The Executive Committee of the AOC Consortium has agreed to promote the service Decidim Catalunya to guarantee that all local governments in Catalonia have the tools to develop citizen participation processes to comply with the Law on Transparència of Catalonia, with a shared, collaborative service at no cost to user entities, with special emphasis on the reality of small municipalities.
The agreement is conditional on the approval of the financing, for a period of 4 years, by the Generalitat de Catalunya, which will be specified through a Government agreement that is expected to be taken in July of this year. Once the financing is confirmed, the AOC Consortium will initiate the tender procedures to provide this new service. If there are no delays at the end of 2021, the firsteres pilot tests.
These actions are derived from theagreement of the Plenary of the Network of Transparent Governments of Catalonia in July 2020, to boost the platform Decidim Catalonia in the local world and the decision of the Secretariat of Transparència and Open Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia to entrust the AOC Consortium with the provision of this service to local governments.
Decidim Catalonia, a collaborative project
The objective is to offer the local world a comprehensive “turnkey” service, which includes technological aspects, as well as support in the management of participatory processes. The role of the AOC is to provide the technological service of Decidim Catalonia, make it available to local entities that wish it, offer technical support and carry out developments that guarantee its evolution according to needs.
The tasks of advice, training and support in the participation processes for the administrations with fewer resources will be carried out through the Provincial Councils, the Generalitat itself and Localret, with a governance model that is yet to be specified. These tasks are fundamental to the success of citizen participation initiatives.
The service will be offered during the pilot phase, primarily in the regions of Tarragona and Lleida, where the respective provincial governments do not currently offer the service. DecidimThe city councils of the provinces of Barcelona and Girona must contact their respective Provincial Councils if they are interested.ereshealth when using the service Decidim, because they are currently offering this service.
The Network of Governments of Catalonia wants to replicate the success achieved in the field of Transparència, where 99,8% of local administrations have a portal with their own solution or with the common solution provided by the AOC which has become a standard used by 1.200 local entities.
Improvements to Decidim
The report associated with the agreement highlights a set of improvements to the application that must be developed over the next 4 years. These must serve to evolve the platform to a multi-administration model, implement requested improvements and consolidate the integration of the service. Decidim Catalonia with other widely used digital services. These are:
- Integration of the solution Decidim with VALID to promote the use of recognized digital identity services and, specifically, theidCAT Mobile to encourage citizen participation in consultations, preparation of proposals or support for projects.
- Integration of the service with the population register (through Via Oberta) to efficiently manage participatory processes that are restricted to registered citizens
- Service integration with EACAT to facilitate the control and self-management of users by each entity, both at the local level and the Generalitat.
- Multi-administrator functionality, which allows an entity to manage multiple instances of Decidim within its scope of competence.
- The incorporation of an integrated face-to-face and electronic voting module with all the legal and security guarantees will be considered.
- Integration of registration with social networks to facilitate the submission of proposals with a basic digital identity that facilitates their monitoring.
- The incorporation of a module that allows citizens to define their areas of interest (territorial and / or thematic) and receive personalized and proactive communications on opportunities for citizen participation in processes promoted or promoted by Catalan administrations will be evaluated. · Labor.
Additionally, public bodies and citizens can send us their ideas and proposals through the platform of “We improve the AOC".
The bet on "Decidim"in Catalonia"
Decidim is a digital citizen participation platform developed with free software, born and promoted by the Barcelona City Council in 2016, and which is currently used in more than 100 cities and 20 countries around the world.
The service Decidim Catalonia takes as its starting point the success of the initiatives promoted by Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Girona Provincial Council, the Localret Consortium and the Directorate General for Citizen Participation and Electoral Processes itself, and which already has many successful territorial implementation experiences and a very active community.
