The demand for participation in public decision-making processes is growing. The institutions and the public administration now seem called upon to respond to constant pressure for the shared definition of policies and projects. Formez PA intervenes in support of the Italian public administrations, with various capacity building projects at national and local level.
by Claudia Onnis – Formez PA
The international framework
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in the context of its action in favor of theOpen Governmenthas long devoted great attention to the development and support of deliberative processes for the shared definition of public policies.
In a relationship on the phenomenon dated 2020, the OECD even speaks of a “deliberative wave” and supports the need to ride it.
In October 2021 it is the turn of the European Commission, which launches its own Expertise center on participatory and deliberative democracy in support of priority number 6 “a new impetus for European democracy” of the Strategic Agenda 2019-2024 and various initiatives transversal to the European institutions, including the Action Plan for European Democracythe Conference on the future of Europe not new EU Missions.
Today, the Center provides support to the participatory and deliberative processes in place at all levels of governance of the territory of the Union, through:
- Orientationfor researchers and policy makers, including advice and practical support to co-design and manage participatory processes.
- Capacity building on methods and toolsfor citizen engagement and participatory governance thanks to dedicated training and coaching sessions.
- Knowledge repositorywith a database dedicated to organisations, projects and citizen engagement tools in the EU.
- Community and networkingwith the Expertise Center community of practice to connect policy makers, practitioners and researchers through projects, events and the annual Festival of Public Participation and Deliberative Democracy.
Starting from 27 February next the Center inaugurates i “Meet the Competence Centre” corners, 6 slots of half an hour each, from 14.00 to 17.00 on every last Monday of the monthavailable to anyone who requests it to meet the community of practice and explore a topic of interest. While the 2-day online course is scheduled for 20 and 21 April 2023 Training on citizen engagement in policymaking (register by April 14th).
The French model
To involve citizens in the design of public policies and services and in their evaluation, some European administrations have wanted to institutionalize the function of supporting participation. This is what happened in France, where, for some years now, the Inter-ministerial Directorate for Public Transformation has been the Interministerial Center for Citizen Participation. The center offers strategic and methodological support to ministries and state services wishing to involve citizens in the development of public policies. The portal provides access to information on citizens’ consultations organized by the state; consult the proposals made by citizens and the results of previous consultations; discover their impact on public policies.
The Italian context and the role of Formez PA
In Italy, the theme of participation crosses many sectors of public intervention and in some cases it can be mandatory. Many participatory processes are promoted spontaneously by regions or municipalities, in some cases with regional laws or municipal regulations containing rules on their promotion and funding. On a national scale, the deliberative approach was introduced in 2018 with the Mandatory public debate for all works above a certain cost or size threshold. While, with reference to the performance cycle, the use of participatory processes is envisaged on several occasions by various regulatory instruments: from d.lgs. 74/2017which strengthens the role of citizens and users in the performance measurement process organizational; at Guidelines of the Department of Public Administration on participatory evaluation in public administrations, of 4 November 2019 , which provide administrations with methodological indications regarding the methods by which to ensure the involvement of citizens and stakeholders; until the decree-law 80/2021which introduces the Integrated plan of activities and organization – PIAOin which the decision-making process is configured as a result of dialogue and the active contribution of the various stakeholders.
If the regulatory side is not lacking, however, the organizational one needs to be strengthened, improving the knowledge of participatory methods and the skills for their concrete application to the themes and context in which the individual administrations operate. And it is precisely in this perspective that Formez PA intervenes in support of the Italian public administrations, with various projects at national and local level. Among these, the “Opengov: methods and tools for open administration” project, the agreement with the Department of Public Administration of 27 December 2019 “Participation of citizens and users in the organizational performance measurement process” and the “COMPASS. Involving to improve active employment policies and services in Sardinia”, entrusted to Formez PA by the Sardinian agency for active employment policies.
All the activities of Formez PA in support of the participatory processes of the public administration propose a strategic model for the management of these processes, consistent with what is promoted, at a supranational level, by the OGP initiative on open government, by Agenda 2030, by the Europe 2020 Strategy and, at a national level, by the guidelines on the matter.
The Open Government Project
With the project Opengov (PON Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014-2020 Axis I – Specific Objective 1.1 “Increase transparency and interoperability and access to public data” – Action 1.1.1.), Formez PA supports the Department of Public Administration (DFP) to encourage the open government processes within the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the multilateral initiative founded with the aim of guaranteeing the concrete commitment of the member countries for the promotion of the principles of transparency, integrity, civic participation and inclusive digital innovation . Among the actions supported by Formez in terms of civic participation:
- the design of pilot routes of open government to accompany the central and local PAs in the definition and implementation of open government processes;
- the methodological and process support to the PAs that intend to carry out online public consultations through the platform Participate;
- interventions to develop knowledge and skills for open government, with the creation of open and massive online training courses (MOOC), with the third edition of the online course Digital practices of participation, departing on February 28th;
The Innovation Labs for the definition of PIAOs
To accompany the Italian administrations in the grounding of the Integrated Plans of activities and organization – PIAO, Formez PA is currently implementing a series of Innovation Lab for the experimentation and dissemination of a participatory planning model, which allows for the real involvement of stakeholders in the definition of the Public Value and the related objectives and indicators.
The activities of the Innovation Labs, promoted as part of the Agreement between the Department of Public Administration and Formez PA of 27 December 2019 “Participation of citizens and users in the process of measuring organizational performance”, are planned according to a path that allows for:
- strengthen the skills of executives and officers on performance management issues;
- encourage the adoption of planning and measurement methodologies of public value with the involvement of users, stakeholders and citizens;
- disseminate models for analyzing the state of health of administrations.
The COMPASS project
In Italy, active employment policies are managed according to a multilevel governance model involving a plurality of subjects and institutions. Faced with this complexity, the ASPAL (Sardinian Agency for Active Labor Policies) promotes a strategic approach for the knowledge of all the actors and activities in the field and for the involvement of the main stakeholders in Sardinia.
The Project “COMPASS. Involve to improve active labor policies and services in Sardinia“, created by ASPAL with the support of Formez PA and aimed at strengthening the administrative capacity of the Sardinian Agency for active labor policies on participatory methods and processes, at defining a stakeholder management system and at mapping the sources of funding for labor policies.