Oficina ATLAS

Observatory Europe Norway 2021

Local Government

Large Cities

Capital Cities

Regional or State Governments

National Government

Other Institutions

Local Government

Large Cities

Capital Cities

Regional or State Governments

National Government

Other Institutions

Community

Capital

Oslo

Population

5 347 900

Language

NORWEGIAN AND SÁMI

Currency

NORWEGIAN KRONE (NOK)

Indexes

Legislation Regarding the Regulation of Participatory Budgeting Experiences

There is no legislation concerning PB experiences.

Outstanding Innovations

The only innovation using the term Participatory Budgeting was a participatory grant process in the neighborhood of Tøyen in the city of Oslo, Norway’s capital. Approximately 23,000 Euros (250,000 NOK) was allocated to community-led projects that were voted upon by residents living near a planned square/park area. The purpose was to fund projects that would point to a direction for how to plan and use the square/park once built. The participatory budget had 11 proposals, of which five were selected winners. 72 people voted for the proposals. The city district administration used participatory methods to develop projects together with the community initiatives.

Initial Reference for the Adoption of PB in the Country

The initial reference was the municipality of Uddevalla in Sweden in 2008.

Subsequent Reference for PB Dissemination

No information available

Impacts of COVID-19 Disease on PB

PB have been suspended: 0%
PB continued to function normally: 0%
PB have undergone changes/adaptations: 100%

Main Trends of PB in the Country During the Pandemic

There are now two initiatives in Oslo that are conducting or will conduct Participatory Budgeting digitally using the www.citizenlab.co platform. This is partly due to the pandemic, and partly because these city districts want to experiment with digital platforms for citizen participation.

Additional Information

It is difficult to know where to draw the line of how to define Participatory Budgeting. Many municipalities transfer funds to local community councils that can be distributed to associations and community led projects, and some of these may involve community members in an open process where they discuss what activities to fund in the current year. Some researchers define this as Participatory Budgeting. Others, including me, disagree because this would imply that a majority of municipalities have Participatory Budgeting projects dating back long before Porto Alegre in 1989. Most of these municipalities would not define this as Participatory Budgeting themselves.

Every four years the Ministry of Local Government conducts a survey of the organizational structure of the Norwegian municipalities. In 2014, 15 municipalities responded positively to the question of whether they had established organs such as “participatory budgets […] where all or some groups of the population can participate in prioritizing the use of resources within one or more areas of the budget.” In 2016, seven municipalities responded positively to the same question. There may in other words exist more municipalities that practice a form of Participatory Budgeting that do not meet the researchers or public’s attention. We await the result from the survey from 2020 which will provide a better indication of this.