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Barcelona: Civic Management of Municipal Facilities

Avatar: Official proposal Official proposal

Civic Management in Barcelona consists of promoting citizen participation in the management of municipal facilities through non-profit organizations rooted in the territory. It is a form of civic participation based not only on deliberation but also on shared responsibility for the use and management of public resources.


Civic Management is supported by a long tradition of neighborhood self-organization and public-community collaboration. The 1998 Barcelona Municipal Charter enabled this model, which was deployed during the 2000s, intensified from 2012 onwards, and was institutionalized in 2017 through the Citizen Heritage Program. In 2024, it took a qualitative leap with the approval of a new Instruction and General Bases that unify criteria, strengthen public competition, and consolidate the Community Balance as an official self-evaluation tool.

Its methodology combines several layers: identification of suitable facilities, selection of projects with criteria of local roots and participation, collaboration agreements, technical monitoring, and community self-evaluation. The model is complemented by technical support from Torre Jussana (Municipal Support Center for Associations), public dissemination, and periodic exchange spaces with organizations.

The main value of Civic Management is having turned a historical, diverse, and somewhat fragmented experience into a stable, transparent, and transferable public policy. The innovation lies in articulating specific regulations, multi-level governance, and a unique metric focused on participation, territorial roots, social return, and care for people and the environment.

The results show a consolidated system: in 2025, Barcelona had 60 civic management projects in municipal facilities. Between 2024 and 2025, 42 Community Balances were carried out related to civic management, incorporating participatory evaluation and continuous improvement.

Civic Management has strengthened local democracy, transparency, and the legitimacy of community organizations in managing the common good. Today, it is a cornerstone of Barcelona's participatory ecosystem and a useful reference for other cities looking to institutionalize public-community collaboration.

More information: 

https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/participaciociutadana/patrimoni-ciutada/gestio-civica

https://www.oidp.net/docs/repo/doc1864.pdf 

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Barcelona: Civic Management of Municipal Facilities

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