Carla Garcia, a middle-ranking expert in the field at Barcelona City Council’s Active Democracy Department, with whom we will be analysing Barcelona's participatory budgets.
- Once participatory budgets’ voting had ended, how were the projects chosen?
Out of the available 184 projects to choose from, 76 són guanyadors, resultat de les votacions, que l’Ajuntament de Barcelona haurà d’executar en aquests propers dos anys amb un pressupost de 30 milions d’euros. But note that, given the maximum budget for each district, any project with the most votes that exceeded its budget was passed over and the next project in order of votes chosen instead, until all the amount of money allocated to the district was used up.
- Marc Serra, the Councillor for Citizen Rights and Participation, commented that the projects which had unfortunately not been selected, despite having the most votes, could perhaps still go ahead at a future date. Is that so?
This is an issue affecting each of the districts has and the goal is for those projects to be carried out where and when their respective districts have the budget for this. The money for that will evidently not come from participatory budgets but from other budgetary items where there is a surplus that can be allocated for implementing other projects.
- Are there any proposals raised by city residents that the City Council itself would never have imagined?
Yes, but, of course, if some projects have had that many votes it’s because they’re necessary for our local residents. That’s why we believe it’s important to listen and create participatory and collective-analysis spaces, to gain awareness of citizens’ concerns and needs, put them on the table and implement projects that are feasible.
“It’s important to listen and create participatory and collective-analysis spaces to gain awareness of citizens’ concerns and needs.”
- What state of the process are you currently at?
After the voting that took place this June, we sent a communiqué to all the people and organisations promoting the selected projects. And we held meetings with each of them in October, to explain how we at the district or City Council had been planning to implement their project, agree on deadlines, arrange other meetings to establish some action and assess the need for a monitoring committee. The implementation has since started with the implementing bodies, the drafting teams and so on.
And this February we started the darrera fase del procés: convocar les comissions de seguiment per a cada districte, que són grups de treballs formats per les promotores, un representant dels consells de barri, un tècnic de districte, un representant polític i una persona de democràcia activa. Aquestes comissions són les encarregades d’impulsar i fer un seguiment sobre com s’estan executant els projectes. The final goal is for local residents, and not the City Council’s experts or politicians, to remain the central players of the process.
“The final goal is for local residents, and not the City Council’s experts or politicians, to remain the central players of the process.”
- What’s it like working in a team with promoter organisations and experts taking part?
It’s a big challenge and a huge learning experience. The process enables and obliges us to work cross-cuttingly between regions, the City Council’s areas and the projects’ promoters, without there necessarily being a hierarchical relationship when it comes to setting out lines of action or implementing proposals.
We at the City Council are responsible for validating, with the promoters, every step we take, as its their project and we want them continuing feeling its their own. That’s why we’ve been working so these organisations can have some control over what’s being done. That enables us to work collectively and obliges us to reach an agreement on achieving the same goal. Such collective work is certainly very enriching.
“This process enables us to work cross-cuttingly between regions, the City Council’s areas and the projects’ promoters.”
- What are your deadlines for finishing the projects?
Most will be completed before this term of office ends, but there are a few ambitious projects which are expected to finish in 2024. Some have a very strong urban-planning implications, with effects on mobility, and do not just require validation from the promoters but will also end up affecting the area and all the other local residents.
- Will the dedicim.barcelona platform remain active?
Well, yes. Even more, it’s going to have a very central role at this stage of implementation. A module for monitoring selected projects will be opened and we will gradually publish, in chronological order, all the meetings that are held, the state that each project is in and so on. An city resident will be able to monitor how the city’s projects are progressing by entering web.
- How has the Covid-19 health emergency affected the initial calendar of the participatory process?
Unfortunately, the pandemic and the lockdown have caused a delay in the entire process and, therefore, at the start of the projects’ implementation stage. Which is why some will finish in 2024. We’ve also had to adapt methodologies, as it was a process very much designed for holding face-to-face sessions which have ultimately had to be remote. Even so, the process continues to move forward and the projects are making very satisfactory progress.
- Barcelona has had a higher level of participation, relatively speaking, than this initiative’s respective first editions in cities such as New York, Paris and Madrid. Were you expecting that?
We weren’t expecting it at the beginning, but once we began to see how the networks were getting on, how each project’s promoters were mobilising and the resonance that the communication campaign launched by the City Council was having, then we saw people really getting into the process and playing an active part in it.
- What future challenges lie in store for you?
We are making assessments internally and with the promoters too, so we can detect which aspects we could improve for coming editions. There is no doubt that the big challenge is for every city resident to feel called on to take part in every stage of the process and not just the voting stage, where there had been a boom compared to the debate and proposal stages.
We could also observe that there were relative few projects for young people and that neighbourhoods with higher populations, with more social fabric or movements had more projects in their area. That is why we will continue working to reach every sector and level of society, to make the process include a more representative and diverse sample of the city of Barcelona and a regional balance.
“The big challenge is for every city resident to feel called on to take part in every stage of the process and not just the voting stage.”