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Description
Even if Bucharest has experience a boosting of its civic spirt and an increase in activism, the need for civic involvement is as high as ever. The local elections brought with them high expectations from the new political power. But at the same time, due to the leniency of some categories of activists and citizens to the new administration, the number and intensity of watchdog activities is decresing. More than that, there have been noticed that after six months, even if we can spot a slight improvement of the public discourse, there still is no significant improvement in the administrative practices of the Bucharest governance. The project starts from the premise that public pressure is the only force that can lead to the improvement of the quality of life in the city and help develop and nurture a healthy democracy.
“Bucuresti, al cui esti?” proposes a double approach: the support of grass root activism and making the officials of Bucharest City Hall and 2nd District Hall more aware of their responsibilities with respects to the standards of transparency and civic involvement in the decision making process.
In partnership with ActiveWatch and collaborating with citizens’ groups from the neighborhoods of Floreasca and Lacul Tei: will be monitored the activities of Bucharest City Hall, the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest, 2nd District Hall and the Local Council of the 2nd District; will be used public pressure to make these four institutions respect the standards of transparency and public consultation; will be offered direct support to 6 citizens’ groups in order to help their efforts of advocacy and community mobilization; will be offered access to resources and opportunities that will lead to learning, action and networking, which will in turn help strengthen and inspire other civic initiatives.
Summary of project results
Even if in the last decade civic activism has grown considerably in Bucharest, the level of participation of citizens in the decision-making process at the local level was low, due to the limited access by decision-makers from the sector mayors or the General Mayor''s Office. Combined with citizens'' mistrust in authorities, political crises, and anti-covid measures, advocacy campaigns'' effectiveness has dropped considerably. Therefore, through the project Bucharest, who are you? - the two organizations proposed to monitor the activity of the town halls, to reactivate the citizen initiative groups with which they collaborated in the past, and to increase access to the decision-making processes within the administration.
Thus, within activity, A3 - Organization of an information and training workshop in advocacy and community mobilization in Bucharest - 3 training sessions were held instead of one to ensure the minimum number of participants of 20 people. In total, they were trained in community mobilization techniques, advocacy, public institutions, and legislation relevant to civic involvement - 44 people were chosen from civic groups in Bucharest and students; In the framework of A4 - Assisting in advocacy and community mobilization for at least 6 civic groups from Bucharest over 16 months - 10 civic groups were supported in advocacy campaigns and dozens of representatives of local authorities were exposed to advocacy campaigns carried out through direct interaction. The two organizations worked on local issues with 12 non-governmental organizations from Bucharest, developing 17 large advocacy initiatives/actions and over 31 initiatives consisting of several specific actions (meetings with authorities, participation in meetings, etc.); Within A5 - Monitoring of the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest, the City Hall of Bucharest City Hall, the Local Council of Sector 2 and the City Hall of Sector 2 in terms of compliance with standards of transparency and involvement - was carried out together with the partner ActiveWatch and 2 others groups of citizens from sector 2 (Floreasca Civica and the Civic Initiative Group Lacul Tei), citizens dissatisfied with the activity of the sector administration. During the implementation period of the project, a clear monitoring methodology was worked on, which included the monitoring of council meetings, the monitoring of the progress of the draft decisions (publishing them within the term stipulated by law, the organization of public debates, etc.), the extent to which citizens can express themselves in meetings or through other instruments, the quality of public debates, the quality of debates in council meetings, and how the executive management and local councils approach issues of interest to citizens and organizations. The two resulting monitoring reports were publicly launched in a formal event with the participation of representatives from the monitored institutions, the press, citizens, and other interested NGOs. Through the information campaign regarding the two reports, more than 40,000 people, 4 local public authorities, and 83 local elected officials exposed to advocacy actions were informed; Within A7 - Holding a city-wide meeting to bring together Bucharest civic groups and organizations - included a public event with an exhibition to promote public participation, in the form of an initiative fair with a debate section with public authorities, called Citizens at the microphone, where civic groups and unaffiliated citizens present at the event could ask questions and receive answers from the public authorities present. More than 100 people were present at the event, 20 representatives of local public authorities, and 2 journalists. Among the results are: 1 press release sent, 10 posts on the FB page, 8 articles in the online mass media, 3 radio broadcasts, with a reach of 14,000 views, and 2 Newsletters; Within A8 - Meeting of the CeRe team - among the results are - 1 initial evaluation meeting of the organization''s procedures, 1 team meeting to discuss the strategies and practices proposed for improvement, 1 document to analyze the results of CeRe in the direction of empowering vulnerable people. In the last period of the project, team meetings were organized to finalize the proposed documents (strategies, procedures, etc.) and continue a study regarding the organization''s stakeholders.
The project Bucharest, who do you belong to?, implemented by CeRe and Active Watch increased public participation and transparency of the authorities in Bucharest. The organizations implemented all the activities they proposed: the communication of the advocacy campaigns registered in Bucharest, the mentoring offered to the groups, the monitoring of public institutions, the development of the organization, and the civic networking meeting at the city level. We mention that 1. the organizations monitored the activity of the City Hall and supported the groups to monitor the activity of PS2. As deliverables, we have the monitoring reports published and launched, as collaborations with more than 10 authorities (out of 10 we proposed). 2. The District 2 groups that we supported organized advocacy actions for transparency in decisions for citizens. As deliverables, we have meetings with authorities, events, petitions, posts, and press articles. 3. CeRe supported as a mentor at least 12 civic groups through mentoring, exceeding the 6 originally proposed, with the following results and deliverables: campaigns, petitions, protests, networking events, and debate. Final result: important changes at the district and city level, a year before the elections, led the mayors and councilors to publicly undertake or solve several problems - for example fining the owner of a plot in the IOR Park. Other results and changes we mention: involvement in difficult (legislative) campaigns - PUZ, Green Spaces Law - resulting in the postponement of some toxic amendments. CeRe and Active Watch participated in radio shows, communicated the city''s problems, and proposed good practices. Other results: community events of 50 and 100 people (Initiatives Fair from October 2023), more than 20 punctual advocacy actions (more than 18 proposed), and promotion on the CeRe and SM page with 107,381 views.