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Description
Citizen participation and oversight over elected officials and decision making authorities constitutes a fundamental pillar for a solid, just and truly open democracy. Unfortunately, to this day, central governments and parliament leaderships have failed to invest much of their time and effort in creating the right conditions for the facilitation of citizens’ engagement in public affairs. This in turn has resulted in the latter feeling disenfranchised, voiceless, underrepresented and subsequently apathetic towards public life. The consistently dropping percentage in voters’ turnout during elections is a sound indicator that innovative participatory means need to be deployed in order for democracy to re win the hearts and minds of citizens. The objective of this project is to offer the citizens of the four biggest Greek cities (Athens – Thessaloniki – Iraklion – Patra) with all those tools necessary to facilitate their active participation in the shaping of the public life of their cities whilst keeping their elected representatives accountable. In particular the project aims at developing an innovative civic technology platform equipped with a series of components which will allow them to monitor & question publicly their elected representatives, (co)draft policy proposals with the platform’s community, evaluate their municipality, organize volunteering activities in their cities and have a say on how the municipality budget is shaped (participatory budgeting). In addition to this, a series of participatory workshops will be hosted in the aforementioned cities which will bring together citizens, specialists and stakeholders in order to co-draft policy proposals which will then be included in the platform for public consultation and subsequently sent to the relevant authorities. Participatory workshops will also be employed in order to co-design and test the digital participatory components of the platform prior to its launch.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to develop an innovative digital platform (Localwatch) that encourages citizen participation in public life and allows local authorities to control local authorities. Through this platform, citizens of the four largest cities in Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Patras) gained access to tools that allow them to submit questions to elected representatives, check their backgrounds, co-create proposals and resolutions for municipal policies, organise voluntary actions and participate in the preparation of the municipal budget.
The main deliverables of the project include the full functionality of the digital platforms in the municipalities of Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion and Patras and the organisation of a total of eight participatory design workshops, where more than 160 citizens of the four municipalities and experts contributed to the design of the platform tools and the development of the first policy proposals for the municipalities.
All four platforms are now fully operational and citizens of the four municipalities are already using them. The Municipality of Athens has embedded a link to the platform on its official website and, as part of the OGP Local (Open Government Partnership Local), has included the Localwatch platform in its Open Government Action Plan.
In addition, the project team visited cities in the region, presenting the platform to mayors, which led to interest from the Municipalities of Ioannina, Xanthi and Karpenisii in using the digital platform in the near future.
Project beneficiaries include citizens, civil society organisations and local authorities, with the aim of enhancing transparency, accountability and active participation. Potentially, the number of beneficiaries corresponds to the adult population of the four municipalities. The project was implemented in partnership with the Common Space cooperative, which was responsible for organising the participatory design workshops and for engaging citizens.
The project achieved in designing and delivering fully functional user friendly digital platforms for the 4 largest cities/municipalities in Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion and Patras), as a mean of active citizen engagement, transparency and accountability. All four platforms are now fully operational and citizens of the four municipalities are already using them. The Municipality of Athens has embedded a link to the platform on its official website and, as part of the OGP Local (Open Government Partnership Local), has included the Localwatch platform in its Open Government Action Plan.
The project also highlighted the co-creation of such democratic tools by implementing 8 participatory design workshops, where more than 160 citizens of the four municipalities and experts actively cooperated and contributed to the design of the platform tools and the development of the first policy proposals for the municipalities.
In addition, the project team presented the platform to other mayors/municipalites (some of them in more remote areas) as not only a mean of digitalization but also active citizenship beyond geographical boundaries, which led to interest from the Municipalities of Ioannina, Xanthi and Karpenisii in using the digital platform in the near future.