Helsinki City Library has started a participatory budgeting project with Avanto Insight Oy, Emobit Oy and Sitra in spring 2012. Participatory budgeting is a process of making decisions on a specific budget together with local community members. Read ahead to know more!

1. PARTICIPATORY
BUDGETING
OIKKONEN HEINI
HELSINKI CITY LIBRARY
IFLA World Library and Information
Congress, Helsinki 2012 14.08.12

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3. Participatory budgeting directly
involves local people in making
decisions on the spending and
priorities for a defined public
budget
Wikipedia
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5. HISTORY
 Started in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1989
 Results:
- health and education budget grew 300 % in 10
years
- better quality of public welfare services
- participatory budgeting has a positive effect
in underprivileged or poor communities
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6. HISTORY
 New York, USA, 2011
 Budget: 6 million dollars
 Citizens working together with experts
 Started in October 2011, from decisions to
actions in April 2012
 Follow: pbnyc.org/
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7. MODELS
 Community grants
- small pots of money
- residents vote which communal project gets the funding
- good way to start
- short period of time, easy to understand the process
 Top slicing
- citizens decide how to use 1 % of the total (city) budget
- gives more actual power to citizens but needs more planning
 Pooled budgets
- concentrated on a theme or a particular organisation
- perspective: community’s needs rather than individual needs
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8. OUR PROJECT
 May – December 2012
 Joint project of Helsinki City Library, Avanto Insight Oy
and Emobit Oy
 Funded by The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra
Goal: How to plan and carry out
participatory budgeting in public library
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9. OUR PROJECT
 Citizens take part in decision-making: how to use
100 000 euro for independent actions in library
- actions must relate to Helsinki Central Library
2017
 Values: equal opportunities, active citizenship,
openness and co-operation
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10. PHASE 1: PLANNING
 Project planning started in March 2012
 Joint effort of all partners
 Learning from others:
- compare other participatory budgeting projects
- finding out the most suitable methods and tools
- learning from partners
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11. PHASE 2: DATA VISUALISATION
 Principle: All decision-making is based on previous
information and knowledge
 In effect, library must provide simple information
about it’s budget and every-day actions that is
easy to understand to participants
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14. PHASE 3: WORKING TOGETHER
 The challenge: how to find participants and
provide access to everybody interested
 Working methods:
- group work and meetings with participants
- online information
- experts involved
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16. PHASE 4: EVALUATION AND SHARING
RESULTS
 Evaluating the process is key for future
development
 Project documentation can be used in other
participatory budgeting projects to ease the
process
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17. PHASE 5: ACTUAL PROJECTS
 Participants decide which action’s the library should
take. The amount of details is affected by the wishes of
participants.
 Actual project plans and actions are provided by the
library
 Actions take place in 2013 in local libraries in Helsinki
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18. CHALLENGES
 What is the responsibility of the participants?
 How to make sure that all citizens can participate if they
want to?
 How to measure the impact?
 How can participants and other citizens follow the project
and actions through?
 How to make sure library’s expertise is well used in the
project?
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19. WHY LIBRARY?
 Public libraries have strong connection to their
customers and are familiar with co-operating in local
communities
 Libraries are used by most citizens
 Libraries are appreciated by most citizens
 Libraries want to develop and support their
communities
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20. More information
www.osallistuvabudjetointi.fi
www.participatorybudjeting.org
www.openspending.org
heini.oikkonen@hel.fi / Helsinki City Library
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21. THANK YOU
Lisavanovitch
J’Roo
jonathan.alvarsson
Mynameirsharsha
U. W. Library Research
Commons
Mattwi1s0n
ictQATAR
Watch it! Malmö-Lund
Helsinki City Library 14.08.12