As part of the government's effort to pursue sustained and inclusive growth and, at the same time, promote good governance at the local level, the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) exercise—also called the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting (GPB) process—was initiated in 2012. It is a reform measure that aims to make the national budget a participatory process. Through the BUB, the government hopes to involve citizens in identifying projects that they believe will be beneficial for their own communities. This Economic Issue of the Day discusses the concept of participatory budgeting and how it works. Specifically, it looks at the Philippine government's BUB process from planning to implementation of projects. Initial findings of an initial evaluation by PIDS in 12 municipalities and cities in four provinces representing Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao were also discussed.
