22/03/2023
The Angolan government stresses the importance of allowing the population to participate in the governance of the country through budgets
Angola's Secretary of State for Territorial Administration, Teresa Quivienguele
Angola has hosted a training session on participatory budgeting with the aim of improving the process of building participatory budgets and seeking to monitor public investments and accountability.
Participatory budgeting is a mechanism that aims to allow citizens to participate directly in the management of public finances at the local level through the municipal budget. Through it, the population can freely define its priorities and local projects.
This instrument allows for direct interaction between citizens and political authorities, so that everyone can provide input, helping the executive to work closely with the community.
Participatory budgeting started in Angola in 2021, although not in all of the country’s municipalities. Currently, and with the support of the European PASCAL project, it has already been extended to all 164 municipalities, and new methodologies have been introduced to make the process more participatory and transparent.
The European Project to Support Civil Society and Local Government (PASCAL) aims to contribute to economic growth and social development through an inclusive, heterogeneous and effective participation of civil society in the governance process.
The training was attended by technicians from municipal administrations, provincial and municipal tax offices, the Gabinete de Estudios, Planificación y Estadística (GEPE) and members of Angolan civil society organisations.
The session was opened by the Angolan Secretary of State for Territorial Administration, Teresa Quivienguele, who underlined the importance of incorporating participatory methodologies in the participatory budgeting process in order to ensure transparency and accountability. And, in addition, to be able to meet the needs identified by the communities.
For her part, the head of the Delegation of the European Union in Angola, Janette Seppen, said that the European Union is very committed to continue supporting initiatives aimed at participation at all levels and hopes that this training can reach the greatest number of people, as most of them have difficulties in understanding what a budget is, and even more so what a participatory budget is.
The PASCAL project manager expressed the hope that the people who participated in this workshop will be able to appropriate participatory tools with a view to enriching the process of designing, implementing and monitoring the citizen’s budget and the participatory budget of the municipal administration in order to strengthen participatory democracy at the local level.
