2025 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

Youth in Government is a project by the Open Government Coordination structured into two modules: a theoretical one, consisting of a training that addresses the concept of public policies and the importance of the pillars of open government, and a practical one, conducted through the game "What if I were the Mayor?"—that simulates public management and the prioritization of public resource allocation. The project was initially implemented in a pilot phase in 2023, with the training of over 500 young people who participated in a lecture on open government, followed by two activities.

After the pilot experience, the project underwent a reformulation, including adapting the language and incorporating visual elements like memes to make the content more accessible and relevant for young people. Furthermore, the activity was better structured, and thus consolidated into a role-playing game (RPG), using cards in different categories (Housing, Health, Transport, Education [and more categories]), which, when drawn, formed a fictional urban reality with public problems to be solved. Alongside the reality cards, "Dindins" – the budget for each city – were also drawn, along with a table of public services to be implemented. After 40 minutes, participants are invited to exercise transparency by presenting their cities: what are their respective problems and potentialities, the initial budget, and the prioritized policies.

The project's methodology, therefore, follows two basic stages: the application of theoretical training on public policies and Open Government, and the implementation of the "What if I were the Mayor?" game. The project will also apply the stage of building collective proposals for the Citizen Budget during the proposal submission period in 2025.

For more information:

https://capital.sp.gov.br/web/relacoes_institucionais/w/coordenadoria_de_governo_aberto/juventude-em-governo (External link)