2024 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

Tehran, the capital city and the major metropolis of Iran, spans an area of 730 square kilometers and had an estimated population of 9,039,000 in 2022. According to a 2018 United Nations estimate, it ranks as the 34th most populous city globally, the most populous city in West Asia, and the second most populous metropolis in the Middle East. Tehran is divided into 22 districts, 123 regions, and 353 neighborhoods. The city's management and Tehran Municipality, responsible for city administration, believes in treating its citizens as loyal customers and has thus designed its services based on their feedback.

The plan follows six main steps:

1) Requests submission

2) Requests refinement

3) Project recognition

4) Public project selection

5) Final prioritization of citizen projects

6) Inclusion in the proposed budget bill

It's worth noting that the city management has decided that this plan will continue indefinitely and is also planned for future years.

What follows are communication strategies to interact with citizens in "I'm Mayor" initiative:

1. Enhancing the "I'm Mayor" website
2. Launching "I'm Mayor" campaign

Various types of advertisements were used, including

• Direct interaction with citizens
• Environmental advertising
• Social media
• Mass media
• Special advertisements
• Citizen participation, there's a focus on aligning citizens' requests with the required urban spaces based on policy documents. The choices of citizens and their participation in surveys are also matched with their economic and social status. By implementing the "I'm Mayor" project, Tehran Municipality has successfully transitioned its image from a mere "service institution" to a "culture-oriented and service-oriented social institution

Following the selection of projects in the first year of the initiative, the municipality prioritized the implementation of these projects and consistently reported their latest status to the citizens. With 100% funding allocation, appropriate liquidity payments, and continuous monitoring, the project implementation process was streamlined. As the voting process for the second year of the "I'm Mayor" initiative started to outline the projects for 2024, the Tehran Municipality made sure to provide citizens with the most recent updates on the progress of the first year's projects. This information was made accessible online and was location-specific, which significantly contributed to the high level of citizen participation in the second edition.