Citizen Participation: openness of information and follow-up of processes (BUE0008)

Link with the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 (SDG) SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Status quo / Issue to be Addressed In general terms, citizens do not find the functions and activities of the different branches of government easy to understand. This complexity makes difficult the interaction between citizens and the government in terms of citizens’ requests and co-creation as well as the follow-up, monitoring and control of public policies. Below are some different issues identified: • Lack of unified criteria for the publication of public information. Currently, information is dispersed, it is not completely clear and there is a lack of access to data. • Lack of information about data generated by each area and inexistence of a protocol established to ease the exchange of such data. While individual efforts are made by Ministries to exploit the data, there is no unified strategy nor coordination between the areas. There is a need to promote the reuse of open data through the participation of several actors in the processes. • The Executive Branch drives different citizen participation stages: virtual, on-site, at public works, etc. There is a need to systematize the information and its indicators to be able to conduct a follow-up, measure the impact in the public policies in an open manner and see the results of these stages. • There is a lack of systematised information in an open format within the Legislative Branch. Likewise, while the Legislature – and the Constitution of the City- promote diverse citizen participation stages, there is no virtual space that systematises the information generated in the Legislature in an open data format, nor an office that centralises citizens’ claims and suggestions or promotes proximity to citizens. • Deficiency in intra-institutional communication of the Judicial Branch. By innovating and making the processes transparent, we will be able to bring them closer to the citizens who normally do not know in detail how Justice works due to its legal technicalities and the limited openness of information on how justice operates.

General objective Make the functions of the three branches of Government more understandable and bring them closer to the citizens, facilitate the follow-up and participation of neighbours in citizen participation stages. Strengthen data openness and generate innovative mechanisms for accountability through the creation of indexes which allow for the assessment of public policies.

Brief description of the initiative The commitment “Openness and Innovation for an Open Government” has different lines of action aimed at improving institutions and their relationship with citizens. These lines of action are: Access to information and assessment – Generate unified publication standards. Elaborate a diagnosis of relevant information related to civil society demand. Create tools and methodologies to assess the public policies on transparency. Open data and reutilisation - The commitment will seek to enhance the open data policy through 3 stages: one internal stage on redefinition of standards and normalisation of criteria; another one aimed at the promotion of use, reuse and openness on request; and another stage for the increasement of published datasets and its displays. Strengthening and follow-up of citizen participation – we will work towards the openness of information on indicators and data about the citizen participation practices carried out by the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. We seek to ease the tracking process to show the public the results of the different processes and practices opened, and promote different participation spaces within the public policies cycle. Open data and participation in the Legislature - Analyse the information generated in the Legislature, systematise it and make it available in a centralised open data platform. Create a centralised office to act as a direct link with citizens, which can serve as a tool to increase transparency and proximity to society. Open Courts - Generate an openness space in the Judicial Branch through an Innovation Laboratory which allows for the co-creation, development and diffusion of open government policies leading to the opening of a new extra- and inter- judicial participation channel.

Describe the way in which this commitment is relevant to strengthen OGP values of transparency, access to information, public accountability, civic participation, and technology and innovation for openness and accountability. The generation of unified standards together with the creation of a diagnosis of relevant information related to civil society demand as well as the creation of assessment tools will strengthen civil society’s capacity to monitor and assess the City’s public policies in terms of transparency. Openness of more data contributes to transparency, access to information and accountability. Furthermore, the promotion of use, the reuse and openness on request promote citizen participation, technology and innovation. The participation initiative will make citizen participation processes more transparent and it will provide feedback since it discloses the results, thus it generates a feedback circle between the government and citizens. The improvement of the access to parliamentary information by facilitating the analysis and electronic access to parliamentary information to all citizens and institutions, will allow for the improvement of performance accountability. In addition to enhancing the civil society’s monitoring capacity, the centralised spaces for access to virtual information and the OAC (Citizen Services Office) will promote the effective participation of citizens in the decision-making processes. The creation of a Judicial Innovation Laboratory will facilitate citizens’ access to legal information, moreover, the establishment of openness practices will contribute to accountability.

Milestones Ongoing or new commitment Start date End date 3. Citizen Participation: openness of information and follow-up of processes 3.1 Openness of Management indicators of Citizen Participation and proximity (stages, initiatives, projects, participants – amount, age, neighbourhood-, results, etc.) Ongoing January 2018 December 2019 3.2 Comprehensive Acknowledgement Programme for good coexistence between neighbours of the city: measuring impact (enrolled people, winners, etc.) New October 2018 December 2019 3.3 Achieve 300 direct interactions in participation stages (meetings with neighbours and government officials, participation in communal works and from areas with powers to execute public works, participation in projects of different areas of government, “Comisarías cercanas”, “BA Elige” – follow-up of winning projects-, “Experiencia BA”, among others.) Results of such interactions will be shown (stages, initiatives, projects, participants - amount, age, neighbourhood-, results, etc.) New October 2018 December 2019

3. Participación ciudadana: Apertura de información y seguimiento de procesos

Objetivo del compromiso

El compromiso tenía como objetivo realizar un seguimiento de las acciones de participación ciudadana, otorgándole continuidad al proceso a partir de la facilitación de información al ciudadano sobre la etapa de implementación de la política pública. Si bien el Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires ya venía implementado distintas políticas y programas de fomento a la participación, una de las limitaciones señaladas por el área de Participación ciudadana era la falta de continuidad en las instancias de participación, ya que luego de que los ciudadanos tomaban parte de los distintos canales de participación, no había un proceso específico que determinara cómo se tomaban en cuenta los aportes de la ciudadanía en la toma de decisiones del Gobierno. El compromiso proponía a su vez implementar un programa integral de reconocimiento a la buena convivencia y 300 nuevas vinculaciones directas de participación ciudadana. 

¿Contribuyó a la apertura del Gobierno?

Significativamente

Más allá de incorporar nuevos set de datos con información sobre el seguimiento de las iniciativas de obras, proyectos, voluntariado, comisarías cercanas y el programa BA Elige [6], el compromiso implementó de forma completa el Programa integral de reconocimiento, a la buena convivencia entre vecinos [7] del que participaron conductores y policías. Este programa, sumado a las nuevas instancias participativas generadas con vecinos que asistieron a reuniones para tomar decisiones acerca de obras comunales (dentro de BAObras), a través de votaciones y otros dispositivos de participación, contribuyeron significativamente a la apertura del Gobierno. Ellas permitieron cerrar el ciclo de retroalimentación entre la ciudadanía y los representantes del Gobierno, a través de la publicación de los resultados de cada uno de los procesos participativos y cómo sus acciones se tomaron en consideración para informar las distintas políticas públicas en materia de obras, reconocimiento a la convivencia, entre otros [8].

Detalles sobre la implementación:

Los tres hitos del compromiso se cumplieron de forma completa durante el primer año de implementación. Se incorporaron cuatro nuevos sets de datos a la plataforma BA Data donde se detalló información relativa a la implementación de las iniciativas “Comisarías Cercanas”, “BA Elige”, “Iniciativas de participación ciudadana: obras, proyectos y voluntariado”, “Programa Grandes Choferes” y “Programas de Incentivos” [9]. Asimismo, se publicaron informes y estadísticas acerca de la cantidad de instancias participativas realizadas (895 entre 2016 y 2019), que superaron el objetivo de 300 vinculaciones directas y que se adaptaron a los canales virtuales y a los nuevos desafíos generados por la pandemia (por ejemplo, el programa “Mayores cuidados”, “Comisarías cercanas virtual” y “Reuniones virtuales de vecinos”).

Por otra parte, el programa integral de convivencia, premió el buen comportamiento entre usuarios de colectivos y choferes, a los conductores responsables (quienes, por ejemplo, recibieron como premio bonificaciones del impuesto automotor 2019) y a los vecinos que llevaron adelante acciones de reciclaje en la ciudad [10].