OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes

Bibliographic Data

ID19882995
AuthorsOECD OECD (corresponding author)
Year2022
Publication date2022-09-24
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueOECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOECD Publishing (PUBLISHER • FR)
DOI10.1787/f765caf6-en
OpenAlexW4296982915
ISBN9789264532946
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited4

Citizen and stakeholder participation is an essential element of an open government, and is recognised as such by Provisions 8 and 9 of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Open Government (2017).Open government is defined by the OECD as "a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth".The concept is based on the idea that citizens and the public should be enabled to see, understand, contribute to, monitor, and evaluate public decisions and actions.Open government can increase the legitimacy of public decision making and improve its outcomes, by informing and involving citizens -including those usually underrepresented -and by answering to people's real needs.In the long term, open government reforms can help foster trust in government and reinforce democracy.Citizens 1 today are more informed than ever and are demanding a say in shaping the policies and services that affect their lives.In response, public institutions at all levels of government are increasingly creating opportunities to harness citizens' experiences and knowledge to make better public decisions.The global landscape for citizen and stakeholder participation is evolving constantly, becoming richer with new and innovative ways to involve citizens and stakeholders in public decisions.At the same time, differences of involving these two groups have become apparent, as individual citizens require participation methods designed to provide them with time, information, resources, and incentives needed to engage, while stakeholders (any interested and/or affected party, such as institutions and organisations) have a lower participation threshold, dedicated resources, and clear interests to participate.Many of the existing resources in the field focus on stakeholder participation.These guidelines aim to fill a void by providing practical, hands-on support to organise citizen participation processes in particular, highlighting specific considerations and providing dedicated methods with an emphasis on ensuring quality, inclusion, and impact.The content of these guidelines is based on evidence collected by the OECD over the years, the OECD Handbook on Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-Making (2001), the OECD Recommendation on Open Government (2017), the OECD Handbook on Open Government for Peruvian Public Servants (2020), the OECD Report on Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave (2020), the OECD and DG REGIO Citizen Participation in Cohesion Policy Guidelines and Playbooks (2022), as well as existing resources from academia and other organisations.The guidelines walk the reader through ten steps to design, plan, and implement a citizen participation process, and detail seven different methods that can be used to involve citizens in policy making.To illustrate these methods, the OECD gathered good practice examples through an open call.As part of this document, the OECD suggests nine guiding principles that help ensure the quality of these processes.The OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes is a tool for any individual or organisation interested in designing, planning, and implementing a citizen participation process, such as policy makers, 1 The term is meant in the larger sense of 'an inhabitant of a particular place', which can be in reference to a village, town, city, region, state, or country depending on the context.It is not meant in the more restrictive sense of 'a legally recognised national of a state'.In this larger sense, it is equivalent of people. OECD GUIDELINES FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROCESSES © OECD 2022 Executive summaryThese are guidelines for any individual or organisation interested in designing, planning, and implementing a citizen participation process.The guidelines walk the reader through ten practical steps, and detail eight different methods that can be used to involve citizens in policy making.This publication is illustrated with good practice examples.Citizen participation has intrinsic and instrumental benefits.It leads to a better and more democratic policymaking process, which becomes more transparent, inclusive, legitimate, and accountable.It enhances public trust in government and democratic institutions by giving citizens a role in public decision making.By taking into account and using citizens' experience and knowledge, it helps public institutions tackle complex policy problems and leads to better policy results. Ten-step path of planning and implementing a citizen participation processCitizen participation processes should be organised only when there is room for meaningful citizen participation in the decision-making process.A ten-step path was developed to provide guidance along the way:1. Identifying the problem to solve and the moment for participation: The first step when planning a citizen participation process is to identify if there is a genuine problem that the public can help solve.If there is, then the problem needs to be defined and framed as a question.Citizens can be actively involved in any of the stages or throughout the policy cycle: when identifying the issue, formulating policy, making decisions, implementing policy, or evaluating it.2. Defining the expected results: A clear understanding of the expected outcomes or results of the participation process is needed to define the desired inputs or contributions from citizens and the impact they will have on the final decision.3. Identifying the relevant group of people to involve and recruiting participants: Different types of groups can be involved in a participation process, such as a broad group of citizens from diverse backgrounds, a representative group of citizens, a particular community based on geography or other demographic characteristics, as well as stakeholders, ranging from non-governmental organisations to businesses or academia.Different strategies can be employed to recruit theman open call, a closed call, or a civic lottery.4. Choosing the participation method: Eight citizen participation methods and their characteristics are compared and described to help choose the most applicable one in a given situation: information and communication, open meetings/town hall meetings, civic monitoring, public consultation, open innovation, citizen science, participatory budgeting, and representative deliberative processes.5. Choosing the right digital tools: Digital tools can allow citizens and stakeholders to interact and submit their inputs in different ways.They should be chosen to facilitate the participation method. How can citizen participation support public authorities and institutions?Citizen participation can support the daily activities of public servants as well as public institutions' decisionmaking processes (OECD, 2022[8])

Business · Political science · European Union Policy and Governance · French Urban and Social Studies · Social Sciences and Governance

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