2025 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

In 2001, the Municipality of Leandro N. Alem approved its Municipal Organic Charter (External link), including an innovative approach compared to other municipalities in the Province of Misiones. It introduced participatory planning, participatory budgeting, and the Youth Council. After more than 20 years, the current Mayor, Matías Sebely, took office and promoted the initiative, forming a strategic alliance for its implementation with the Missionary Center for Regional Studies (CEMER) (External link) belonging to the Missionary Institute of Higher Education (IMES). Both institutions were created to train agents of provincial and municipal public administration. CEMER, in turn, has 10 years of research-action experience in participatory budgets, mainly applied in the city of Posadas, with 2 publications on the subject. (External link)

Among its activities, it was part of the Youth Participatory Budgeting studies in the region (External link), a model that had no cases in the Province of Misiones until 2024. Considering the youth demographic composition of Misiones and the entrepreneurial profile under the Open Government approach (External link) proposed by the new municipal management, it was decided to implement Youth Participatory Budgeting (PPJoven) under the research-action scheme, with normative support (Ord. Nº014/2024 and Res. Nº239/2024). (External link) It is implemented through specific participatory instances within the program, targeting youth from 16 to 29 years old, and it accounts for 40% of the annual allocated budget.

The specific youth sessions can be held in the same general assemblies or in differentiated participatory instances that are integrated into the general Participatory Budget. Additionally, two young leaders were incorporated into the municipal team for Participatory Budgeting to have specific communication and outreach strategies, as well as the role of Young Facilitators in the sessions within the Assemblies. This was done to ensure that the debate was not conditioned by an adult-centered approach. The first experience of PPJoven led to a winning project, the result of the unification of several proposals presented in the assemblies (External link), one of which came from the youth. This led both neighbors and young people to promote a Recreational Integrative Park, which became the most voted proposal. (External link) Inclusive cities (SDG 11) are designed together by all!

For more information:

https://leandronalem.gob.ar/presupuesto-participativo/ (External link)

https://www.oidp.net/docs/repo/doc1679.pdf  (External link)