Participatory budgeting – is a way to decide on the use of public funds together with the community, when community members provide ideas to the municipality, school, or organisation and choose their favourite ones by voting.

Alytus city municipality was the first in Lithuania to implement participatory budgeting in 2018. Participatory budgeting initiatives encourage the community to participate in the decision-making processes more actively, encouraging trust. According to 2022 review data, two thirds of municipalities during the 2019-2023 term implemented a participatory budget at least once, and a tenth of them do it every year. In total, since the beginning of term, the residents of the municipalities have already decided on the use of 4.4 million euros. The municipalities usually provide from 8 to 350 thousand euros for participatory budgeting. From July 2021 to August 2022 nearly 70 thousand residents participated in the decision-making on how to use part of their municipality budget funds.

Additionally, 11 municipalities are preparing participatory budgets or are planning to implement them in the  2022/2023 academic year in schools (Akmene, Kaunas, Kretinga, Lazdijai, Moletai, Taurage and Vilkaviskio region, Klaipeda, Siauliai city, Rietavo municipalities).

Since 2019 we have helped 43 schools to implement participatory budgets.

• Practical guide “Participatory budget in your school: what is it and where to begin?” Second edition, 2021 (summary in English). First edition, 2019.
• First Participatory budget research in municipalities – “Participatory budgets in Lithuanian municipalities”, 2021 (executive summary in English).

•  Participatory budgets in municipalities:
  • “Nine out of ten municipalities in Lithuania implement participatory budgeting”, 2024.
  • “Three-quarters of municipalities have implemented participatory budgeting at least once”, 2023.
  • “Two thirds of municipalities have implemented participatory budgets at least once”, 2022.
  • “One in three municipalities in Lithuania are implementing participatory budgets”, 2021.
  • “One in four municipalities in Lithuania invite people to decide on part of the municipality budget”, 2020.
• Participatory budgets in schools:
  • “Participatory budgets increase civic and financial literacy”, 2021.
  • “Direct democracy in schools increases their transparency”, 2019.
• Findings in short:
  • Infographic “Participatory budget in Lithuania”, 2022 (in Lithuanian), 2021, 2020.
  • Infographic “Youth civic literacy” participatory budgets during COVID-19 pandemic, 2021.
  • Infographic “Participatory budget: getting used to transparency since school”, 2019.

• “Participatory budget workshop” for school communities: 2023, 2022 (in Lithuanian).
• “Participatory budgets forums”: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 (in Lithuanian).

• An organisation, working with participatory democracy initiatives worldwide: www.peoplepowered.org/
• More information and recommendations about participatory budget implementation can be found in guidelines provided by other organisations:
  • Barcelona Provincial Council
  • “Civicus”
  • “The Engine Room”
  • European Parliament Research Service
  • United Nations Habitat programme (UN-Habitat)
  • UK Local Government Association
  • World bank
  • “PB Network”
  • Welsh Government