With Opportunity Comes Responsibility

As I spend my last day in Brazil drinking a black syrupy coffee on a noisy side street in the Vila Mariana neighbourhood I'm reflecting on both the last few days in Sao Paulo and the Brazilian experience in general. Winston Churchill once said "with opportunity comes responsibility". Given that this fellowship has been funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust it seems poignant that the quote has particular relevance to my experience in Brazil.

Brazil has become a land of opportunity in terms of economic development- it is no longer defined as "developing world" and avoided the impact of the global recession. The evident examples of World Cup investment demonstrate the spirit of opportunity that currently exists. This is a very different picture to the vision of Brazil in the 80s emerging from a repressive military regime with endemic issues of poverty. It is essential to make sense of this context before contemplating where participatory budgeting sits in the grand scheme of things. All of the examples of PB I have seen demonstrate a real opportunity to open up democratic processes - the motivation for doing this was very different in Brazil to the current motivation in the UK. However, these processes also share the same challenges of other forms of participatory democracy across the globe, but what appears to be clear is some fundamental principles about transparency, opportunity and empowerment which are as relevant in Brazil as they are in the UK.

Perhaps the most moving part of the last two days was the opportunity to talk to regular young people from some of the poor neighbourhoods and favelas around Sao Paulo. They have been fortunate enough to be selected for a training programme run by Projeto Pescar- a NGO which encourages businesses to provide training programmes for young people from local neighbourhoods to develop both life skills and technical skills to enter the world of work. Projeto Pescar encourages businesses to form partnerships to provide the training programmes in their respective fields. The group I visited were being trained in the optometry funded by a consortium of local optical businesses. The value of the programme was quickly apparent as I learnt of the young people's individual and family circumstances and support provided during their 12 months on the programme. The young people would dedicate 6 hours per day to the training, juggling that with attendance at School and responsibilities at home. All were clearly enthusiastic about the project and their life chances as a result. Part of their yearlong training has been about citizenship which also allows them to see their place in society and their ability to affect change for themselves and their communities. Whilst the young people were keen to talk to me about Manchester United and the Royal Family I was able to probe them more about their involvement in local decision making processes Although none of the young people had heard of Orcamento Participativo and had differing views on whether they felt the City Hall responded to their needs or involved them in addressing them - it was absolutely clear that the role of civil society organisations such as Pescar are vital in building the confidence an skills of disadvantaged people - not only in terms of employability but in terms of their wider roles in their communities and their society and their ability to participate in democratic processes- the creation of social capital which is not necessarily developed in their home lives.

The Pescar Project also seemed to represent an ambition relevant to the Great Yarmouth context; to combine economic and social development. Newly established Brazilian industries were actively encouraged to exercise their programme of social responsibility through this process - ensuring the economic opportunities they were pursuing on the outskirts of these communities demonstrated a responsibility to residents in the adjacent neighbourhoods. Exercising this responsibility brought a return for those businesses because they were able to build the skills of a potential workforce.

  

And then one might ask the question: How do we ensure that rather than just being a democratic process participatory budgeting not only delivers outcomes for local people but it actually delivers  long-term benefits which change the socio-economc conditions those communities find themselves in? For me, in spite of the difference in context the key challenge for community development and structures of participation will be the way in which the process can support meaningful change led by those it is intended to benefit which impacts on the economy, community and individual. My time in Brazil has certainly provided some food for thought.