E-Participation

Citizen Engagement

Assessment Tool
Publications

Citizen Engagement Self-Assessment Questionnaire
Arabic English

What is E-Participation?

E-Participation is about fostering civic engagement and open, participatory governance through Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). Growing evidence points to the rapid expansion of e-Participation as a tool for engagement and strengthened collaboration between governments and citizens. Its objective is to improve access to information and public services as well as to promote participation in policy-making, both for the empowerment of individual citizens and the benefit of society as a whole.

To read more about the E-Participation news, please click here.

E-Participation Index

The Development Account Project on E-Participation

The Development Account Project aims to strengthen developing countries' capacity to apply Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for citizen engagement. On the basis of a self-assessment questionnaire developed by DPADM, known as ‘METEP’, governments can begin to elaborate strategiesfor better delivery of public services and engagement of their citizens in policymaking processes.

Three initial countries will apply METEP in 2014 and 2015, over the course of national workshops organized by DPADM: Kazakhstan (October 2014); Kenya (January 2015); and Indonesia (2015).

METEP was also administered during two additional national workshops substantively supported by DPADM, in Azerbaijan (December 2013) and Iran (March 2015).

The Project Fact Sheet is available here.

METEP ToolKit

Measurement and Evaluation Tool for Citizen Engagement and e-Participation

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) developed this self-assessment questionnaire in response to an emerging need for stronger and deeper participation in citizen engagement by all stakeholders, as identified in the Rio+20 Summit Report, Realizing the Future We Want for All, and the work of the UN Task Team on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Engaging citizens is beneficial to governments throughout the public policy process: i) at the early stages to enhance public problem definition and to identify acceptable policy options; ii) through the implementation stages by facilitating dialogue to support policy inclusiveness and iii) to receive feedback while monitoring and evaluating public policy programmes and their outcomes, which is key to continuous improvements in the delivery of public goods and services.

The online version of METEP is available here and its questionnaire is also available in Russian and Kazakh.