Action plan – Madrid, Spain, 2024 – 2027

At-a-Glance

Duration

Jun 2027

Date Submitted

3rd December 2024

Foreword(s)

Madrid City Council is strongly committed to open government, which also has very solid foundations. Its principles are deeply rooted in administrative culture and strongly underpinned by the existence of robust structures, regulations that provide security and guarantees to the system, and the increasing availability of human, technical, and financial resources. Transparency, participation, accountability, collaboration, and integrity are thus strongly deployed and put Madrid City Council in a leadership position.
This positions Madrid as a pioneer city, which carries with it a lot of responsibility. Madrid is aware of the importance of ensuring that the commitments undertaken are always met, of achieving standards of excellence, and of striving to continue improving on a daily basis. It also collaborates on an ongoing basis with other municipalities around the world to share learning and spread the values and culture of open government.
Madrid joined the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP) in 2016 as one of the fifteen pioneer organizations of the Subnational Government Pilot Programme. So far, it has designed and implemented three action plans. The open government plans approved by the City Council within the framework of the OGP include a range of medium-term initiatives and actions that are part of a broader strategic framework and a roadmap to continuously strengthen the values of good governance.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

The Strategic Framework for Open Government in the City of Madrid summarizes the main lines of action carried out in the field of open government by the different centers and marks the roadmap that should guide their actions. This Framework is structured around 4 strategic axes and a transversal line of action as a key to achieving the proposed goals:

• Axis 1 Transparency and open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici...
• Axis 2 Participation and civic space
• Axis 3 Integrity
• Axis 4 Quality and Assessment

Transversal line of action:

• Open Government School

All these axes also relate to the objectives of the OGP Strategy.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

Some of the achievements are listed in the following:

To further strengthen the municipal commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... to transparency and quality, a new service charter is being developed in the procedure of access to public information. And, in parallel, progress is being made in the early stages of a new AI project to automate the reception of requests for access to public information, which would streamline management and save resources in the allocation and processing of requests.

Madrid City Council is committed to making its OD Portal more visual, more accessible, and more easily reusable.  It seeks to have a robust, sustainable, and scalable platform that facilitates the growth of Madrid City Council’s open data service. This process will involve the collaboration of professional reusers, associations, universities, and the general public.

The Decide Madrid platform has established itself as a benchmark for citizen participation. It has more than 500,000 registered users, 5,000 debates, 30,000 proposals, and 230,000 comments. It is a key tool to facilitate and encourage direct and individual citizen participation in city affairs.

The Open Government strategy has made it possible to broaden the spectrum of participation, developing specific programs aimed at those sectors of the population with less participation, such as the elderly, children and young people, and other vulnerable groups.

Madrid has consolidated an inclusive, modern, and effective participation model.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

The current challenges include:

• Strengthening transparency and accountability of the Madrid administration. It aims to maintain Madrid City Council as a benchmark for a responsive, transparent, and innovative administration, its goal being to provide quality services that citizens are aware of and in which they demand compliance with the obligations they have acquired.
• Promoting participation from both an individual and collective perspective, reinforcing the different instruments and spaces for the participation and collaboration of the people of Madrid in the city’s affairs, and ensuring participation processes adapted to the diversity and plurality of citizens.
• Achieving the highest standards of good governance and respect for and adherence to values, principles, and ethical standards aimed at protecting, maintaining, and prioritizing the public interest over private interests in the public sector.
• Promoting any policies, projects, and actions necessary for the continuous improvement of the management and results of Madrid City Council, as well as to ensure citizen satisfaction with public services.
• Raising awareness of the values of Open Government, favoring the collaborative design of public policies. To extend and broaden the group of people familiar with transparency and participation, through the dissemination and promotion of its use in processes associated with public service.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

The medium-term goals that the government follows are:

• Strengthening the transparency of Madrid City Council by promoting the Transparency Portal and the management of requests for access to public information;
• Implementing a new Open Data Portal platform to make information more visual,  and reusable. Improving the quality of published datasets and  increasing visualizations;
• Continuously improving participation processes through the Decide Madrid platform;
• Encouraging citizen participation through the City Council’s participatory bodies;
• Collaborating with the third sector and strengthening civic space;
• Co-creating actions in the most vulnerable districts and neighborhoods to achieve territorial rebalancing;
• Devising new models of participation, favoring collaboration and social innovation;
• Integrity and traceability of public decisions;
• Madrid office for the prevention of fraud and corruption;
• Integrity in economic and budgetary management;
• Assessing citizen satisfaction with municipal services by means of citizen perception systems. Guaranteeing citizens the right to submit suggestions, complaints and praise and using the data to improve municipal services;
• Improving the quality and assessment of municipal services through quality systems and implementing quality tools;
• Promoting clear communication in Madrid City Council so that it communicates in an easy, direct, transparent, inclusive manner and provides relevant information;
• Building a growing community of open government reformers and leaders.

How does this action plan contribute to achieve the Open Government Strategic Vision?

Madrid City Council’s Fourth Open Government Plan includes a sample of medium-term actions (2024- 2027) that form part of this broader strategy and are intended to reflect the City Council’s new initiatives and best practices with the aim of making progress and strengthening the values and principles of good governance.

The plan’s five commitments are detailed below:

1. Clear communication. The right to understand is fundamental to citizens’ involvement in decision-making and the exercise of their rights, particularly in the area of municipal taxation.
2. POV MADRID Young people’s digital participationMany governments are creating online mechanisms for citizens to petition, call for action, and participate in making decisions on issues they care about.  Technical specifications: Refers to public p... space, is an attractive, dynamic, and interactive platform for young people (aged 14 to 18 years old), with supervision and specialized support.
3. Thivic, Madrid City Council’s social innovation laboratory, to generate meeting places for experts, citizens, and City Council professionals to seek solutions to public problems and to promote intrapreneurship and public innovation, encouraging the creativity of municipal staff.
4. Preventing unwanted loneliness among young people, developing strategies to detect and attend to adolescents and young people in this situation, and expanding meeting spaces to promote healthy relationships and the generation of bonds.
5. Evaluation of the universal accessibility strategy. To determine the evolution of the main perceived requirements and to adapt municipal action to existing requirements.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

It contributes to the accomplishment of the current administration’s goals through the following ways:

• Building a growing community of open government reformers and leaders. The vision entails making progress in raising awareness among citizens and the municipal organisation itself of the benefits and advantages of open government. It will enable the community of reformers and leaders to be expanded, both within the municipal organisation itself and outside, among civil society and especially among groups that are furthest removed from the processes that make it up and most require its benefits.
• Protecting and expanding civic space. The aim is to protect and expand civic space for civil society and democratic dialogue by providing security and stability to formal participatory bodies. And expanding existing methods and testing new ones. It also strengthens and improves the quality of participation in public management, through a more educated society that can participate on equal terms in public decision-making and professionals with greater capacities.
• Speeding up collective progress on open government reforms. It raises the expectation of transparency, accountability, participation, and inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... and focuses on inclusive participation by working with collectives focused on genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... groups, marginalised communities, young people, and the elderly.
• Being a centre for innovative case studies of historical evidence of open government. It will enable the identification and sharing of stories, qualitative research, and data in combination with evidence-based findings

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• Directorate General for Accessibility
• Directorate General for Citizen Participation
• Directorate General for Transparency and Quality

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

Coordination with the various departments of the municipality is carried out through the usual channels of dialogue and also through the plan’s monitoring bodies with municipal representatives.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

The process of drafting the Fourth Plan has involved considerable citizen participation. In November 2023, the Open Government Steering Group was set up, composed equally of the government and civil society, in order to obtain feedback during each stage of the process. It has been debated within different municipal participation bodies and two consultations have been carried out through Decide Madrid: one inviting citizens to share their ideas and prioritise areas of action and a second to provide feedback on specific draft commitments.

• Open Government Steering Group meetings: 10 from November 2023 to September 2024
• Decide Madrid Public Consultation: 4051 participants. 3056 consultations from 11/12/2023 until09/01/2024 and 995 participants from 11/06/2024 until25/06/2024.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

The early involvement of civil society, through the creation of the Steering Group with equal representation from civil society and the municipality. This Steering Group has had the task of making the drafting process more dynamic and determining opinions at each stage, reporting on progress to the participatory bodies. The latter have also played a leading role in debating and approving the Plan.

The Steering Group has 10 representatives from civil society and 10 from Madrid City Council. The representatives of civil society are, in turn, members of the city’s Social Council, the Sectoral Council of Associations and other citizen entities, and the City Council’s accessibility committee:

• INJUCAM Federation
• Regional Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM)
• Polytechnic University, Professional Association of Computer Engineers
• Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM), General Workers’ Union (UGT)
• Madrid Workers’ Committees (CCOO)
• Democratic Union of Pensioners and Retired Persons of Madrid (UDP)
• Committee of Organizations Representing People with DisabilitiesA government is not open unless it is accessible to all, and governments are working to ensure people with disabilities are afforded equitable services and opportunities to participate. Technical spec... of the Community of Madrid (CERMI

Also, the participation of the municipal bodies listed above, includes diverse members of the social society.

Who participated in these spaces?

The Social Council includes representatives of the most representative economic and social organizations and of neighborhood associations, universities, and professional associations. The council of associations has representatives of non-profit organizations representing a wide range of interests: the disabled, children, young people, women, consumers and users, commerce, businessmen, and neighbors.

The Council of the Elderly represents the elderly population while the Steering Group has 10 representatives from civil society and 10 from Madrid City Council.

The representatives of civil society are, in turn, members of the city’s Social Council, the Sectoral Council of Associations and other citizen entities, and the City Council’s accessibility committee: INJUCAM Federation, Regional Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM), Polytechnic University, Professional Association of Computer Engineers, Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM), General Workers’ Union (UGT), Madrid Workers’ Committees (CCOO), Democratic Union of Pensioners and Retired Persons of Madrid (UDP), Committee of Organisations Representing People with Disabilities of the Community of Madrid (CERMI).

How many groups participated in these spaces?

130

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive...?

15

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

The plan’s monitoring will be carried out within the Open Government Steering Group, as well as through the Madrid City Council’s participatory bodies, in particular the city’s social council, the sectoral council of associations, and other citizens’ organiszations and other sectoral councils that may be affected by the problems related to each commitment.
This monitoring will be at least annual, without prejudice to the possibility of intermediate meetings if necessary and agreed upon by the meeting attendees.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

An intern monitoring report (end 2025) and a final monitoring report (March 2027) will be drawn up to report on the state of progress and results of the various commitments undertaken. These monitoring reports will be prepared by the general directorates steering the governance plan and will aim to determine the level of compliance with each of the commitments, determining whether the activities were carried out and to what extent, so as to answer the question: to what extent has the activity been completed during the process of implementing the commitment? And measure the early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde... of the implementation of the commitments, trying to determine how Madrid City Council’s practice in relevant areas of OGP values has changed as a result of implementation.

In addition to the annual monitoring reports, the plan will also be assessed by an external and independent entity, which will be carried out in two stages: an initial stage when the plan has been approved, and a final stage, which will be carried out when the deadline for the implementation of the commitments has expired in March 2027.

This external independent entity will be tendered by the Sub-Directorate General for Quality and Evaluation.

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

The plan’s monitoring will be carried out within the Open Government Steering Group, as well as through the Madrid City Council’s participatory bodies, in particular the city’s social council, the sectoral council of associations, and other citizens’ organisations and other sectoral councils that may be affected by the problems related to each commitment.
This monitoring will be at least annual, without prejudice to the possibility of intermediate meetings agreed upon by the meeting attendees.

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

With monthly meetings and continuous support.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

Maximum process transparency will be guaranteed through the publication of relevant information and monitoring and assessment reports in the space provided for such purposes on Madrid City Council’s open government website. Madrid Open Government.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• INJUCAM Federation
• Regional Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM)
• Polytechnic University, Professional Association of Computer Engineers
• Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM),
• General Workers’ Union (UGT)
• Madrid Workers
• Democratic Union of Pensioners and Retired Persons of Madrid (UDP)
• Committee of Organisations Representing People with Disabilities of the Community of Madrid (CERMI).

Commitments:

• Development and application of a clear communication methodology in municipal taxation.
• Create a space for participation in Decide Madrid for young people.
• THIVIC, Madrid City Council’s Social Innovation Laboratory.
• Addressing unwanted loneliness among young people.
• Participatory evaluation of Madrid’s Universal Accessibility Strategy.

Fourth Open Government Plan of Madrid City 2024-2027
Decide Madrid’s Website