Paraguay's public budget hearings: a path to citizen responsiveness.

• Author: Monte Domecq, Raul F.

For the first time in Paraguay's history, Asuncion's then-mayor summoned the citizens to a public budget hearing in late 1995. These hearings received technical assistance from Florida's Metro Dade County Government and Florida International University through a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program. Decentralization of power and resources, political will to make government responsive and accessible, and citizen participation in monitoring government are three pillars underlying public budget hearings (Audiencias Publicas de Presupuesto; APP). These principles also are part of a new and ongoing effort to strengthen democracy at the local level in Paraguay.

Public budget hearings encourage civic participation and stress the importance of accessibility and responsiveness in government. Since 1995, the capital city of Paraguay has continued to host annual public budget hearings, and participation has grown. More than 300 local committees and other important players take part in these exercises. The neighborhood committees are gradually incorporating public budget hearings into their agendas as a means to obtain information and channel their requests. On October 26, 1997, a small city of 48,000 inhabitants that forms part of the metropolitan area of Asuncion became the second municipality in Paraguay to hold public budget hearings. In Villa Elisa, there was a lively exchange among the participants at this hearing that included 64 local committees, representatives of education, cultural, and sports organizations along with local entrepreneurs. Most of the petitions concerned urban infrastructure projects such as waste management, the construction of health centers, primary education, and environmental protection. Of the 98 petitions submitted, 55 percent received a favorable response and were included in the projects slated for fiscal year 1998. Villa Elisa's mayor will be responsible for reporting back to the citizens on completion of the tasks projected for 1998. The community, for its part, will be responsible for monitoring the mayor.

The municipalities of Asuncion and Villa Elisa share three factors that make public budget hearings possible: mayors with the leadership and political will to promote participation, effective neighborhood committees, and efficient governments that follow through on the decisions made. Not all municipal governments in Paraguay are as prepared or responsive as those of Asuncion and Villa...