During a day in Reus, the accompanying services were presented with the participation of the President of the Tarragona Provincial Council, Noemí Llauradó, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Open Government of the Generalitat, Victòria Alsina.
The Decidim Catalunya project aims to make it easier for all local governments to have the necessary resources to promote citizen participation with quality guarantees, with the Decidim platform as a digital infrastructure and with a collaborative model of service and support in the framework of the Network of Transparent Governments. This advanced participation tool allows citizens to take part in different participatory processes.
THELleida City Council is one of the first municipalities in Catalonia to implement, in a pilot way, the participatory digital platform “Decidim Catalunya” based on Decidim technology. It is followed by a dozen municipalities promoting their own environments under the common infrastructure deployed by the AOC Consortium.
One of the objectives of the Decidim Catalunya project is to encourage citizen participation at the local level through a pioneering support service for local councils. This, has been promoted by the Generalitat, has the support of the Diputació de Tarragona through the Municipal Assistance Service (SAM), of the Diputació de Lleida and with the infrastructure deployed by the Consorci Administració Oberta de Catalunya (AOC).
At the conference held in Reus, elected officials and technical staff from the local entities of the Camp de Tarragona, Terres de l'Ebre, Baix Penedès and Lleida got to know the new escort service in a day that has been carried out to the excellent Boca de la Mina de Diputación Innovation and Training Center.
The launch of the service is the result of collaboration between the Generalitat and the provincial councils of Tarragona and Lleida, within the framework of the citizen participation group of the Network of Transparent Governments. This space of institutional collaboration also gathers the experience and the remarkable trajectory of the Diputació de Barcelona and also the Girona Provincial Council as leading and consolidated demarcations in participation.
The deputations of Lleida and Tarragona have taken part in the Decidim Catalunya pilot project, which in June last year began in five municipalities in the Tarragona region (Alcover, Torredembarra, l'Arboç, la Ràpita, Deltebre) and in five more the demarcation of Lleida (Les Borges Blanques, Lleida, Mollerussa, Sort, Tàrrega). In a second phase, from this June, four more councils will obtain the platform: Vila-seca, Riudoms and Tarragona, in the demarcation of Tarragona, and Ponts, in the demarcation of Lleida. With this pilot plan, the AOC can test the technology solution in a secure, scalable environment and make the necessary adjustments prior to mass deployment.
At the beginning of the day, Enric Adell, Vice President and Deputy Delegate of the SAM of the Provincial Council of Tarragona, stressed the importance of adding and bringing citizen participation to its demarcation and thanked the Catalan institutions that have made possible the project.
Next, Àstrid Desset, managing director of the AOC Consortium, emphasized that the Decidim Catalunya project aims to help local governments have digital resources to promote citizen participation with quality guarantees. He also highlighted the joint work of the AOC, the Network of Transparent Governments and, especially, the provincial councils of Tarragona and Lleida.
During the session, Miquel Salvadó, Director General of Participation, Electoral Processes and Democratic Quality of the Generalitat de Catalunya, emphasized the importance of the administrations being accompanied in projects such as Decidim Catalunya, and the importance of learning and maintaining shared efforts in achieving common goals. In this sense, he stated that “I want to recognize the role of the Open Administration of Catalonia as an essential ally in deploying the Decidim platform in the territory".
For his part, Víctor Peguera, director of the municipal planning and cooperation service of the Diputació de Lleida, emphasized the importance of carrying out quality participatory processes to incorporate society in a real and active way into public management. He thanked that the joint project has been promoted with the help and coordination that public services require to reach an optimal level of quality.
During the day, Miquel Estapé, Deputy Director of Strategy and Innovation of the AOC, highlighted the important previous and historical work of the Localret Consortium, Barcelona City Council, the Decidim Association, the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Provincial Council. of Girona, among dozens of public bodies that have promoted Decidim as a technology of participation.
Laura Sunyer, Deputy Director General for Citizen Participation of the Generalitat de Catalunya, also emphasized the importance of having a common resource and accompanying the administrations and, above all, the relevance of this unification as a facility for citizens. A key aspect, when the aim is to promote citizen participation with quality guarantees. He also explained that the Government is working hard to legislate in relation to citizen participation and to weave networks to bring together initiatives and experiences in this regard.
During the closing ceremony, Noemí Llauradó, President of the Tarragona Provincial Council, emphasized that participation is a very important element of the Dipta's Mandate Plan, open to both internal and external groups. The Provincial Council has highlighted the capillary management of the services provided with pride and determination.
As a last intervention, Victòria Alsina, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Open Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya, has strengthened the role of public bodies as a channel for participation and public services in the country. He also stressed the importance of pursuing the efficiency of public management as well as understanding participation as a way to gather the ideas of society from a qualitative approach.
Decidim and the Decidim Catalunya project
The platform We decide It is open source and is designed to drive different participation mechanisms, such as participatory processes or participatory advice. It allows the publication of results of participatory processes with the possibility of evaluation and monitoring, and also has internal messaging and monitoring of participation data.
The Decidim Catalunya service is promoted and coordinated through the Network of Transparent Governments and is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Its strategic objective is to offer the local world a comprehensive service, in a "turnkey" format that will include support, technical and functional support, technology, training, guides and good practices.
The Provincial Councils of Barcelona i Girona provide the service We decide directly. In the rest of the territory, the AOC is responsible for making the digital platform available to the local world and managing maintenance, developing the agreed developments and providing technical and functional support. In this case, the accompaniment will be carried out by the General Directorate of Citizen participation of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Deputation of Tarragona I la Deputation of Lleida.
