Curitiba: Fala Curitiba Mobile

The capital of the state of Paraná, like other capitals, faces the challenge of large metropolises, where urban issues are rethought from a humanist perspective - the city belongs primarily to those who live in it.

With this in mind, the Fala Curitiba programme seeks suggestions from the population for the composition of the municipal budget and Fala Curitiba Móvel (Speak Curitiba) is an innovative methodology for expanding the number of participants, actively seeking out those who don't take part through the other possibilities - virtual and face-to-face meetings.

Based on the material resources available and investment capacity, the practice was planned and implemented with characterised cars and a team of employees trained to invite and guide citizens to give their opinion on the allocation of public resources for the coming year.

Curitiba is divided into 10 administrative regions, all of which receive various visits. These consist of the team spending a few hours in a public space with large or reasonable circulation that is also characterised by the difficulty of participation through other possibilities.

The locations are indicated by the Regional Administrators and operationalised by actors from various municipal departments. There are currently four cars with approximately 700 visits a year, between the months of March and August.

The results of this active search are added to those of virtual participation and face-to-face meetings and are made available for voting in the last phase of the programme, after popular prioritisation and technical evaluation. Those most voted for are included in next year's municipal budget.

The main innovation lies in offering geographical accessibility to participation. Moving away from the virtualisation of services as the strongest public service innovation, Fala Curitiba Móvel also provides information - which increases knowledge about the city and municipal services - and motivation for community engagement.

The capillarity desired in 2022 (the year the practice was implemented) was successfully achieved. Of the 13,940 people who took part in the programme by filling in a form, 9,811 had never taken part before; this represents 70% of the total number.