This is a CTP of initiative: Participatory Budgeting Fortaleza (Brazil)
In 2005, Fortaleza is the second city to include children and adolescents in the process of participatory budgeting. It is an action of inclusion of this public in the regional politics, by the municipal government. The participation of this public is an interesting experimentation (which served as inspiration for other Brazilian cities), once they vote, as the adults involved. It is an innovation that changes institutional relations and produces new ways of doing, framing and knowing, confers another identity to PB, invigorates the process, but does not happen without problems, since adults in the process do not agree with their voting power.
Inspired by the experience of São Paulo, another Brazilian city involved children in the PB, the process of popular participation Fortaleza deployed Children and Adolescent PB in 2005 during the first year of a participatory budgeting experience in Fortaleza: "It is a historic will of movements and political party to involve children in politics. The liveliness of this space is amazing. It just needs to expand to all schools. The magic, the political sense, the achievements..."
The Children and Adolescent PB corresponds to participation of children and adolescents from 6-17 years of age (to match the school age) with equal rights, including voting in the PB process. The assemblies however were not in their entirety carried out in schools, but rather spread among schools, NGOs, groups and associations, depending on availability of space and participation and support by region: "Our dream was to have PB in all the schools. We did not have any input from the education secretariat. That was our dilemma. We could not enter the schools easily".
In 2005 a pilot scheme was conducted with only one assembly with the participation of the public, from which demands were extracted, as happens in all the PB processes. The demands of children and adolescents were for services: "Children participated in the city, culture activities, doctors, teachers, training courses, which are not works but are services."
From 2006, the experience had expanded and was divided by regions. There were 12 groups of children and adolescents involved in the PB and consequently there were 12 children and adolescents in the PB Council where they decided which demands would be executed. From a total of 40 members, 12 were children and adolescents.
The assemblies formed in the 12 regions had different characteristics and compositions, depending on the situation of children and adolescents in each region. There was, for example, a region with assemblies with street children, some predominantly formed by children, others with more young people.
In 2005 during the first PB cycle the number of demands was much higher than the budget, thus, in 2006 and 2007, it was not possible to accept the demand for investments because the resources that existed were being used for the 2005 demands. Thus, only the demands of the Children and Adolescent PB were carried out.
As stated by the interviewee: "The Children and Adolescent PB had a positive influence on the budget, they saw improvements and they saw their demands been implemented, as the municipality had available resources for the performance of services. The participation of children and adolescents was very important for the government and for the team, because the city is for all citizens (...) this experience formed political citizens (...) and was unprecedented. São Paulo had done something like this before, but the experience in Fortaleza was bigger and more successful. We had meetings with 300 children and adolescents. They together totaled 12 votes and overthrew the decisions of adults. They talked among themselves, because they had no relationship with adults. Of the 40 delegates, 12 were children".
To monitor the participation of children and adolescents, the PB team formed a network of support organizations (organizations working with children and adolescents and found the participation really important) and meetings were accompanied by psychologists.
The co-production had actors including the city hall, the PB team, a network of support organizations in addition to the children and adolescents and other participants in the PB, the adults.
The related events to this CTP are relative to the municipal government and the PB cycle in Fortaleza.
January 2005 – A new government begin - The Workers Party took office in the municipal government and the PB in Fortaleza was implemented. In this year, Children and Adolescent PB began with a single assembly which drew up a list of demands.
January 2006/2007 – Demand for services - The participation of children gained visibility and greater interest because the municipal government only had sufficient resources to provide services and not to carry out constructions. All projects during this period were committed to implementing the demands of the PB in 2005. The demands of this group were the only demands answered.
March 2007 – Adults disagree on the participation of children - The PB council changed the internal rules and prevented the participation of children under 10 years old. In this year (and according to the interviewee, in all others too) there was a lot of discussion about the participation of children and adolescents in PB. Many advisers of PB did not agree with this participation because they believed that they would not make decisions correctly due to their young age: "The adults thought the children had no legitimacy. ‘They do not know anything’... it was the old generational prejudice".
The other advisers did not like the participation of children and adolescents on the council. Every year, according to the methodology of the PB, during the first stage of the PB, the internal rules are changed to address necessary adjustments to the process. Each year, the advisors wanted to prevent the participation of this group. This group had 12 votes towards the decisions made during council meetings which decided which demands would be implemented and what would be left aside due to budget limits or legal reasons: "The children got very quickly to a consensus and overthrew the votes of adults who, by contrast, discussed a lot with divided votes thus getting ??to no consensus easily". Adults also pressed the children: "Will you have time? Will your mother let you? It's a lot of work". This stress got worse with time. In 2007 the age changed from 10 to 17 by decision of the regiment. Children from 6 to 9 years were prevented from participating.
The expectation regarding this participation was great and positive because the team believed in civic education and Public policy, but knew from the beginning that there would be resistance: "We foresaw that there would be tension, it is not possible to talk about child and adolescent political participation with the same power as an adult, without talking about reaction".
The experience and lessons learned were positive in relation to education for democracy and diversity.
The adults’ resistance to "compete" with children in determining what was "best" for the city is seen by the interviewee as "generational prejudice", which required learning how to deal with the resistance coming from the advisors.
"One way to fight corruption is to work with more direct participation so that more people will understand the process. The diversity of the city is not made of adults only, it is made of all. You have to represent these interests and these wills".
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