Bottom-up budgeting (BUB) is a government program that is envisioned to institutionalize and incentivize grassroots participation in local planning and budgeting in all cities and municipalities. This study aims (i) to examine how the key steps in the planning and prioritization of projects that will be funded under the BUB for the fiscal year (FY) 2016 planning cycle are implemented in terms of extent of participation of civil society organizations (CSO), local government unit (LGU)-CSO engagement, and the integration of BUB processes in the mainstream local planning processes; and (ii) to report on the pace of implementation of FY 2013 and FY 2014 BUB subprojects and to identify the bottlenecks affecting the same.
Based on the BUB experience in the 12 case study sites, this study argues that CSO participation in the BUB may be characterized on the basis of how the LGUs actually operationalized the key features of the BUB. The study then juxtaposed the extent of CSO participation in the BUB in the 12 study sites. It measured the share of CSO-identified or proposed projects in the total project cost of all BUB subprojects against the actual conduct of the CSO assembly and Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan (LPRAP) workshop in these LGUs to gain a better understanding of the relative importance of the various aspects that comprise CSO participation in the BUB.
On the other hand, the evaluation of the pace of implementation of the subprojects prioritized and included in the LPRAPs of the 12 study sites for FY 2013 and FY 2014 shows mixed results. While the implementation of FY 2014 BUB subprojects is faster than the implementation of FY 2013 BUB subprojects in terms of project completion, procurement, and provision of national government agency feedback to LGUs, some deterioration in the downloading of project funds is evident between these two years.