2022 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"
16th Edition
La Garrotxa, a Catalan region of 735.4 km² and 55,000 inhabitants, is in a process of democratic evolution towards decentralized and cross-sectoral governance, and for this purpose a participatory process has been generated where more than 6500 people have participated, representing more than 11% of the population.
The process has originated from the collaboration between the organized civil society, some technicians of the administration and some companies. And it has been promoted by the presidency of the Regional Council of the region.
In order to dynamize the process, the promoter group or Strategic and Technical Commission was created, which includes the management of the environmental consortium, the social consortium and the economic consortium. It also includes a member of the business association, a representative of organized civil society and the technical team, which is a local non-profit cooperative. The Citizen Monitoring and Evaluation Commission was also created, with twelve people representing the diversity of the region, which has been present in the decision making of all the strategic steps of the process.
During the process, 16 virtual participation spaces were facilitated. These cross-sectoral roundtables involved nearly 600 people from organized civil society, trade unions, health workers, artists, teachers, technicians, politicians, social and environmental movements, and the private sector. More than 200 participants took part in workshops in schools and high-schools. A specific survey was carried out for the private sector with the participation of more than 150 companies.
Sixteen face-to-face meetings were organized with close to 90 key technicians, and a battery of more than 400 indicators was generated to monitor the plan.
The Technical Commission and the Citizens' Commission synthesized the more than 1,000 strategic proposals resulting from the process. And the 17 SDGs were translated into 21 SDGs, Development Goals of Garrotxa, maintaining the UN framework as a reference.
A large event was held for the technical validation of the results, with the participation of more than 50 technical people. A meeting open to the public for citizen validation, with more than 100 people. And finally, a virtual political event was held with the participation of the 21 municipalities of La Garrotxa.
To present the strategic plan and the battery of indicators, a public event was held to present the final results of the process, in which more than 80 people participated.
This process is the first Stage of a long-term project that includes:
Stage 1: Co-production of a participatory strategic plan with stakeholders from all fields and sectors. [2020-22]
Stage 2: Generation of a cross-cutting decentralized governance structure capable of co-managing the implementation of the plan. [2022-2023]
Stage 3: Development of a citizen science and observation program to accompany the monitoring of implementation. [2023-24]
Stage 4: Evolution of the Observatory to be open, transdisciplinary, and capable of handling large amounts of data, to inform the decision-making process of the decentralized structure. [2020-2024]
This regional project should provide us with the capacity to diagnose, make decisions and implement actions in an agile, regenerative and inclusive manner.
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