As a local government, you may want to consider having some overarching strategic principles for your participatory democracy processes.
EUROCITIES for example has been working intensively on citizen engagement, and supporting cities to exchange and learn about the ongoing evolution of citizen engagement practices.
As a result, the EUROCITIES declaration on citizen engagement has been signed by nearly 80 cities.
The EUROCITIES principles on citizen engagement at local level are the next step towards strengthening participatory governance in our cities, as well as to building a more citizen focused society. With these principles, European cities acknowledge the importance of citizen engagement, with the ultimate goal of co-creating a better European society capable of answering today’s most pressing societal challenges.
Principle 1: Greater citizen participation in governance is essential if we are to strengthen representative democracy. Therefore, we will:
» Adopt clear, precise and simple participation processes, accessible and open to all citizens, built on rich deliberation and discussion.
» Ensure that those processes have the information needed to take good decisions by opening our data, policy and research to citizens and city partners.
Principle 2: Our most pressing societal challenges can only be addressed if public policy is a shared endeavour, developed continuously in partnership between city governments, citizens, civil society and other local actors. Therefore, we will:
» Work to create a culture of trust and collaboration between our governments and citizens by developing diverse and attractive participatory processes.
» Provide adequate financial and human resources to support citizen engagement processes and initiatives.
Principle 3: Citizens are best placed to understand and propose solutions about their everyday lives – and this understanding can support city governments in taking decisions. `Therefore, we will:
» Ensure that citizens from all age groups, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds have an equal opportunity to participate.
» Promote a long-term participatory culture in our cities by recognising and supporting a creative approach based on citizens’ expertise.
Principle 4: Our success in this work depends on rebuilding trust between city governments and their citizens. Therefore, we will:
» Communicate the opportunities to participate to all citizens.
» Analyse and take account of citizen views, demonstrating how they have affected decisions, and feeding back why citizen views have or have not been followed.
Principle 5: As citizen engagement processes are constantly evolving, we need to transform our public administrations to adapt to the challenge. Therefore, we will:
» Not stop experimenting and learning from other cities and actors involved.
» Invest in organisational, administrative and political innovation for better citizen-focused actions
Note that this is one prominent example of many. OECD Guidelines for Citizens Participation Processes is another international set of principles. UCLG-ASPAC is a prominent resource base in the Asia-Pacific region, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has is a resource base for several continents, including the African chapet which has developed guidelines for community engagement and accountability in the African context. The African Union is in progress to develop a comprehensive citizen engagement strategy.