By Wilson J Hormeguera

Xavier University - Governance and Leadership Institute (XU-GLI) conducted a workshop on the budget process of the local government unit for the members of Cagayan de Oro City People’s Council earlier this month.

The event was aimed at empowering the civil society organizations which are members of the CDO People’s Council to engage in participatory governance, lobby the people’s development agenda on economic development, infrastructure projects, social services and natural resources management.

Understanding the local budget process allows the CSOs to take part in the decision-making on various programs of the city government. The local budget process has five phases: preparation by the executive, authorization by the legislative, budget review, budget execution, and budget accountability.

“In each phase, the CSOs are always welcome to engage since this is the people’s budget,” said GLI director Dr Dixon Yasay.

The CSOs were also oriented on how to participate in the Bottom-up Budgeting (BuB) process of the national government agencies thus making development initiatives more inclusive and beneficial at the grassroots level.

The workshop culminated with the planning of specific initiatives and targets of engagement in the city budget process.