More on PB

The last two days have been pretty hectic with various meetings relating to PB in Sao Paulo. I was at the meeting of the Economic Council this morning. About 20 people were in attendance including both civil servants and community representatives. The co-ordinator of the PB process chaired the meeting and took the audience through expenditure relating to the city's 3 year plan. There were many disgruntled attendees who scrutinised much of what was being presented. For example, the Mayor had vetoed the building of 3 new hospitals approved by the PB process in 2009, only 1 had been built. New bus lanes had not yet been built and it was evident that many neighbourhoods had still not seen previous initiatives implemented, such as a family health programme.

The mix of people and willingness for debate was however encouraging, also the investment in a 3 year plan - recognising the challenge of delivering some of these infrastructure projects in a 12 month cycle was particularly refreshing. The other element of the process I was most impressed by was the types of budget that were being discussed - the ambulance service, hospitals, education, transportation - major spheres of public life were subject to the PB process giving it both relevance and status in terms of delivering something of meaning. The decision-making bodies for these programmes in the UK would certainly not be open to a process of PB and certainly not at a spatial level of reference for individual citizens.

There will be further meetings of the economic council this week as they prepare and approve a working budget for this year. In a sense I am disappointed that I won't be here to follow the process- however, the cycle appears to follow a familiar process to both the Porto Alegre and Recife examples I have encountered.