Originating in Puerto Alegre in 1989, Participatory Budgeting (PB) has been implemented throughout the world. Jarabacoa is not a place known for its strength of civil society or citizen engagement. This pilot program of PB using SMS aims to increase civil society and involve citizens for greater government transparency and accountability. PB is part of a broader better governance intitative of the World Bank Initative and United Nations Development Program. PB has been regarded as a "best practice" for open and more effective governance.
VoterMedia is an incentive structure for encouraging public interest media to develop, to flourish and to cover issues that matter to a voter community. A typical first-step implementation is a blog competition in a small democracy such as a student union or a municipality. Voters allocate a limited budget of community funds among various competing blogs. This can be seen as a variant of Participatory Budgeting.
