Liu Mingwei think tank takes the lead in community participatory budgeting: reversing youth’s powerlessness and returning to public affairs

The MWYO Youth Office, headed by Vice Chairman Liu Mingwei of the Youth Development Committee, today (21) released the first "Participatory Budgeting" research report, focusing on residents of Choi Fuk Village, Kwun Tong and encouraging them to directly participate in the internal public budget of the community Priority or purpose of expenditure.

The study found that the plan helped increase residents’ sense of belonging to Choi Fook Village, regain youth confidence in community participation, and improve residents’ impression and trust in estate management.

MWYO published a case study report on participatory budgeting.

(Provided by MWYO)

Residents can vote for projects and activities in the village

"Participatory budgeting" means that the public decides the priority or purpose of spending part of the public budget, and through the participation of users, the policies and the use of public funds are more tailored to the needs of the public.

The plan is led by the chairman of the Choi Fook Village Mutual Committee to allow residents to advise on how to use part of the public funds from the Choi Fook Village House Management Advisory Committee (Village Management Committee) on "inside village improvement and maintenance projects" and "housing activities" .

MWYO worked with the Caide Youth Comprehensive Service Center of the Hong Kong Playground Association to find out the wishes of residents by means of participatory budgeting.

As one of the members of the village management committee, the chairman of the mutual committee promotes the most popular suggestions in the village management committee.

The plan will start in November 2020, and the village management committee meeting will decide to implement the residents' election plan in May 2021. It took more than half a year and has five stages, including preparation, publicity and proposal, deliberation, voting, and implementation.

In the end, the plan collected a total of 104 residents’ proposals. After being selected by the expert panel, residents can vote for one of the five shortlisted "Village Improvement and Maintenance Projects" and the other five shortlisted "Housing Activities" projects. Favorite suggestion.

In the end, about 300 households voted. The first two proposals for "Inside Improvement and Maintenance Works" are "Renovation of the sitting-out area next to Choi Lok House" and "Beautification and increase of lighting facilities in Choi Fook Village", which will be implemented this financial year.

As for the "housing activity" with the highest number of votes, the "Caifu Trade Market" will be promoted after the epidemic improves.

MWYO published a case study report on participatory budgeting.

(Provided by MWYO)

There are young people to reverse their sense of powerlessness and rekindle confidence in community participation

During the promotion of the plan, MWYO analyzed the impact of the participatory budget pilot project on the participants through the questionnaires for proposal residents, the questionnaires for voting residents, as well as in-depth interviews with 10 shortlisted residents, 7 young volunteers, mutual committee chairpersons, and district councillors. The influence of district estate management departments and their opinions on the plan.

The study found that most of the residents who participated in the voting have improved their sense of civic participation, both internally and externally.

All the residents of the shortlisted proposals believe that after participating in the "plan", their sense of belonging to Caifu Village has increased.

More than 80% (82.7%) of the surveyed residents agree or agree to the plan to improve their understanding of the use of the Choi Fook Village Management Advisory Committee’s budget and village affairs; more than 90% of the surveyed residents agree or agree to increase their The sense of belonging in Caifu Village (92.2%), and improved the impression of the village management committee or mutual committee of Caifu Village (94.4%).

MWYO believes that it can be seen that the plan has a positive impact on promoting local harmony and strengthening cohesion.

In addition, the young volunteers interviewed generally agreed to participate in the plan to increase their understanding of Caifu Village, district administration and participatory budgeting, and to learn some community participation skills.

Among them, a young volunteer said that the feeling of powerlessness accumulated in the past made him no longer want to participate in any public affairs, but this experience has regained his confidence in community participation.

Liu Mingwei, Director of MWYO.

(Profile picture)

Hope to contact the government department or political group involved in advance in the future

According to MWYO, through this experience, it can be seen that there are seven important conditions for successfully promoting participatory budgeting, including: 1. The system needs to have a corresponding organizational structure and a relatively understanding of the situation in the region and the needs of residents; 2. It is sufficient Financial resources to respond to citizens’ proposals and clear rules and guidelines; 3. There is room for improvement in the community; 4. The preparatory organization needs to be open-minded and determined to seek progress, willing to try new methods to share with residents the impact on the use of funding 5. Respect the voice of the residents and value the ideas and participation of the residents; 6. Have cooperating partners with the same idea; 7. The implementation of the promotion agency and the appropriate trial strategy.

They suggested that in the future, in addition to contacting regional stakeholders, the organizers should actively contact relevant government departments or political groups involved outside the regional level to give them a preliminary understanding of participatory budgets and "plans". Promote more residents to participate.

Liu Mingwei think tank runs a participatory budget plan to allow citizens to participate in the process of financial resource allocation. MWYO re-organizes a summer internship program for middle school students.

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