Chile
Municipality of Viña del Mar (Chile)
19-04-2024
From 2024 to 2025
30-04-2025
In 2024, the municipality of Viña del Mar launched its very first participatory budget, a pioneering initiative in the city aimed at allowing residents to directly decide on the use of part of the municipal budget. This project, led by Mayor Macarena Ripamonti, allocates 200 million Chilean pesos to fund community projects proposed by the population itself. Through a citizen voting process, residents of the affected neighborhoods can choose the projects that will be implemented by the municipality.
The participatory budget of Viña del Mar meets several fundamental objectives. First, it seeks to strengthen participatory democracy by actively involving citizens in local budget decisions. It also aims to co-construct collective projects in line with the real needs and aspirations of residents, while making the use of public funds more transparent. Lastly, it has a specific goal of recovery: supporting the reconstruction of areas severely affected by the mega fire of February 2024, by contributing to the rehabilitation of public spaces and the resilience of local communities. The wildfires that struck Chile in February 2024 were the deadliest in its recent history, destroying over 14,000 homes and affecting approximately 43,000 hectares of land, mainly in the regions of Valparaíso, O'Higgins, and Maule. The participatory budget of Viña del Mar aims to be a springboard in response to this natural disaster.
This participatory process is open to a wide range of the population. Anyone aged 14 or older can submit a project proposal, including youth with parental consent. Participants mainly come from the neighborhoods most severely affected by the fire disaster: Reñaca Alto, Achupallas, Miraflores, and Viña Oriente. These areas are characterized by significant social diversity, including vulnerable populations affected by precarious conditions, housing loss, and lack of public infrastructure.
Participants can be permanent residents, but also workers or visitors with a strong connection to the municipality. The digital platform www.vinadecide.cl and on-site workshops provide maximum accessibility, promoting the inclusion of people less familiar with digital tools.
Viña del Mar is a Chilean coastal municipality located in the Valparaíso region, about 120 km northwest of Santiago. In 2025, its population is estimated at over 373,000 inhabitants, making it the most populous municipality in the province of Valparaíso, representing nearly 45% of its total population.
The participatory budget of Viña del Mar is part of a post-disaster emergency context: at the beginning of 2024, a large-scale fire destroyed a significant part of the municipal territory, severely impacting housing, public spaces, and community life. In this context, the municipality, under the leadership of Mayor Macarena Ripamonti, decided to implement this initiative with a solidarity-based approach: the allocated resources are exclusively intended for the affected neighborhoods, to promote collective reconstruction and improvement of the quality of life.
The approach is based on principles of direct democracy, territorial equity, transparency, and the valorization of popular knowledge. The process is structured into several phases: a phase of idea collection, where citizens can submit their proposals through workshops or online; a feasibility evaluation by a municipal technical committee composed of various units (urban planning, finance, community development); then a selection of finalist projects, which are submitted to the vote of residents of the affected sectors.
Only proposals serving the common good – such as the creation or renovation of public squares, gardens, cultural workshops, or community events – are accepted. Each project must comply with a budget ceiling (50 million Chilean pesos maximum) and must be feasible within less than a year. The projects most supported by the community and technically viable are implemented directly by the municipality.
This first 2024 edition is intended as a pilot that could be expanded to other neighborhoods of Viña del Mar in the future. The initiative draws inspiration from international participatory budgeting experiences, such as those developed in Brazil, Spain, or Mexico, but it is adapted to the local context of Chile and more broadly, Latin America. It complements other existing community investment instruments while opening up new spaces for individual participation.
Thus, the participatory budget of Viña del Mar marks a significant step towards more horizontal and inclusive municipal governance, by giving back a voice and the power to act to the population at a crucial moment of urban and social reconstruction.
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