Mapping Participatory Budgeting: A Comparative Research and Mapping Study Across Communities in Armenia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden

Aims of the tool

The tool aims to help readers understand and compare how participatory budgeting and related participation mechanisms work across different communities. It explores who participates, how proposals are developed and selected, available funding, youth inclusion, public voting and accountability. By mapping eight cases across seven countries, it highlights diverse PB models and identifies practices and elements that can inspire or be adapted to other local contexts.

Description of the tool

“Mapping Participatory Budgeting: A Comparative Research and Mapping Study Across Communities in Armenia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden” is a research-based learning tool developed within the BUDGETIFY project.

BUDGETIFY – Boosting Youth Democratic Governance through Participatory Budgeting (www.inednet.com/budgetify) is an international capacity-building project implemented by the Information and Education Development Network (INEDNET) Armenia and its international partners MENQ e.V. Germany, European Dialogue Slovakia, KEKS Sweden, DevYou Hungary, Aequelitas Portugal, RNCLTM Moldova with the support of the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, H. Hovnanian Family Foundation and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.
Before and during the training, participants carried out research and mapped examples of participatory budgeting and related participation mechanisms in their countries. They examined how local processes are designed, who can participate, how proposals are selected, what resources are available, how young people are included, and whether authorities report back on implementation.

Their work resulted in the selection and mapping of eight community cases across seven countries:
Martuni Municipality, Armenia
Cologne, Germany
Chișinău, Republic of Moldova
Budapest, Hungary
Rožňava, Slovakia
Trnava Self-Governing Region, Slovakia
Braga, Portugal
Alingsås, Sweden

The cases do not represent one single PB model. They operate at different territorial levels, from a village within a municipality to a capital city and a self-governing region. Most are active participatory budgeting processes, while others demonstrate youth-led, school-linked, regional, historic or broader public-participation models connected to public-resource decisions.
For example, Budapest, Chișinău, Martuni, Rožňava, Braga and Trnava Region operate identifiable PB programmes with defined rules and allocations. Alingsås shows a youth-focused model in which students influence funding decisions through the Youth Council. Cologne illustrates the evolution of a pioneering citizens’ budget into a broader framework of systematic public participation.
This publication, “Mapping Participatory Budgeting: A Comparative Research and Mapping Study Across Communities in Armenia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden”, brings these contributions together in a consistent and accessible format. It enables readers to understand each case individually while also comparing different approaches to participation, funding, youth inclusion and accountability.

The publication asks several practical questions:
• Who is invited to participate?
• At what age can people submit proposals or vote?
• How are ideas developed, assessed and selected?
• Does public voting directly influence decisions?
• How much funding is available?
• How are young people informed, supported and included?
• Are results and implementation progress publicly communicated?
• Which elements can be adapted to other local contexts?