The municipalities that belong to the Network of Participatory Municipalities will assess the inclusive nature of their participation practices, through the game “Who Participates?”, which will be presented in March.
This tool was conceived from «a collaborative action research, carried out within the Network of Participatory Autarquias (RAP), with the objective of understanding to what extent the processes of civic participation tend or not to ensure the inclusion of groups traditionally underrepresented social groups", according to the Oficina, an organization based in Faro and which coordinates this network, which includes, in the Algarve, the Municipalities of Lagoa and Loulé.
The “Who Participates?” it is, in practice, «a self-diagnosis exercise on the inclusive nature of participation practices» that the different members of the RAP develop.
In focus were two major lines of study.
The first was «the self-assessment of each municipality, carried out through the response to a questionnaire survey on the practices and strategies adopted».
The second was “an external assessment of the inclusive nature of the Internet pages dedicated to participation processes”.
«The results of this work were presented and debated in several forums and later published in a book», according to the Workshop.
«From this study, it became even more evident that without concrete and intentional devices, the practices of citizen participation in the elaboration of public policies tend to mirror and reproduce the sub-representations existing in a given community, thus reducing its integrative and inclusive potential», they add.
Nelson Dias, from the Workshop, qualifies as under-represented «the actors who belong to social groups or territories that are traditionally less present in the practices of participation and in the processes of political decision-making».
In focus were «children, adolescents, young people, women, the elderly, people with mobility difficulties, reduced vision/blind, deaf/deaf-mute, psychic problems, low literacy, coming from more isolated rural areas, foreigners, homeless , with high purchasing power and ethnic minorities».
To help organize the conclusions, the exposed profiles were grouped based on physical and psychological, cultural, generational, socioeconomic, territorial and gender factors.
«Having these elements as inspiration and as RAP is a platform dedicated to supporting the qualification of its members and the practices they promote, it was decided to proceed with the creation of a game, in a board format, which serves as a self-diagnosis exercise for the teams directly responsible for conducting civic participation processes», revealed the Workshop.
The “players” «are invited to analyze 42 profiles belonging to traditionally under-represented social groups and verify that the methodologies they adopt are the most adjusted to guarantee the participation of these people. “Who participates?” it does not stop at the analysis of each of the situations identified, but requests the adoption of measures to facilitate the inclusion of individuals who are unable to access the participatory process».
José Manuel Ribeiro, Mayor of Valongo and RAP, says that «this is an innovative initiative, unparalleled in other countries, which demonstrates the Network's commitment to contributing to the continuous improvement of civic participation processes in Portugal. This contribution is particularly important in the context in which we find ourselves, in terms of exiting the pandemic situation and recovering the practical involvement of citizens in the management of public affairs”.
The game will be publicly presented as part of the Forum “Recovering Civic Participation in Portugal”, which will take place in Valongo, on the 17th and 18th of March.
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