The MyPolis – Citizenship 4.0 project in Lagoa is the only Algarve representative in the 6th edition of the Good Participation Practices Award, the most attended ever.
At the beginning of last February, the Participatory Municipalities Network launched the 6th edition of the Good Participation Practices Award.
"This initiative aims to be an incentive to the implementation, dissemination and enhancement of innovative participatory democracy projects developed in Portugal", according to the promoters.
At the end of the application submission period, 29 applicants were received, thus surpassing the highest number registered in previous editions: 19, in 2017.
The practices in the competition are: AEleva-te (Cascais City Council), Online Library (Estrela Parish Council), Madiba Wood – Mandela Legado (Mealhada City Council), Municipal Council for Equality (Funchal City Council) ), Estrela Circular (Estrela Parish Council), Estrela Participates (Estrela Parish Council), Fora da Caixa (Torres Vedras City Council), Municipal Forum for Health Promotion (Cascais City Council), Senior Municipal Forum Amadora (Municipal Council of Amadora) and the Visually Impaired Support Office (Municipal Council of Torres Vedras).
These are joined by Gaia Youth Participatory Budget (Gaia City Council), GeoEstrela (Estrela Parish Council), GeoSenior (Estrel Parish Council), Torres Vedras Active Community Group (Torres Vedras City Council), Healthy Elderly and Heritage Assets (Torres Vedras City Council), Kit Covid-19 (Estrela Parish Council), MyPolis – Citizenship 4.0 in Lagoa (Lagoa City Council, Algarve), Office for All (Estre Parish Council), Budget Participatory (Parish Council of Agualva and Mira Sintra), Participatory Budget of Viseu (Municipal Council of Viseu), Participatory Youth Budget of Lagoa (Municipal Council of Lagoa, Azores) and Participatory Youth Budget (Union of Parishes of Massamá and Monte Abraão) .
Participatory Budget for Youth of Valongo (Municipal Council of Valongo), Municipal Parliament – Small Major Politicians (Municipal Council of Braga), Municipal Plan for Youth of Guimarães (Municipal Council of Guimarães), Participatory Process of Praça do Martim Moniz (Municipal Council of Lisbon), Participatory Budget Program (Penha de França Parish Council) Tutors from Cascais (Cascais City Council), Domingos Valley, Magnolia World Capital (Águeda City Council) close the list.
As an exception and contrary to the frequency adopted so far, the current edition was not limited to accepting applications referring to practices carried out in 2020. This year «was strongly marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, which conditioned the activity of the municipalities and, consequently, the processes of participation».
For this reason, the Participatory Local Authorities Network defined a different frequency and a more thematic focus for the applications. Thus, the present edition of the Award is intended to highlight initiatives implemented during the current municipal mandate, that is, between 2017 and 2020, and that represent an objective contribution to promoting social inclusion, in particular of traditionally under-represented groups.
This approach derives from the valuation that the Network has been giving to the theme and which resulted in a collaborative action-research, carried out between last September and January of this year, which culminated in the publication of a book with the main conclusions of this work.
The applications received will be evaluated by an independent jury, composed of Sandra Ribeiro, president of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), Pedro Calado, deputy director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and Adrià Duarte, coordinator of the International Observatory of Democracy Participatory (OIDP).
The five candidacies with the best score will proceed to the public voting stage, receiving, for this fact, the seal of good participation practice. Among the finalists, two prizes will be awarded, with the first classified being nominated as the best practice of participatory democracy in Portugal and the second an honorable mention.
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