| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
|
|
The action plan of the project has been divided into the following phases:
1) Identification of the areas of intervention and construction of the model of the 1st participatory budgeting (objectives, areas involved, ...), with elements replicated in subsequent editions;
2) staff training by workshop with the involvement of a select group of municipal employees in a training program aimed at the acquisition of specific knowledge and a working method characterized by moments of exchange and discussion between employees of different areas within the entity;
3) start participation: this phase was aimed at organizing the participatory budgeting assembly, the distribution of the questionary necessary to the citizens to formulate their proposals on the thematic chosen by local administrators, the “participation day” in which each citizen can vote on which proposals to fund;
4) implementation and monitoring: in this phase city implements the winning proposals and citizens can check on the dedicate website their grade of implementation;
5) reporting and evaluation: this last phase is aimed at the construction of social reporting. Through a participatory method, citizens can access to many acts and verify the result of political action.
The first key element of the project was the involvement of the staff. The administrative apparatus, with the initial training, acquired skills and operational methodology and content for the design and construction of the moments of participation. In the later stages developed teamwork, listening to the needs of citizens and the sense of empowerment.
It has triggered a kind of mechanism of learning by doing in a logic of continuous improvement of the relationship between both political and technical levels.
A second key element is the involvement of associations, schools and other organizations and a large number of volunteers.
A third important factor is the use of an innovative communication tool-participation: the web reporting. The construction of the two web platforms has been designed taking inspiration from the fundamental principles of Open Government and logic to develop them by their integration with a open-data system. We have tried to communicate with the citizen in a more accessible, transparent and efficient way. They evaluated the benefits of the potential to trigger further processes of participation and sharing beyond the concept of transparency in favor of a more "open" to the citizens by the administration.
|
|
| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
|
|
The project is directed to a variety of stakeholders with different needs.
The initial idea is left of the city administration, within the program mandate. This idea has been realized "primarily" in the allocation on the budget of the Agency, resources for funding of the initiative and identifying the key areas on which the public was invited to submit proposals.
The political leaders have been involved in several stages of the process of participatory budget and social report.
Promoted by the political, saw the involvement of the Entity structure with the identification of a leadership team of employees, selected from the top management.
This first group has added a second group of employees involved in the "Day of Participation" as Presidents of seat and in representation of the institution.
The meetings are open to the citizenry, the Day of Participation, the use of web platforms to communicate with the community saw strong participation by institutional bodies, the voluntary sector and the third sector, the business community and citizenship.
The large number of volunteers involved in the initiative is given a demonstration of heartfelt sympathy.
Other local authorities have shown interest in the initiative by activating similar initiatives and national television in a special dedicated presented the project "Dirò la mia" as the only experience positive relationship between citizens and Public Administration.
|
| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
|
|
As for the financial aspect, the city administration has allocated for the editions of the Participatory Budget € 1,062,000 (€ 500,000 in the First Edition and € 562,000 in the II Edition) divided in different thematic areas, to finance projects winners in the day of Participation.
In addition, it required a commitment in terms of financial resources amounting to approximately € 109,000 as articulated:
• € 69,000 consultancy and training: the council has instructed the company Refe Srl - Strategies for Sustainable development, a company specializing in training and consultancy services for public bodies, private companies, non-profit organizations for the training and preparation of the Participatory Budget (I and II Edition) and the Mid-Mandate social report;
• € 14,000 the realization of the platforms dedicated web;
• € 26.000 for the creation of posters, informational materials, distribution of questionnaires and insert dedicated to initiatives within the municipal municipal.
The project saw the participation of more than 30 municipal employees and more than 40 citizen volunteers, with an estimated effort in terms of man/days of about 110 days.
The administration is launching the Third Edition of the Participatory Budget at a cost estimated at approximately € 15,000 to be incurred largely in 2014 and, in residual form, in 2015.
The project was funded by the administration resources. In 2013, the Authority had submitted application to the European Prize for Innovation in Public Administration Award addressed to public bodies of the Member States or Associated Countries to the European Union research program aimed at rewarding the most innovative public administrations in Europe with a prize € 100,000 for each of the nine public initiatives rewarded. The application concerned the first edition of the award and one of the essential criteria for selecting the winners in addition to the economic impact of the initiative, originality and replication projects were to include initiatives already undertaken by a period "from one to four years." The project was the winner and administration's intention to continue in order to seek funding at Community or national public and private nature into account the will of the Entity to continue the project by integrating web reporting already implemented with a concrete tool Open Data.
|
|
| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
|
|
The initiative obtained important results in terms of: greater administrative transparency, increased accountability, increased public partecipation. Citizens could suggest, discuss and decide priority in pubblic spending projects.
The iniziative had a strong relevance for the community, mainly for three reasons:
- the high rate of participation: 10.535 questionaries in 2014 edition (8.667 in the 2013 Edition) were delivered compared to a population of 50.000 people;
- involvement of different organizations in the planning of the whole process: sport, cultural and young associations, informal movements, religious movements, education centers, schools and unions. It means a strategic point for good results in the participatory budgeting: these bodies have given good advices in the planning and have been the best ambassadors of the iniziative as part of the whole process;
- the choice of four thematic area: young and culture; education and social policy; environment and Expo 2015
The satisfaction for the iniziative is evident from the local press and from web journals. Local administrator was interviewed by local radio and national television to explain the initiative and social and cultural impact. Indeed, participatory budgeting had a great success also in neighbouring cities and some councillors asked more information about the whole project.
|
|
| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
|
|
The administration has used, in the preparation of the content for the Participatory Budget and for the Social Report, Refe Ltd, responsible for Development Strategies - expert company in the industry. Refe has worked closely with political leaders and the personnel involved in the field of training workshops. Employees were provided expertise on the subject but most have been taught a way of working in order to make them self-employed in the future in case of replications experience.
The group working steering, identified as part of the Participatory Budget, has been involved in the preparatory phase of planning and especially during the evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of the proposals received and for monitoring the implementation of the winning projects.
The help of web reporting has allowed us to achieve results in terms of increased participation by citizens and to provide an effective and clear reporting of the work of the Entity. In particular:
• the online platform dedicated to the Participatory Budget: citizen were able to submit their proposals by uploading them in the "Present your proposal" choosing between the issues identified by the City Council, commenting and evaluating the progress of the projects of the year ended;
• the online platform of the Social Report: the Municipality of Rho gave account of the progress of the election commitments and the projects activities in the "map" of the city and within the key themes identified by the City Council (Environment, Education and Leisure, Safety, Labour, Land and care of the city, Solidarity, EXPO, participation and accessibility). In the "What do you think?" Was given the opportunity to citizens to contribute by posting a comment on social report mid-term and indicating the priorities for the end of the term.
|
|
| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
|
|
The whole process required a cultural and organizational change especially within the entity. Change the way of relating to the public servant to the citizens, to evaluate their own work, to questioning the real needs of the community, to grasp (or at least groped) even the unexpressed needs.
The analysis of the proposals received citizen resulted in additional work for the office, but at the same time made it possible to bring out the priorities of the citizens. It takes into account not only the winning proposals, for which the Board had allocated appropriate financial resources but within the limits of available resources we have tried to implement the suggestions of the citizens by making improvements/changes to the services offered.
Unfortunately, some proposals were rejected for several reasons: lack of feasibility requirements, numbers of questionnaires received... The possibility of multiple editions of the Participatory Budget has allowed the opportunity for some groups of citizens, the proposals adequately and individuals to create "network" to get more support to the initiative.
|