Innovation Tag: Citizen Engagement

#MyFrance2022 is the largest online citizen consultation ever conducted by a public media in France. It allowed one million French people to express their priorities and to engage in direct conversation with the candidates in the run-up to the presidential election. This massive and unprecedented consultation sought to respond to the democratic urgency of placing the voice of citizens at the heart of political debates during a democratic crucial period like the presidential campaign.

For 80 years we have been working for the well-being of people in disadvantaged areas, but they have rarely been asked how they expect a suitable and valuable public space to be. With our project, we create public spaces that, apart from roads, pavements and quality access, promote safety, comfort, life and the local factor of each territory. We innovate in the way in which the inhabitants of a sector transform their environment, beyond the rootless perception of the "experts".

The Future Tech Challenge (FTC) is a pilot initiative led by DPER to connect and collaborate across the wider ecosystem, and engage in transformative innovation by experimenting with, and applying new technology to address pressing public sector problems and opportunities that deliver improved services to the public. Drive innovation using emerging technology, enhance collaboration, meet National strategic priorities, generate knowledge & learnings and develop prototyped solutions.

By involving the public in the design of public spaces (parks, plazas, streets etc.) municipalities can create spaces that better suit society's interests. According to the data, 58 out of 60 municipalities in Lithuania recognize the benefits of public participation, but 50 % of them say they don't have the knowledge for it. The guide "Dialogue between the city & its people" is a step-by-step textbook for municipalities that helps execute the participation process from start to finish.

The PropTech Engagement Fund was launched in 2021 and has worked with 41 Local Authorities to date on accelerating the adoption of digital citizen engagement tools and transforming community involvement in placemaking. Our ongoing programme is the largest UK Government PropTech Programme, leading on how to work with industry, tech start ups and local governments to increase the diversity and positivity of placemaking conversations and to fast track new digital policy and local housing delivery.

Council to the street is an innovative strategy to strengthen democracy through citizen participation. It is a strategy that brings the city's institutions out to listen and respond to citizens in public spaces. Citizens identify their priority needs and requirements and in a public session the Council and the Mayor's Office respond to them. The citizens should be the overseers of the commitments reached in the space. During the process the citizenry is strengthened and accompanied.

Citizens' assemblies (CAs) were incorporated in the new Law on Municipalities in 2005. As an opportunity to strengthen participatory processes, and to improve participatory decision-making methods at local level, Participation Task Forces (PTFs) were established. The innovative nature of the PTFs is that for the first time elected municipal councillors, appointed municipal officials, and representatives of CAs worked together on developing participatory policy proposals for their municipality.

In 2017, Korea opened the online platform allowing the public to make policy suggestions, ‘Gwanghwamun 1st street’ as an effort to expand Direct Democracy. Following this lead, Gwanak-gu developed its own online platform, ‘Online Gwanak-gu Office’. ‘Online Gwanak-gu Office’, which is exclusively for Gwanak-gu citizens, utilized user participation during development, and its innovation comes from the integration of various existing public participation routes.

In an increasingly digital world, Participa.gov represents our vision for civic participation in political decision-making processes. Participa.gov is the Portuguese Public Administration's centralized, cross-cutting platform for facilitating participatory processes at all levels of government. It employs cutting-edge technology to ensure that citizens can actively participate in policy decision-making via secure and transparent mechanisms that foster trust.

Recognising the importance of artificial intelligence as well as the innovative capacity of start-ups, to support the development of innovative products and ideas, the Government of Serbia deployed a national supercomputing AI platform and offered its resources and trainings free of charge to innovative companies and startups through a public call for proposals.