Virtual initiatives to guarantee citizen participation in the context of the pandemic generated by COVID 19 in the municipality of Chía

Safe Citizen Participation is a strategy for citizen participation that seeks to guarantee the continuity of democratic processes within the municipality of Chía, taking advantage of virtual and electronic resources to reduce the scenarios of social contact and meetings, identified as high-risk scenarios for contagion by contact for Covid 19. The objective of this initiative is to generate virtual spaces for citizen participation, such as the election of councillors for the Municipal Council for Citizen Participation, delegates for the participatory budget, with inclusion strategies for rural inhabitants, the elderly and people with disabilities. This initiative is being implemented during the second half of 2020 in the municipality of Chía and covers all participatory processes in the municipality. 

This platform guarantees voting through prior registration and the triangulation of citizens with public databases, such as the municipal registry database and the consultation of the single database system of affiliates BDUA of the general system of social security in health, through ADRES, to ensure that the participating citizens comply with the qualities defined by public policy. In addition to this, our public policy on participatory budgeting has the participation of people over 14 years old, which implied an articulation with the databases of the Municipal Secretary of Education to verify the age of the participants. 

The generalities of the process can be found in this link: 

http://opc.chia-cundinamarca.gov.co/index.php/presupuesto-participativo/proceso-2020-2023/37-pp-2020-2023/276-presupuesto-participativo