Lisbon Participatory Budgeting

The Participatory Budgeting (OP) is a form of citizen participation in the governance of the city of Lisbon. Through the OP, citizens have effective power to decide on a portion of the municipal budget Lisbon: citizens present proposals to the city, and citizens vote the projects they want to see included in the Plan of Activities and Budget of the City of Lisbon, next year. 

Lisbon ‘Participatory Budgeting’ is a form of citizen participation, in which residents can decide how a portion of the municipal budget is spent. Citizens present proposals to the city, and then vote online for the projects which they want to see included in the city’s plan in the following year. For the edition of the Participatory Budget 2016/2017, €2.5 million euros were allocated to be spent through this process.

One interesting initiative that was funded in this way is the Innovation Centre Mouraria; this is a creative hub which incubates and supports local startups in the creative industries, providing office space and various other in-house services such as support for the marketing of products and services, mentoring, education and training programmes, as well as funding opportunities and preferential loan rates.