OECD - DG REGIO Workshop on the Innovative Application of the Partnership Principle

OECD Headquarters, Paris, June 7-8, 2023

The European Commission (DG REGIO) and the OECD are working together to promote innovative citizen participation in cohesion policy. EU cohesion policy aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion by reducing disparities in the level of development between regions, making it relevant for citizens to have their say regarding these policies.

Participation is also one of the key principles of cohesion policy, as citizens have an important role to play in making public authorities more transparent and accountable and in making public investment more efficient and effective. The OECD is providing technical assistance to managing authorities, intermediaries, and beneficiaries in Europe to implement citizen participation initiatives until 2025.

Challenges encountered when moving from experimentation to a culture of participation

As part of the capacity building and learning activities, the OECD organised an in-person seminar in Paris on June 7 and 8, 2023 in the context of TAIEX REGIO Peer2Peer. Participants were invited to a series of working and social activities focused on sharing learnings, challenges, and planning for the next phases.

Participants were invited to reflect on the main challenges they face or will face when moving from experimentation to a systemic culture of participation.

1. Integrate citizen participation in formal processes, be it political, electoral, or administrative, to break this isolated or parallel state in which these efforts currently exist vis-à-vis formal decision-making spaces.
2. Build environment that supports flexibility and experimentation needs to be created in public administration, so that civil servants feel more comfortable with exploring new practices and approaches to policy.
3. For the participation to be effective and impactful, considering the diversity component and ensuring inclusion of marginalised or underrepresented people are crucial steps to faithfully represent the demographic composition of its society.
4. Citizens require incentives, be they symbolic or financial, as well as time for them to commit to the participatory process.
5. Need to build and strengthen a culture of participation to make it scalable. This includes approaches in and out of government, to establish a democratic infrastructure to promote participatory decision-making, involving regulation, skills development, toolkit creation, spaces, platforms, and shared methodologies. Participants raised the possibility to make participation mandatory, as a legal obligation in the feasibility studies phase, before a decision is reached.
6. Capacity building to equip both civil servants and civil society with the skills needed to better support and participate in such processes.
7. Building trust between citizens and government, so that citizens trust their government and that their participation has weight in governmental decision-making. Likewise, that governments trust their citizens to give actionable and valuable input in key policy issues.
8. Governments need to adapt and create formal spaces for participation, integrated in their administrative culture.
9. Prioritize resource allocation for these processes, namely impactful participation can only be achieved with dedicated financial, human, or technical resources.
10. Strengthen networks and bonds of mutual learning and support are crucial aspects to demystify participation, breaking the initial barriers and resistances stemming from fear or ignorance, to be able to scale good practices and support groups.

The seminar closed with a learning session with Arantzazulab, a Social and Governance Innovation lab, in the implementation of the first representative deliberative process in the Municipality of Tolosa, in the Gipuzkoa region of the Basque Country in Spain. As a learning session, this panel showcased the lessons learned from this collaboration in the implementation of deliberative processes with participants reflections and input on its efforts to promote a systemic approach to deliberative democracy.

Background

The OECD is currently supporting six pilots

Regione Emilia-Romagna and Bangherang, Italy

 The Emilia-Romagna Managing Authority oversees the implementation of territorial development strategies in its region, which includes internal and mountain areas. Emilia-Romagna has previously worked with the OECD in the development of the Citizen Participation Playbook for the Emilia-Romagna Region.

The current pilot aims to build a democratic culture among young people in the area, with an innovative youth engagement process focusing on the green transition at the school level by:

1. Organising a Students’ Assembly in which a randomly chosen group of students will learn, deliberate, and provide insights for implementing sustainability and climate change projects included in the territorial strategy.

Government of Cantabria and Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento (CISE), Spain

As part of the first phase of the OECD-DG REGIO collaboration, the OECD provided guidance to design and implement Cantabria's first citizens' jury. The jury identified measures to help Cantabria move towards a low-carbon economy, considering the context of a rural-urban divide that this initiative aims to overcome.

This current pilot aims to build on the jury's recommendations, close the deliberative process's feedback loop, and involving the public in the implementation of the Jury’s recommendations following a three-stage methodology:

1. Closing the feedback loop: properly communicate results of the Besaya Deliibera Citizen Jury to participants and the broader public
2. Citizen Commission: citizens and stakeholders will be invited to identify policy priorities for the design of re- and up-skilling initiatives in the context of the Cantabrian government's ITI strategy
3. Public consultation: the priorly suggested policy priorities will be shared with the broader public

Centre for EU Transport Projects in Poland (CEUTP), FADO and GZM Metropolis, Poland

As part of the first phase of the OECD-DG REGIO collaboration, the OECD developed a tailored guide for CEUTP on how to better involve citizens in transport policies.

This current pilot aims to create a three-stage process to reach out to different publics through different means with the objective of collectively shape the accessibility of rail transport, and the future of public transport in GZM Metropolis.

1. Online survey to map broad opinions and needs of citizens across GZM Metropolis
2. Research walks: 12 interactive consultations with targeted groups (elder, students, residents, neighbouring residents, etc.) will build concrete knowledge that will feed the deliberative jury.
3. Deliberative jury: a randomly selected group of GZM residents will receive the inputs from previous stages and give recommendations on how to improve the access and usability of the stations

Municipality of Ramnicu Valcea and Valcea Community Foundation, Romania

As part of Ramnicu Valcea’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan and Sustainable Urban Agenda, the local council – and its partner, Valcea Community Foundation, aim to engage citizens to increase usage of public transportation, and better involve the community in shaping decisions regarding public transport.

The aim of this pilot is to implement the first representative deliberative process with random selection in Romania to gather citizen insights and improve public transportation in the city.

1. Representative Deliberative Process: This process would allow to involve key stakeholders as well as randomly selected citizens, following a selection criteria to be defined with the Municipality of Ramnicu Valcea and the transport operator.
2. Participants will go through a learning stage prior to deliberate and come up with collective recommendations.

Muncipality of Banska Bystrica and Dialogue Centre, Slovakia

The municipality of Banska Bystrica’s Integrated Territorial Strategy (ITS) will have an Action Plan that will include projects to be implemented.

The current pilot aims at involving citizens and stakeholders in the development and prioritisation of projects that can then be integrated in the ITS Action Plan following a two-stage methodology:

1. Ideathon: co-creation methodology to develop project proposals with citizens and stakeholders
2. Prioritisation: voting mechanism to prioritise projects developed during the ideathon

South Muntenia Regional Development Agency (SMRDA) and National Union of Romanian County Councils (NURCC), Romania

The South Muntenia Regional Development Agency (SMRDA) oversees the financing of 14 local authorities’ Integrated Territorial Strategies (ITS). SMRDA has selected Dambovita County Council to pilot this methodology in 2023.

The current pilot aims at increasing the transparency and impact of South Muntenia ROP 2021 – 2027 by involving citizens and stakeholders in the design and implementation of the projects.

1. Public Dialogues: Citizens and stakeholders will be invited to provide feedback and enrich the proposed projects. This is also moment for the County and SMRDA to communicate and inform the public about the Strategy and the benefits of cohesion policy.
2. Prioritization: citizens will be invited to vote among different projects that will be then integrated and reflected in the ITS. This voting phase can be done online or in person.