Helen Kezia Lavan

Organisation and Contact details

Participatory Budgeting Unit, Church Action on Poverty, Central Buildings, Oldham St, Manchester, M1 1JQ
Tel: 0161 236 9321 email: kezia@participatorybudgeting.org.uk

About the Participatory Budgeting (PB) Unit (a project of Church Action on Poverty)
The Participatory Budgeting Unit is a project of Church Action on Poverty which aims to give a voice to people in poverty by working with others to develop participatory and inclusive approaches in local public budget setting. Over the past 6 years, this has included research into how to adapt Brazilian models of Participatory Budgeting (PB) to a UK context, dissemination about the theory and practice of PB, and the development and piloting of UK models of PB. At present the PB Unit is the only non-governmental organisation in the UK systematically developing this form of public action. Two booklets about the theory and practice of PB were published in partnership with Oxfam UK Poverty Programme.

Project report

Participatory Budgeting in the UK: an evaluation from a practitioner perspective (pdf)

Associated NGPA Research Project

Pearce, Participatory Budgeting Unit, Church Action on Poverty

Project dates

1 February to 31 May, 2007

Engagement in public action

Kezia Lavan has worked as Research and Liaison Officer with the PB Unit since April 2005 where her work includes developing UK models of PB, researching PB and gender, developing PB resources and leading PB training workshops. Kezia also works for Community Pride Initiative, carrying out participatory research on housing market renewal in Manchester and co-ordinating a project to develop community capacity to engage in local issues by making comics.

About the fellowship
This project will evaluate the examples of PB that have been developed within the UK in recent years. The fellow will work closely with the research team led by Professor Jenny Pearce from the International Centre for Participation Studies at Bradford University, who are exploring Municipal Innovations in Non-Governmental Public Participation in the UK and Latin America, including examples of PB in Medellin, Bradford and Porto Alegre, under the ESRC’s Non-governmental public action programme. The type of fellowship applied for is a) analytic and conceptual reflection. It will start in March 2007 and last 3 months.

About Participatory Budgeting
PB is a method by which ordinary citizens are directly involved in decision making processes about how public authorities spend public money with the aim that budgets better reflect local community priorities. PB first emerged in Brazil in the late 1990s, marking a new relationship between the local state and those involved in non-governmental public action. Since then it has spread to over 300 cities worldwide, including 25 European cities. PB has developed more slowly in the UK, but interest in the concept now extends to practitioners, activists and policy makers in local authorities, Local Strategic Partnerships, New Deal for Communities, and housing associations, throughout the UK. Pilot PB projects are running in Bradford, Salford, Newcastle, Sunderland and Harrow, with the support of the PB Unit. Whilst there is a wealth of literature about PB in Latin America, very little research has been done on PB in the UK. This project aims to fill this gap and is important for a number of reasons:

1. It is important to document the lessons learnt from the development of PB in the UK, for the benefit of both those involved in PB and in other innovations in public action.
2. There are important theoretical questions to be addressed in exploring how PB is developing in the complex and contradictory UK policy context of devolved decision making, new participatory structures and neoliberal reforms to public services.
3. Most international examples of PB were implemented as specific political projects of politicians or social movements. By contrast, in the UK, PB largely grew due to its promotion as a technology of participation, inclusion and good governance by one NGO (the PB Unit). This suggests fascinating questions about the interaction between those involved in non-governmental public action and traditional power structures.

Project Objectives

The fellowship proposes to evaluate emerging examples of PB in the UK, specifically to explore:

1. the nature, shape and progress of PB in the UK local and national context, in terms of: local context; ownership, development and monitoring; design and processes; role of technocrats, elected officials and civil society organisations; role of media; use of knowledge, learning and expertise; resourcing; and vision for the future.
2. the interaction of PB with the contradictory tensions within the current UK policy context, such as: Active Citizenship, Local Area Agreements, Public Service Agreements, Floor Targets, Neighbourhood Management, Stronger Safer Communities, double devolution, policies to narrow the gap, and outsourcing of services.
3. the implications for the future development of PB in the UK in terms of: the relationships between budgets, structures and power; the role of local councillors, citizens and civil society organisations in decision making and commissioning of services; local and regional political-economic strategies; and mainstreaming of the PB concept.

Although the objectives are concerned with PB in the UK, they will also benefit from reflections on similar themes emerging as part of the Municipal Innovations research at Bradford University.

Planned activities

A mixture of evaluator-led and participatory methodologies will be used, including: participatory workshops; participant-observation; questionnaires; interviews; and textual analysis of existing materials including reports, media and other sources. The evaluation will look at Participatory Budgeting from two or more of the following areas: Bradford, Newcastle, Sunderland and Salford, where the PB Unit has been supporting the development of PB. Participants in the evaluation could include: officers from the public authority developing PB (including lead, community engagement, policy, finance, area management and other officers); individual local residents; paid and unpaid community and voluntary sector workers; local councillors; other partner organisations; participants in the PB Practitioners Network; and other groups.

Outputs

Project report and summary report detailing findings, including updated case studies, to complement the booklets previously published.

A national level workshop to disseminate the findings and stimulate discussion about the lessons learned for implementing PB in the UK

Added value of fellowship
Value will be added through the process itself and by sharing learning from the evaluation with organisations developing PB both within the UK and in Latin America. The fellow will work closely with the Municipal Innovations research team at Bradford University, participating for example in meetings with the Latin American researchers who will come to Bradford in March 2007, and in particular liaising closely with Heather Blakey who is tracking the PB process in Bradford. Being able to compare Bradford with other examples of PB in the UK will be of great benefit to this work, as will exposure to examples of PB in Latin America be for the fellow. This will be facilitated by the fellow’s language skills in Spanish and Portuguese. Learning will also be shared by the fellow through the PB Practitioners’ Network meetings; through the PB National Reference Group; and in interactions with our international contacts and PB e-bulletin news list. Participants in the evaluation will have the opportunity to improve their own PB practice through reflection and sharing of learning.

Last updated: 12 June 2008
 

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