This is an archived version of http://civic-europe.eu/ideas/procivis/
PROCIVIS | Civic Europe
Community development, Social inclusion

PROCIVIS

Promoting citizens participation in the development of cohesion policy initiatives

Creators

Who is behind this?

Dario Noschese

PROGEU - PROGRESS IN EUROPEAN UNION - ISTITUTO PER LO SVILUPPO APS

https://www.progeu.org/

Italy

Idea

Idea pitch

Rome faces problems on the level of ordinary management of PA and on slowdown in public policy-making processes, implying that citizens need to be more involved in these processes, becoming co-designers, co-decision makers, co-producers and co-evaluators of public policies. So, the project aims to foster the participation of citizens in the definition of local initiatives, through the development of a model, based on the concept of sociological representativeness, and a guidebook explaining it.

Where will your project idea take place?

Rome, Lazio

What is the specific societal challenge faced by this region?

The main challenge is to organize citizen committees to encourage civic participation, re-opening a productive discussion with the subjects that operate in this field, to get to propose instruments of participation calibrated on a complex city like Rome. In fact, it is necessary to make the city function in an inverse way to the traditional scheme of unidirectional government that directs its actions towards passive beneficiaries. On the contrary, citizens must really feel like a partner of the administration, the Municipality must support the autonomous initiative of the subjects on the territory, in particular on the cohesion policy that is on the frontline of the challenges European citizens face today, from climate to innovation, from social inclusion and skills to connectivity.

Who are you doing it for?

The project identifies as main target group at least n. 5000 citizens located in the area of Rome, and related local authority to give them an instrument to actively engage population in the design of the cohesion policy. More specifically, with respect to the target group of citizens, the initiative will involve both adults and young people, taking into consideration also those who live a disadvantaged social and economic situation or who are marginalized from the social context.

How do you plan to get there?

A1) Management, Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation. This action will set roles, responsibilities and the cooperative mechanisms in order to guarantee the success of the project and it includes the application a set of management and coordination good practices already implemented by the organisation in previous EU projects, such as the Project Management Scheme and the Project Risk Management Procedure
A2) Development and validation of the model, that will be created on the experience of what done in Edmonton (Canada) and translated to the Italian context to involve citizens in decision-making processes, particularly in the design of the cohesion policy initiative. The model will refer to the concept of sociological representativeness that identifies the representation of the social components constituting a social group as a fundamental criterion for the success of public policies. The model will represent a Citizens' Panel aims to be a representative, consultative body of local residents.
A3) Creation of a guidebook, that will allow in an easier and fast way the diffusion of the model in other Italian areas, and it will focus on the methodological approach at the basis of the model, its principles and its functioning. The guidebook will be available also in English to spread it in the all EU Area.

What are the expected results?

Project will produce an increase of citizens’ consultation and engagement in the design of cohesion policy initiatives in line with the two priorities leading the Cohesion Policy 2021-2027: a more Social Europe, and a Europe closer to citizens. The expected results will be:
− citizens informed of the opportunities to debate and take part in the design of future initiatives directly linked to the Cohesion Policy
− local authorities who will have at their disposal a model to increase the decision-making capacity of the administered communities, obtaining a greater sharing of values and ideas
− CSOs that can share to the related local decision authorities the possibility of use of the model, strengthening their role of bridge and pillar between the public sphere and the local community

How does your idea strengthen active citizenship at a local and community level?

Community members will be actively involved through the establishment of a Citizens’ Panel aimed to be a representative, consultative body of local residents, recruited through random sampling as well as other means to ensure recruitment includes socially excluded and hard to reach groups. The Panel will be involved in sessions of training about institutions, functioning of public administrations, policies and processes, so citizens will have the capacity and competences to formulate policy proposals on the Cohesion Policy. These processes will involve both dialogue, that allows to think about public issues in new ways and to build common ground with others, and deliberation, asking people to make choices by weighing competing values and priorities, and by thinking through pros and cons.

Why is this idea important to you?

The project team is part of the staff of Progeu, that promotes political participation and active citizenship of young people. Progeu is located in Rome and has a wide network of entities with which collaborates closely, such as La Sapienza University of Rome, Movimento Difesa del Cittadino association, that are involved in processes for the promotion of political participation, citizens’ right and defence.
The team is composed by:
- Dario Noschese, President of Progeu, has a degree in “Sciences of Development and International Cooperation” at La Sapienza University of Rome and he’s an expert in Project Management, International Cooperation politics and Fundraising
- Gianmarco Gianino, Project Area Manager, who has experience in the monitoring and evaluation of EU projects

€ 23800,-

Total budget

€ 23800,-

Funding requested from Civic Europe

Major expenses

Personnel costs: 20000€

Office expenses: 1500€

Communication costs: 2300€

What do you need from the Civic Europe community?

We would like to receive advice on the initiative and get feedback from those who have already experimented with an idea similar to the one we have presented, sharing with us the results they have obtained and whether it has been useful for the development and civic involvement of the community.

Team

PROGEU APS

Gianmarco.gianino

Idea created on April 23, 2021
Last edit on April 23, 2021

Write comment