2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

17th Edition

Phase 6 of 7

Publication Preparation 18/09/2023 - 06/11/2023

Process phases

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Toritama: Citizen Assembly’s Breath Clean Air

Official proposal

07/06/2023 10:12

The small town of Toritama in Pernambuco (Brazil), in the rural region of Pernambuco, is experiencing a unique challenge: its jeans industry, responsible for almost 20% of national production, guarantees its residents full employment and a human development index higher than that of other cities in the region. At the same time, it is an intensive activity in the use of water, which depends on an industrial washing process that has extremely harmful effects on the environment as a whole, and on air quality in particular. Health issues arising from industrial chimneys are a persistent problem among residents.

Given this scenario, Councilwoman Carol Gonçalves' mandate saw the possibility of organizing a Citizens' Assembly, with the support of the Delibera Brasil collective, an excellent opportunity to bring the collective intelligence of citizenship to think of sustainable solutions for this complex problem.

After participating in a workshop on the methodology and individual mentoring sessions, the local team outlined the action plan for holding the Assembly. First, a Content Group was mobilized, which reflected all the parties interested in the subject: representatives of industrial laundries, government, academia, environmental and public health groups. After discussions in this plural group and articulations with the municipal executive power, in order to bring them to the center of the organization and thus strengthen the institutionality of the initiative, the question that would guide the Assembly was defined, "How can industrial laundries produce without polluting the air? Then, the organizers and the Content Group defined the design of the Assembly: how many meetings there would be, what strategy would be used to guarantee the registration of representative profiles of the population, which spokespersons would be heard, and so on.

Recruitment of male and female citizens was carried out through an invitation letter, delivered to all 27 neighborhoods of Toritama, and through a form available online. And after registration, a public and online raffle was held to select 40 residents, based on gender, race, income and education.

The meetings took place in early November and late January, at times defined in common-agreement with the participants, in the first session, in order to maximize the presence and participation of all. After the informative stage, in which participants were exposed to the points of view of different interest groups on the issue of sustainability of industrial laundries, participants began deliberations on what they would recommend to public authorities on this topic. At the end of the sixth session, a preliminary report was sent to the City Hall, which those responsible were able to analyze and, in the last session, they presented a partial return on each of the points. Then, the Assembly consolidated its final recommendations.

Among the citizen recommendations, the following can be highlighted: