Oficina ATLAS

Observatory Asia Russia

Local Government

266

Large Cities

Capital Cities

Regional or State Governments

187

National Government

Other Institutions

Local Government

266

Large Cities

Capital Cities

Regional or State Governments

187

National Government

Other Institutions

Community

Capital

Moscow

Population

144 373 540

Language

Russian

Currency

Russian Ruble

Indexes

Legislação sobre Orçamentos Participativos

A national PB legislation was adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation on July 20, 2020 to provide a framework for developing and enhancing participatory budgeting (PB) processes in Russia regions and municipalities. Technically, the new legislation (Laws No 236-FZ and No 216-FZ dated July 20, 2020) introduces amendments to the Budget Code (Law No 145-FZ “The Budget Code of the Russian Federation” dated 31.07.1998) and the national Law on Self-Governance (Law No 131-FZ “About the general principles of the organization of local self-government in the Russian Federation” dated 06.10.2003).

Specifically, the new legislation introduces the term of “initiative (participatory) project”, outlines mechanisms and procedures for submission, discussion and selection of the initiative projects at the municipal level and provides guidance on their (optional) co-financing by population and local business. Importantly, the regions and municipalities are left with considerable flexibility in selecting design and implementation mechanisms.

At the regional and municipal levels, all PB practices are subject to regulation by sub-national government decrees (or in dozens of cases by subnational laws) or by local administration regulations.

Outstanding Innovations

The main innovation in the area of PB in Russia in 2019 relates to a change in the almost 15-year trend of dominance of regional over municipal PB practices. Two national level policy decisions became a trigger:

In January 30, 2020 the President Putin officially requested that in a three year’s term at least 5% of all municipal budget expenses should be allocated to projects proposed and selected by citizens;
Following by the President recommendations a new PB legislation was designed in a way to support development of municipal PB models.

As a result, the number of municipal (general) PBs increased in 2019 by 2.2 times compared to 2018 (from 65 to 141 PBs). The national leaders in terms of the number of municipal PBs are the regions of Khanty-Mansiysk, Yamal-Nenets autonomous okrugs, Ulianovsk, Orenburg and Samara oblasts representing over 77% of all municipal practices.

The regional PB models are also changing. While the approach based on the Local Initiatives Support Program (LISP) methodology (when municipalities compete for the resources under the regional PB program) still dominates, new forms of “soft” support of stand-alone municipal PBs by the region are emerging. Specific examples come from Yamal- Nenets and Khanty-Mansiysk regions where subnational governments provide municipalities with methodological, informational, promotional and capacity building support, at the same time granting them flexibility in selecting design and implementation mechanisms and procedures. Interesting innovations of this kind can be seen in Yamal- Nenets autonomous okrug where the region finances a large scale all-region promotional campaign, maintains a digital platform that can be used by municipalities for collecting ideas and online voting, provides grants to the best municipal practices, etc. This new approach to the region-municipality partnership creates incentives to local governments for launching PB (without obliging them to do it); and contributes to innovativeness and diversity of the municipal PB models.

INITIAL REFERENCE FOR THE ADOPTION OF PB IN THE COUNTRY

In Russia no particular country experience was used as the major initial reference in adoption of its own PB in 2005-2007.

In fact, the design of the first Russia PB practice Local Initiatives Support Program (LISP) has incorporated elements of variety of participatory practices (including PB in Latin America, community driven development initiatives led by the World Bank all across the world, social investment funds initiatives also supported by the World Bank in many regions, etc.). Importantly, the resulting design of the LISP is quite unique and differs from most of existing PB practices. Later Russia PB models (including the “Tvoy Budget” designed by the European University in Saint-Petersburg (EUSP), “PORT” in Sakhalin region, “RITM” in Noyabrsk city of Yamal-Nenets autonomous okrug) were inspired by various PB and citizen jury models, particularly by those implemented in USA, Portugal and Korea.

SUBSEQUENT REFERENCE FOR PB DISSEMINATION

The first LISP regional program launched in Stavropol region was further replicated in almost 40 regions and 65 municipalities of the Russian Federation, and the process is still going on. The PB practices based on the methodology of EUSPB are currently being implemented in 3 regions and around 30 municipalities.

Impacts of COVID-19 Disease on PB

PB have been suspended: 0,4%
PB continued to function normally: 99%
PB have undergone changes/adaptations: 0,6%

Main Trends of PB in the Country During the Pandemic

As of today, the COVID-19 pandemic has not significantly affected implementation of PB practices in Russia. Luckily, the peak of the pandemic corresponded to a period when all face-to-face PB activities (information campaign, capacity building events, public discussions, workshops, voting events, etc.) for the 2020 PB cycle have been completed in the overwhelming majority of regions. Spring-Summer activities mainly related to the technical analysis of PB proposals, selection of contractors, and start of construction works. These activities have been implemented as scheduled or with only marginal delays in time, not affecting the quality of PB processes and outcomes.
In some cases, the pandemic resulted in more intensive use of online format for some tasks previously performed face-to-face. Specifically, this relates to workflow processing (which is now done mainly electronically); and ongoing consultancy to stakeholders (that is currently mainly provided in the format of video conferences rather than face-to-face events).

Additional Information

The recent trends in development of PB in Russia include:

Strengthening focus on the issues of inclusion in PB models. Engaging vulnerable and marginalized groups of population is becoming a key principle in many new PB practices in Russia. Based on the review of the best national and international practices a conceptual documents and guidelines for engaging in PB people with disabilities are developed under the joint initiative of the World Bank and All-Russia Society of People with Disabilities (representing 1.5 mln members in all regions of the country) and will be piloted in three Russia regions by the end of 2020.
Enhancing capacity building for regions and municipalities. Selected examples of such initiatives include:
- Additional vocational training on PB by the PB center of the Financial Research Institute under the Russia Ministry of Finance (second round was conducted in Summer 2020);
- School of facilitators and tutors for PB co-design planning projects launched by Urbanism & Participation Center of the European University in Saint-Petersburg;
- Series of webinars on the best international PB practices conducted by the Russia World Bank team;
- Training course “PB as a practical instrument of the local self-government bodies” by the Krasnoyarsk region Institute of Municipal Development;
- Informational and learning materials on the budget literacy of PB participants developed under the joint project by the Russia Ministry of Finance and the World Bank. On top of that, almost all regions implementing PB conduct capacity building for local stakeholders at the regular basis.
Expansion of School and Youth PBs. Diverse models of PB for school students were introduced in 2019-2020 academic year by:
- Altai krai;
- Saint-Petersburg;
- Sakhalin oblast;
- Yaroslavskaya oblast;
- Komi Republic;
- Arkhangelsk city of Arkhangekskaya oblast;
- Buzuluk and Mednogorsk cities and Sorochinsk rayon of Orenburg oblast;
- Borovichskiy and Okulovskiy rayons of Novgorod oblast;
- All municipalities of Yamal-Nenets autonomous okrug.

The first Youth PB in Russia called “Atmosphere” was launched in Udmurtia Republic.

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