2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

In 2017, the Regional Government of the Azores decided to create the PB Azores based on the assumption of a direct, voluntary and universal process, to involve citizens residing in the Azores in the choice of public policies, through the presentation of ideas, and voting, making this society more democratic, fair and inclusive.

Currently, the instrument has 5 editions, a public investment of €4,647,093.00, 2 scopes for presenting ideas – island scope (ideas with impact on only one island) and regional scope (ideas with impact on two or more islands ) – and 9 thematic areas.

Furthermore, this practice has been able to adapt, having already taken place in an exclusively online format, and currently adopted the hybrid format, having also been a reference for the creation of the Participatory Budget of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.

With regard to the means of publicizing this instrument, since the 1st edition its logo and slogan have been maintained, contributing to its easy identification. It has focused on digital channels, such as social networks and websites, and on traditional channels, such as the written press, television and radio. Combining these with a direct communication channel with the citizen through the Citizen Support Green Line (800500501) and email (op@azores.gov.pt).

With regard to its stakeholders, public and private entities and civil society are involved in this process, in the various stages of each edition, and also in its dissemination.

These actors also participate in the evaluation phase of each edition of the PB Azores, by completing a questionnaire that aims to assess whether the objectives set have been met, who participated and who did not (and the respective reasons) and by sending suggestions for improvement / contributions to future editions.

As a result of the suggestions received in the questionnaires, the instrument underwent changes, namely the creation of a new scope for the presentation of ideas – regional scope (integrated in the 2nd edition) –, in the scope of new thematic areas (initially there were only 4 areas and , currently, there are 9) and the expansion of age groups for presenting ideas for each thematic area.

The results of this democratic practice have demonstrated the civic maturity of the Azoreans, visible through the high level of participation in the process and the quality associated with that participation. Up to this edition, around 5,800 citizens were involved in the participatory meetings and 1,622 pre-proposals were presented. Of these, around 50% were approved and resulted in 809 proposals. Throughout the various voting phases, 45,615 votes were counted, which elected 130 projects.

More information:

• https://op.azores.gov.pt/  (External link)