This panel discussion is the launch event for The Booklovers, The Mayors and The Citizens, a publication about grass-roots democracy in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé.

Through a process known as participatory budgeting, municipal authorities and local residents jointly decide how to allocate public money. 

Participatory budgeting is neither a developmental “silver bullet” nor a universal panacea. But it can deliver much-needed public works in areas that would not otherwise benefit from state involvement.