DATE / TIME:

2019•09•03    10:00 - 11:00

Location:

Guimarães

Abstract

The participatory budget (PB) was created in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 and, since the 1990s, has spread around the world thanks to the visibility given by the World Social Forum, based in the city, and the adoption of this practice by international organizations, such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and the World Bank (WB). Today, there are over 7000 current practices worldwide. From the vision of democratic radicalization to a simple mechanism for improving the productivity and transparency of government budget; from entirely face-to-face and manual processes to ICT-based participatory budgets, over these 30 years and in every corner of the world where it is in use, the PB has great differences and similarities and raises heated discussions among practitioners and scholars around its effectiveness, expansion or decay. This seminar will present a look on the 30 years journey in Porto Alegre and Brazil, the proliferation of experiences and visions around the world and some insights on the use of ICT.

Speaker

Paulo Roberto Miranda is currently a Government Fellow at UNU-EGOV. He is also the President of the Information and Communications Technology Services Company of the Municipality of Porto Alegre – PROCEMPA (licensed). Prior to this position, he was the Secretary for Information and Technology of the city of Curitiba, state of Paraná, Brazil. Previously, he was CEO at CELEPAR – State of Paraná (PR) ICT Services Company, Technical Director at PROCERGS State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) ICT Services Company, and Regional Director at SERPRO (Brazilian Federal ICT Services) in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo. He also served as Executive Secretary of the ICT Board of the states of RS and PR. He was elected three times President of ABEP, the Brazilian Association of ICT Public Companies. He was the founder and director of the International Centre for Software Technology – CITS (Paraná/BR) and vice president of ABNT’s Software Subcommittee (Brazilian ISO branch). He was Consulting Director at BRISA – Society for the Development of Information Technology. Paulo has over 40 years of experience in Information and Communication Technology, Strategic Planning and Technology Management, both in government and in the private sector.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Management, Information Systems and is Civil Engineer, both diplomas from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. He is also the author of two chapters in books: “e-Participation in Smart Cities of Developing Countries: Research-Based Practical Recommendations” and “Porto Alegre, Brazil: the smart health case of Gerint”.