Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America

"Since the 1990s, the developing world has been the site of bold experiments to open up the policy process to citizen participation. Participatory policymaking institutions are formal, institutional spaces that involve citizens or civil society groups in formulating, deciding on, and/or overseeing the implementation of public policy. Dozens of countries-ranging from the Philippines, to Uganda, to the Dominican Republic-have adopted national laws requiring subnational governments to establish participatory institutions. Even authoritarian regimes, such as those in China and Rwanda, have instituted participatory mandates as a means of improving local service delivery. International donors, such as USAID and the World Bank, embrace participatory policymaking as a "best practice" in their efforts to amplify the impact of anti-poverty programs; between 1990-2007, the World Bank spent roughly $87 billion to support participatory governance in developing countries"--