By Sifelani Tsiko
Harare, Zimbabwe (March 8 2007)
Lack of political will and commitment is stalling efforts to promote participatory budgeting in local government in most Africa countries, experts say.

George Matovu, the regional director of Municipal Development Partnership in Eastern and Southern Africa told The Herald that political commitment is a critical component for the success of participatory budgeting.

"One of the biggest challenge is getting politicians to buy into the idea (participatory budgeting)," he said on the sidelines of the week-long Regional Workshop on Enhancing Participatory Budgeting in Africa. "It's a very difficult area, sometimes it's a challenge and sometimes it's a constraint."

A total of 50 Participants at this regional workshop comprising mayors, town planners, government officials and civic groupings were drawn from 13 African countries in East and Southern Africa.

The central theme of the workshop was to link participatory budgeting and local economic development to enhance the quality of life of the residents in both rural and urban settlements.

According to the United Nations, participatory budgeting is a cyclical process by which governments widen mechanisms for promoting civic engagement in identifying local needs, deciding preferences as well as in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the budget taking into account expenditure requirements and available resources.

Most African countries are showing interest in engaging the community when it comes to budgeting and running towns, cities and rural growth points.

There increasing realisation among local authorities of the futility of ignoring the views and concerns of the people in the running of local governments.

Most cities and towns in Africa have failed to deliver quality services to the people due to failure include the views and concerns of the people, lack of political will, mistrust between the public and city authorities and sharp political differences between the ruling parties and the opposition parties.

As a result, it is now estimated that at least 170 million people in urban areas lack a source of portable water near their homes and in many cases, the water that is supplied to those who have access is polluted.

According to a World Bank (1997), less than 70 percent of municipal solid waste is collected and only 50 percent of households are served.

Mrs Thandiwe Mlobane, an municipal expert, says the massive rural to urban migration in most African countries coupled with rapid urban population growth, declining economies, contracting public service expenditure, rising unemployment and poverty has resulted in a massive gap between available social services and what is needed.

"Both central and local governments are simply incapable of keeping up with rising demand for basic social services and infrastructure," she says.

Mlobane says the quality and quantity of supply of water and sanitation services is still dismal in most sub-Saharan African countries.

For instance, she says, population access to safe drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa is only 42 percent compared to 68 percent in East Asia and the Pacific or with Latin America and the Caribbean where it is estimated at 76 percent.

As a result, Mlobane says, there has been a surge in government efforts to share responsibilities of the delivery of basic social services with the private sector.

"It is no longer possible to meet the needs of the residents through a 'business as usual' approach. Councils have to be innovative and think outside the box," she says.

She says participatory approaches to budgeting and local economic development have emerged as some of the tools that local authorities can use in improving service delivery and reducing poverty.

"Its important to win the hearts and minds of the people. (in participatory budgeting) If you don't understand your people you have lost it," says Moffat Ndlovu, the Bulawayo town clerk.

Other challenges facing local governments in Africa when it comes to participatory budgeting, included continuity of the process when one mayor from a particular party leaves, creating a supportive legislative environment, financing the process, building appropriate capacity and building trust between the people and local authorities.

"The level of mistrust and hostility between local governments and the people is sometimes so high. How do you build trust? How do you remove entrenched beliefs that local authorities are corrupt and non-performers?" says Matovu. "Its difficult to generate a climate of confidence. Citizens want performers and if you don't perform it becomes very difficult."

Jaime Vasconez the director of the Ecuador-based International Centre for Urban Management says it is important that local authorities in Africa should network with their counterpart to share ideas and experiences on participatory budgeting.

"We have a lot of common human issues, human problems are more or less the same. There is some scope for co-operation and sharing experiences," he says.

"There should be an ethical basis for participatory budgeting as well. Ethics are important and the motto for example, of people in Cotacachi (Ecuador) is 'Do not lie, Do not steal and Do not be lazy,' Vasconez says.

"Participatory budgeting is based on solidarity In most Latin American towns and cities to ensure that only community interest is served and not individual and other selfish interest."

The workshop was enlightening in many ways and participants were exposed to the participatory budgeting initiative, learnt how to mobilise the people, how to create interest among councillors and technocrats to engage citizens and how to sustain the process.

Participants also got skills on how to popularise the process as well as the benefits of the process in the long run.
It was not gloom for Africa. Some municipalities on the continent have embraced the participatory budgeting initiative with a good measure of success.

Some shining examples include Dondo municipality in Mozambique, Ethekwane in Durban, Mutoko rural district council and the Bulawayo city council in Zimbabwe and the Kigali council in Rwanda which has developed a system which combines traditional and modern participatory processes.

"Dondo in Mozambique is one shining example," says Matovu. "There many indicators of success of this initiative in terms of service provision and infrastructure development."

Uganda too, has developed laws to support the participatory process of people in the running and operations of most local authorities.

With time, it is clear that this participatory initiative will make populations in Africa to be involved in the process of setting, execution and control of local public life and improve their life conditions with their voice.

This will be possible if the agenda is driven by Africans themselves and not by others with other unrelated agendas.