Tehran: Participatory budgeting through the project "I Am a Mayor"

Within this participatory budgeting process, 2080 projects were proposed. 1,462 projects were introduced as selected  ones due to their participatory nature, worth 3.4000 billion rials equivalent to 12% of the Tehran Municipality’s annual budget. The selected projects were classified in 11 categories  considering the priorities of the citizens. The participants in the survey were 345,450  Tehrani citizens, with the number of questionnaires completed by them reaching 458,504. This means that one of the goals of the project, which was to complete 500.00  questionnaires, has almost been achieved. 

In terms of demographic characteristics, almost half of the responders were women and the  other half were men, which indicates their shared concern in management of the city. The  youth have been the biggest participating group, mainly concerned about the projects in  their neighbourhoods and workplace area. More than half of the participants have higher  education, which indicates their trust in the project and its application in management of the  city.

Considering the weakening position of local councils as a bridge between the city managers and citizens, the municipality has initiated the project "I Am a Mayor" in order to fill the gap  that has impacted its relationship with the citizens. The initiative allows citizens to address the challenges of their neighbourhoods in the form of projects and prioritize them based on  necessity. In fact, the measure has been taken in order to engage the citizens and  encourage their participation in the decision-making process of urban affairs. 

Among the  requirements of implementing this plan the following can be mentioned: 

▪ Accompany of the citizens in the decisions and measures of urban managers  (strengthening citizens' participation) 

▪ Increasing accountability of city managers 

▪ Education and increasing citizens' knowledge 

▪ Informing citizens about the municipality's activities in order to increase their motivation  and encourage their participation. 

In participatory budgeting project of "I Am a Mayor" and similar projects to be conducted in  the future, Tehran Municipality seeks to get the opinions of Tehrani citizens about urban  projects at the neighbourhood and local scale. In order to present urban projects to the City  Council and include them in the annual budget bill, we chose surveys to select the projects  based on their priority. As such, the participatory budgeting entered the agenda. 

https://manshahrdaram.tehran.ir/