2022 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"
16th Edition
Mersin: Mahalle Bizim / Neigborhood Is Ours
Mersin Metropolitan Municipality has established a digital infrastructure that facilitates citizens' access to municipal services and enables them to convey their requests and complaints with the application "Teksin”. “Mahalle Bizim” project’s objective is the establishment of an online coordination mechanism between the municipality and the mukhtars, building managers and citizens and thereby enabling digital participatory democracy for the improvement of the quality of municipality service provisions. The application is planned to increase citizens’ attention to municipal services and make them express their opinions when a decision is taken regarding their neighbourhood. In order to achieve this objective, the project team organized meetings with mukhtars and building managers with broad participation and presented the mobile application during the meetings, provided brochures and posters, applying surveys following the meetings. The most innovative part of the application is that neighbours can communicate with each other via the chatting and forum section, which is also linked with “Teksin”.
Moreover, Teksin is enabling citizens to discover the city services with the city guide, learn information about the transportation services including bus hours and bus lines, easily reach ALO 185 support line and establishments of the municipality like cafes, restaurants and wedding halls. Citizens are also able to follow the news about the city and municipal services. “Mahalle Bizim" application, in line with the ongoing social inclusion and cohesion efforts, offers a new area of social communication and participation to immigrants, citizens, building managers and mukhtars by making use of the existing digital participation infrastructure and experience.
The application is designed as user-friendly and consists of four different interfaces; citizen (local or migrant), mukhtar, and building manager. When a person enters his/hers ID number the interface will automatically be in Turkish, Arabic or English. 10 interactive kiosks are placed in district centres of Mersin which are densely populated. These kiosks will be a tool for citizens who do not have smartphones or internet access. End-user survey tests will be sent to users over the application. The survey results will be collected and a detailed report which assesses and evaluates the efficiency of the application regarding democratic participation, application efficiency, and frequency of use will be prepared. Surveys will be sent via push notifications to the users over the application. Visibility materials will be distributed to mukhtars and building managers during these promotional meetings. In conclusion, in addition to the digital services and governance infrastructure established with "Teksin", "Neighborhood is Ours" offers a communication and coordination platform that prioritizes social inclusion and brings city residents, building managers, mukhtars and the municipality together.
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