2024 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

The ‘Lisbon Citizens’ Council (External link)’ (CCL) project is an initiative for citizen participation in decision-making at municipal level, inviting the co-construction of proposals for the city of Lisbon, the first to implement this participatory practice in Portugal.

It is led by the Participation Division of the Department for Relations with the Citizen and Participation (DRMP) of Lisbon City Council (External link) (CML), as part of its remit to promote citizen participation and based on the city's governance strategy.

It has already had 3 editions, the themes of which are defined by the Mayor of Lisbon (External link), in order to question and listen to citizens on priority issues, for which decision-making must take into account the citizens' perspective.

The theme of the 1st edition (2022) (External link) was ‘the impact of climate change on the daily lives of citizens’, the theme of the 2nd edition (2023) (External link) was ‘Lisbon: the city of 15 minutes’ and the theme of the 3rd edition (2024) (External link) was ‘How to build a Lisbon that cares?’.

The CCL is an unprecedented experience of a citizens' assembly at municipal level in Portugal, guided by the following principles:

• Transparency: CML makes information about how the project works public. The draw  (External link)for the 50 members of the CCL is made by an external organisation and published on the municipality's official channels, never divulging personal information about the participants and respecting the law.
• Inclusion: the random and stratified selection of participants guarantees that all those registered have exactly the same opportunity to take part in the CCL.
• Representativeness: the use of a stratified draw promotes greater diversity in the composition of the CCL in terms of gender, age, nationality, parish of residence, professional status and level of education.
• Co-operation: the CCL is an opportunity for CML to collaborate with academic and civil society partners to promote participatory democracy.
• Impact: the executive not only listens to citizens' proposals, but also communicates its assessment of them, justifying the decision to implement, adjust or exclude them.
• Deliberation: the proposals presented are the result of a broad compromise between the participants, who discuss, select and prioritise them.
• Impartiality: CML uses external and independent entities to select participants, facilitate the sessions and monitor and evaluate the quality of the exercise, avoiding any bias in the process.

• https://lisboaparticipa.pt/pt/conselho-cidadaos (External link)