Local councils increasingly face constrained budgets, low levels of public trust, and difficulty ascertaining exactly how their residents would like them to spend and invest funds. Across the world, councils are increasingly turning to something called participatory or community-led budgeting as a way to resolve these issues.

The way this works is that a local council puts up a proportion of its infrastructure budget – its spending on new capital works, in other words – for the community to allocate. Discussions about how to spend this money start at the neighbourhood level, with people arguing for and against different initiatives and ultimately voting them up or down. These discussions are then repeated at the ward level, where the sifting process happens again, before a final region-wide or city-wide meeting, essentially run by residents, selects the successful projects.

These processes, which can happen online or in-person, have been operating successfully for decades now in countries as varied as France and Brazil. It leads to better-informed decisions, because locals know best what their community needs, and because the calls are made only after deep discussion amongst residents. Research has also shown that it leads to infrastructure that better serves those most in need, and that it increases transparency and scrutiny of spending.

IDEA will work with local councils, some of which have already expressed interest in this innovation, to pilot and ultimately adopt it as part of their core business. This will help restore trust, get diverse communities engaged in decision-making, and improve quality of spending.