Role of Citizen Participation in Planning
In 2008 the municipality of Rafaela created the Department of Administration and Participation (Secretaria de Gestión y Participación, SGP) and after that the government started implementing a process of Participatory budgeting, based on the successful case of Porto Alegre. The main goal of this process is to consolidate and strengthen the importance of citizen participation in the public agenda. The government of the city has implemented the method for three consecutive years. The first one in 2009 was completed; the one for 2010 is now in the stage of implementing the public works that resulted from the participation process; and the third project is in process (SGP, Municipalidad de Rafaela, 2011).
Rafaela has implemented the participatory budgeting at the neighborhood level (covering the 37 neighborhood of the city and the downtown area) with the challenge to reach and involve all the citizens in the decisions related to part of the budget that is available to cover some of the needs of the city.
Since the second time that was implemented, the process has organized assemblies with the neighbors, where some delegates from the government work directly with the community. After these assemblies the citizens elect the representatives of the neighborhood who are going to control the feasibility of the projects that come out from the assemblies. Some experts from each department of the government are in charge of developing the projects that are going to be in the survey. The survey, which is different from one neighborhood to another, is sent to all the houses so the neighbors elect among the options that were included. The project that has the majority of the votes is the one that is going to be implemented (SGP, Municipalidad de Rafaela, 2011).
This is a significant improvement in the process of planning the city since most of the projects that have been implemented through this participatory method are related to urban issues and the uses of public spaces in the city. It also achieves to work and design based on the need and ideas of the community.
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