Angola

Yes, there is a legislation that regulates PB experiences.

With the idea of a new country in mind, in a more conscious and focused administration regarding the public interest; the government began to experiment with different initiatives that aimed to deconcentrate and decentralize the public administration and into making it more democratic and participatory. Therefore, in 2019 the Angolan government approved the 234/19 and 235/19 law, both on July 22. The Participatory Budgeting Law was used as a way to institutionalize Participatory Budgets since these processes are considered ideal to promote participatory democracy and the direct participation of citizens in the public scenario through extensive consultation and/or co-decision practices in order to define and prioritize the public budget of a given territory based on extensive dialogs and debates of citizens. Being that said, the main innovation implemented through Participatory Budgeting in Angola is that nowadays there are instruments of education available for citizens, open spaces of participation that complement and integrate the duties of the institution in a logic of proximity governance in order to strengthen the loss confidence in institutions and lastly to establish mechanism in order to monitor and control the public spending.

Our great reference for the implementation of PB is Portugal.

As the first experiences of PB, our country has not yet produced experiences that could serve as references for other initiatives. Internally, it can be said that the PB has been a catalyst for rescuing citizenship and strengthening participatory democracy in the country.

1. PB have been suspended: 70%
2. PB continued to function normally: 30%
3. PB have undergone changes/adaptations: 0%

As is the case around the world, 2020 is being beset by the outbreak of the new coronavirus, called Covid-19, which has proved to be a major threat to human life and a factor of disruption to the global economy, causing a brutal crisis in several economies globally. For Angola, whose economy is heavily dependent on oil exports (about 90% of total exports), this situation of the new coronavirus seems to be a sufficient reason for the incorrect adjustment of the Angolan executive’s programs, having largely affected the process of implementing the Participatory Budgeting.

To continue the program of implementation of the PB, the Angolan state decided to create a technical partnership with UNDP Angola. From this perspective, the main trends of the Angolan PB in this pandemic period aim essentially to create:

1. Establishment of local structures representing citizens in the PB that will operate in the two aspects of the Citizens’ Budget and the Participatory Budget of the Municipal Administration, as regulated by law;
2. Establishment/establishment of the Technical Management Committees (CTGs) of the Participatory Budget;
3. Training of the representatives of the citizens in the structures of representation of the PB, on its functioning and its relevance to local governance;
4. Introduction of the PB exercise in up to 54 municipalities in 2020, including methodology and work schedule;

Angola is still in a phase of experimentation regarding the processes of citizen participation, particularly of participatory budgets one year after the approval of the law of institutionalization of PB).

This report analyses the situation and the progress of the implementation of Participatory Budget in Angola, one year after the approval of:

1. Presidential Decree No. 234/19 of 22 July, which sets the value of 25,000,000 kz, approximately 35,000 Euros, for the municipalities’ budget in the framework of the Participatory Budgeting process;
2. Presidential Decree No. 23/19 of 22 July, which institutionalizes the Participatory Budget in Municipalities in Angola, as a way to implicate citizens in the decisionmaking process, as a principle underlying the functioning of the Local State Administration.

The Presença Cívica Association of Angola, promoter of Participatory Budgets in Angola, believes in the process and the importance of the virtues that PB carries, such as the emancipation of the citizenship especially for one that seeks to assert itself as a rule of law and democratic. For this reason, within the scope of its social responsibility, it pursues to promote the processes of participatory democracy, through the direct participation of the population in economic, social and political decisions in their communities, establishing the proximity between the government and the governed.

It is believed that with the adopting of PB is possible to encourage and stimulate:

1. The direct participation of citizens regarding the allocation of public investments in municipalities, communes, neighborhoods or villages;
2. Increase the accountability of public servants regarding the population and territory they manage;
3. Decrease corruption and excessive bureaucracy in institutions;
4. Reduce the power of government officials in the decisionmaking processes in order to allow the citizens to decide in the definition of public resources.