2025 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

19th Edition

Phase 4 of 8

Results open vote 28/03/2025 - 31/03/2025

Process phases

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Lomas de Zamora: Community Government - A Collaborative Governance Model

Official proposal

07/02/2025 10:37

Accepted

The Community Government of Lomas de Zamora, as a model of collaborative governance, began in 2023 with the creation of the Citizen Participation Tables (MPC). The MPCs are forums for debate and co-creation of public policies that respond to the specific needs of neighborhoods from the perspective of citizens and civil society organizations. With its implementation, the community gained a leading role in decision-making and resource allocation in areas such as security, infrastructure, health, and others that impact their environment, promoting a more accessible, democratic, and closer government.

The 14 Municipal Management Centers played a crucial role as the MPCs were implemented in each of them to cover all areas of municipal management and address the specificities of each neighborhood. These Centers were created in 2023 as spaces for decentralization, aiming to bring local services closer to each neighborhood and transform them into key points for formulating demands and public policies. Decentralization allowed for the inclusion of peripheral neighborhoods that previously had no access to decision-making spaces, reducing asymmetries.

For the proper development of the MPCs, a step-by-step and territorial planning approach was established. First, representatives from civil society organizations were called upon to build a comprehensive diagnosis of the issues in each neighborhood. Then, with this information, priorities were set, and collaborative projects were designed, involving neighbors from all neighborhoods in the proposal and project development process. Social innovation methodologies were implemented to identify problems and design collective solutions. The participation of more than 410 neighbors from 230 institutions generated significant citizen proposals, with the most notable being: a telemedicine program; the passenger transfer station in Banfield; the creation of a pedestrian street with cultural and recreational proposals for youth in Budge; a collaborative mapping of institutions; environmental awareness and afforestation campaigns; tours in green spaces; and door-to-door efforts to spread citizen security tools and devices.

The Community Congress at the end of 2024 allowed the convergence of MPC participants in time and space, expanding their impact and sharing new proposals with the Mayor.