2022 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

Istanbul is a global metropolis with a population of 15 million people, millions of immigrants, and a cosmopolitan socio- cultural structure. Istanbul Citizens’ Assembly, which was established by Ekrem İmamoğlu – the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality since 2019, aims at enhancing participation in local policy making process by implementing various and current participation tools. However, since Istanbul’s daily increasing population and polycentric structure make the management difficult, slow down the service delivery to peripherals, and hinder the participation in policy making processes. 

“Participation Cafe” model, which was designed according to ICA’s goal, vision and mission, aims at developing solutions to the problems at the local level, by means of discussing and negotiating with governors, civil society and residents. In other words, the goal of ICA in implementing Cafe is to strengthen the capacity of local democracy by supporting interaction between social actors.

ICA holds meetings every month in pre- determined districts by means of getting contact with district assemblies as indispensable stakeholders. All residents, who live in the pre- determined districts, are invited to the meetings by public announcements. Individuals from various vulnerable groups such as LGBTI+, women, elderly, persons with disabilities, and immigrants are given priority on participation.

Each meeting is held by participation of approximately 50 people and lasts 2 hours on average depending on the overall number of attendees. In addition, World Cafe technique is utilized during the meetings in order for the ICA team to gather information about residents’ problems and suggestions. 10 participants come together around each of 5 tables. Participants are assigned to tables based upon their ages, genders, and occupations etc. in order to guarantee diversity during the discussions. Besides, each table is moderated by a personal from ICA. Participants are also given an information note, which is about the historical, social-economic and cultural transformation of the district the meeting will be held in. 

As the meeting finishes and the team evaluates the workshop, desk moderators report the outcomes including residents’ issues, needs and suggestions. Both the soft and hard copies of reports are reached the public, meeting participants, local governments and district assemblies. It is planned to display soon the inputs of all meetings, on a digital map of Istanbul, in order for all residents to be informed about other districts and compare their locality with others.

ICA aims at strengthening residents’ sense of belonging to their district and city, providing a working environment for them to internalize this participatory approach and contributing to their capacity building process. Moreover, it is supported that Cafe illuminates residents about how and through what processes they can participate in governence process of their localities. Also, Cafe also mediates between local governments, NGOs and participants, on the purpose of increasing the communication between them. 

 Participation Cafe, which is influenced by European antecedents and has the features of being peculiar to its socio- political and cultural context, aspires to setting an example as an inclusive, professional, and innovative participation tool for other provinces around the world.

More information:

https://istanbulkentkonseyi.org.tr/ (External link)