Press Release – Reporting WP1-5 Digital Civic Participation v2.0
Steps so far, WP 1-5
The project Digital Civic Participation D.C.P v2.0 is a 24 months project funded by the Programme Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values of the European Union (CERV-2021-CITIZENS-TOWN) and targets young people 15-30 years old and municipal employs working in the youth sector, who are interested in being informed and involved in the process of shaping participatory innovative e-democracy tools and innovative for their municipality.
In the framework of the project, between September and November 2022, the consortium of the project organized 10 workshops with a total duration of 30 hours and with a total participation of 284 young people, aiming to analyze the existing digital participation tools applied in each partner country/municipality.
At the same time, as part of the recording of the digital tools of the project’s partner countries, a common questionnaire was distributed to each country with a total participation of 200 people. The goal was to collect results in relation to whether the citizens of each municipality know if digital participation tools are applied in their area and what they might be, as well as what the opinion of the citizens about the application of digital participation tools in their daily life is.
The results of both the questionnaires and the workshops were of particular interest. More specifically questionnaires the largest percentage of respondents were young people who expressed the opinion that digital participation tools can be very useful, both in the decision-making process at the level of state/municipal administration and in the daily active participation of young people in society. On the other hand, most young people seem to be unaware of the digital tools applied in their area, either because of lack of information or because the tools were not successfully applied.
This gap seems to have been filled to some extent by the national workshops organized by the project partners, whose aim was for the young participants themselves to research and analyze the digital tools applied in their area. Through this process, young people discovered applications they didn’t know exist and their interest in digital participatory tools was further strengthen.
The results of both the questionnaires and the national workshops will form the content of the digital manual for the digital tools, which is a deliverable of the project.
Our next steps…
Following the WP1-5 and based on the schedule of the Project our 1st International Activity will take place, in Athens!
At this international event all the partners will present their results of the first Working Packages in the spirit of sharing good practices and personal experiences to improve and strengthen the results of the project.
Few words about the project:
The “DCP v2.0” project also aims to record and analyze digital tools used in EU countries and to establish a user-friendly manual on how and under what circumstances can be used. The purpose of the manual is to be able to be used easily by all, so as to further enlarge its use in the decision-making process at a local level.
The consortium of the project comprises of:
- Institute Of Research & Training On European Affairs – I.R.T.E.A.
Lead Partner, Greece - Municipality Of Cinisello Balsamo – Italy
- Municipality Of Starachowice – Poland
- PONT Group – Romania
- Municipality Of Klaipeda – Lithuania
The project’s activities concern:
• The study and investigation of existing tools and methods of e-participation tools
• The presentation of these tools to all members of the society in practical and understandable examples to all, making them accessible and achievable.
• Training, education and empowerment of both young and municipal officials with digital participatory democracy tools
• Identify and exchange “good practices” in the field of digital participation between European partners
• Enhancing digital participation with the goal of increasing the involvement of citizens with digital tools
Stay tuned to learn more…
The reports for these Events are available here.
