges and share views on the PB transformation;
- to develop local, national and international joint initiatives with a view to strengthening PB.
Forum participants: authors of the projects, activists, officials, experts from Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Great Britain, Armenia; representatives of foundations supporting the development of PB.
History of the Forum:
I Forum of Participation Practitioners "When the City is Governed by the Citizens"
That is the title of the First Forum of Participation Practitioners of Ukraine which took place in Irpin city on November, 2016. The representatives from 20+ Ukrainian cities had talks, discussions, shared the best practice examples and made new acquaintances during these two days.
Partners of the I Forum: Polish-Canadian Democracy Support Program and Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance Project (PLEDDG) implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and financed by Global Affairs Canada.
II International Forum of Participation Practitioners "Participatory Budgeting from А to Z". 16-17 November, 2017
Within two days participants shared their experience and reviewed the best practices and expertise with the experienced moderators at 15 diverse sessions. The representatives from 100+ communities and guests from Georgia, Moldova and Great Britain discussed how to make the Participatory Budgeting really public and effective in order to change the society and make it bring the changes itself implementing its own ideas.
Partners of the II Forum: Project "Public Budgets from A to Z" implemented by East Europe Foundation and Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI under the EU support; Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance Project (PLEDDG) implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and financed by Global Affairs Canada; Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) with support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented by Institute of Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research (IBSER); USAID Project "Citizens in Action" of the Ukrainian Independent Centre for Political Research; Solidarity Fund PL; Foundation Inna Przestrzen (Warsaw); Foundations for Freedom.
Forum took place on 26-27 October 2018 and was designed using Open Space Technology. More than 200 participants attended the Forum, including representatives from 95 Ukrainian communities (cities, villages, amalgamated communities) and 6 countries, except Ukraine: Moldova, Germany, Armenia, Georgia, Poland, UK.
Partners of the III Forum: Irpin City Council, Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI, International technical assistance project “Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance” (PLEDDG) which is being implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and funded by the Global Affairs Canada, The Solidarity Fund PL, The Project "Support of the territorial communities of Ukraine in connection with the increase of the number of internally displaced persons" is one of the initiatives of the infrastructure program for Ukraine and is implemented by the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, The Project Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine implemented by the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Open Space Works Cooperative, Foundations for Freedom.