Participa! (IT0017)

Restructure and revamp the Partecipa! portal as a reference platform for processes of public participation, expanding the current context, limited to consultation, to the stages of monitoring the implementation and the evaluation of services/policies. Create a single signing system for the citizens who participate, so that they can follow the evolution of the initiatives in which they are involved and can also have a public structured space where they can make proposals to the institutions and administrations. Foster the management and dissemination of available applications, optimizing the use of civic media.

Commitment 1. Partecipa!

Commitment Text:

Restructure and revamp the Partecipa! portal as a reference platform for processes of public participation, expanding the current context, limited to consultation, to the stages of monitoring the implementation and the evaluation of services/policies.

Create a single signing system for the citizens who participate, so that they can follow the evolution of the initiatives in which they are involved and can also have a public structured space where they can make proposals to the institutions and administrations. Foster the management and dissemination of available applications, optimizing the use of civic media.

Specific Objectives

· Restructure and revamp the Partecipa! portal as open front end where you can:..........

- activate a public structured space to receive proposals and requests for administrations;-

- set up a smart repository for all the participation processes, clustering the experiences on the basis of similarity, reuse, performance offered, best practices and collect the tools, the technical documentation, the methods, the guides, etc., to manage the consultation processes;

- set up a single sign in system for the citizens, with the option to subscribe to a newsletter and the possibility to receive automatic alerts on the progress of the initiative which they have participated in;

- create a repository of the civic open source applications and of the civic media that can be (re) used to build the consultation processes, with summary profiles and opportunity for comment by users.

Responsible institution: DPA

Supporting institution(s): AgID

Start date: January 2015                                           End date:  June 2016

Commitment Aim:

The commitment aimed at improving public participation in services design and delivery by offering a single point of entry to anyone interested in taking part in consultations about specific public policies. A platform was available only for consultation prior to the implementation of the commitment. The platform was later launched in November 2014 as part of a series of initiatives to improve public consultation^{[Note 1: http://www.logospa.it/archivio-news/2920-18-11-2014-partecipa-il-portale-per-le-consultazioni-pubbliche.html]}.

Status

Mid-term: Not started

According to the IRM researcher and official government sources, the implementation of the commitment had not started during the first cycle of implementation. An internet archive search by the IRM team found that the Italian Government launched the initiative “Partecipa!” in 2013^{[Note 2: http://www.partecipa.gov.it]} to engage citizens in the process of Constitutional reform. The site gathered around 425.700 visits from around 306.500 unique visitors. It was then used for consultation during the development of the first and second OGP Action Plans: the consultation for the second Action Plan was opened from 4 to 21 November 2014. The IRM researchers did not find further evidence of any actions taken to restructure or revamp this portal at the mid term mark. For more information, please see the 2014-2015 mid-term IRM report.

End of term: Not started

Based on Italy’s self-assessment report and desk research conducted by the IRM researcher, there was no further progress on the implementation of the overall commitment. Since the mid-term IRM report, the government did not conduct any consultations with stakeholders. Representatives within the government also confirmed that the lack of implementation of the commitment was due to the delay in the approval by the parliament of the necessary legislative provisions (Legge delega 124/2015 and consequent legislative decrees) needed to start developing the project^{[Note 3: The government’s self-assessment report states that “The time needed by Parliament to approve the Delegated Law no. 124/2015 and the related enabling decrees did not allow us to start the implementation of Actions 1 and 2 of the Action Plan focusing on participation”. Action 1 is the commitment about Partecipa!. Final review on the implementation of the Second Italian OGP Action Plan. Available at: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Italy_End-of-Term_Self-Assessment_%202014-2016_ENG.PDF]}. The delay was due to the fact that the government inherited a backlog of laws that needed a secondary legislation in order to be effective.

Did it open government?

Civic Participation: Did not change

Ensuring public participation on policy proposals and practices requires a consistent set of common guidelines, a clear methodology for engagement, and a single point of entry that avoids a proliferation of online platforms. Although the government showed willingness to develop the project in line with these principles, the lack of implementation hampered the opportunity to see these principles in practice, so the commitment did not change the status quo.

The high number of users for the consultation on the constitutional reform carried out in 2013 raised the expectations that further development of the platform would increase the number and quality of the consultation. However, the delay in approving the necessary administrative provisions to start the upgrade of the platform prevented the stakeholders to continue to have a space for participation and consultation thus jeopardizing the previous government’s effort to engage a significant number of participants.

Carried forward?

Although in a much more simplified version, this commitment has carried over to commitment 14 of the next action plan called “Strategy for Participation”. The scope of the new commitment is to develop a clear methodology for public consultations, thus avoiding the proliferation of platforms that has in the past contributed to decrease the interest and willing to engage of many stakeholders.