Support to Participation (IT0060)

• Public participation in policy (August 1, 2020)

Background and objectives

Public consultation activities addressed to citizens in general or to specific categories, can cover the different phases of public policy-making from drafting to implementation and assessment.
Consultations help public decision-makers to make better decisions. In particular, they are important to:
- open decision-making processes to the relevant stakeholders, taking into account the opinion of all potential beneficiaries of public policies or measures;
- regain citizens’ trust towards institutions and decision-making processes;
- meet the demand from citizens who want greater individual commitment and the possibility to take action;
- address the intrinsic limits of traditional decision-making processes that can generate conflicts at local level due to the inability to involve the different actors and the local communities;
- share with citizens public policies’ objectives and tools.
The biggest obstacle to participation lies in the fact that consultation activities are carried out by Italian central and local public administrations sporadically, autonomously and with different quality levels.

Commitments
Activities to support participation are aimed at promoting the use of quality public consultations among Italian public administrations.
A first step in this direction will be dedicated to citizens thanks to the establishment of a dedicated portal which will become the point of access to consultations organized by public administrations. Citizens wishing to participate in consultations will have a single place to visit and receive alerts. The portal would help support, through specific editorial staff, the dissemination of consultation initiatives and the compliance with consultation quality standards by public administrations. To this end, practical guidelines inspired by the best international practices will be produced.
Special attention will be given to administrations by offering open-source consultation, setting up a dedicated help desk and providing specific training to public employees.

Another step at regional level will be developing the macro objective “participation”, meaning the transition from mere transparency to active citizen participation at local level. Citizens will be able to access data and information through dedicated digital platforms. This will concretely help promote the dissemination of information to form an opinion or a point of view that can be discussed, thus starting a virtuous circle of exchange and shared decision-making.

Lead Administrations
Department for Public Administration (PCM – DFP) – Stefano Pizzicannella Department for Institutional Reforms (PCM – DRI) – Silvia Paparo

Other administrations involved
• Ministry of Health
• Regions and Autonomous Provinces
• City of Milan, City of Rome

Monitoring contact person from the Open Government Forum
Mappi-na – Ilaria Vitellio

4. Support for participation

4. Support of stakeholders

Completion: Substantial

Aim of the commitment

This commitment aimed to support public participation in policy making by promoting the use of public consultations across Italian public administrations, both at the national and the local level. National-level initiatives included drafting an Operational Handbook for Public Consultations, establishing a portal for accessing all public consultations by public administrations at all levels, and creating an open-source public consultation platform (to be available to public administrations at all levels). These initiatives sought to redress the existing fragmentation in the public participation landscape and contribute to institutionalizing public consultations. [58] The commitment also promoted the establishment of public consultation platforms at regional and municipal levels. 

The commitment is structured around five different sets of milestones, led by: the Department of Public Function (PCM-DFP) and the Department of Institutional Relations (PCM-DRI) for 4.1–4.4; the Ministry of Health for 4.5; the Regions and Autonomous Provinces for 4.6–4.7; the City of Milan for 4.8–4.12; and the City of Rome for 4.13–4.15. [59]

Did it open government?

Major

PCM-DFP, PCM-DRI, Ministry of Health

Three out of the four national initiatives under the first cluster of milestones in this commitment were completed. Both the portal for accessing government-sponsored public consultations, Consultazione.gov.it, [60] and the open-source public consultation platform, Partecipa.gov.it, [61] were launched in December 2019 (4.2 and 4.4). As of December 2021, the Consultazione.gov portal lists 129 public consultations. [62] Users can find consultation processes by filtering by consultation theme, type, modality, and status. [63] The open source platform, Partecipa.gov, has hosted 16 public consultations, each with an average of roughly 350 participants and 142 followers. [64] In July 2020, the open source software catalogue on Developers Italia published the software code for the platform, [65] making it available and free to all public administrations and other entities. [66]

The Partecipa.gov platform has also been used by the Ministry of Health to collect and publish best practices for sustainable development initiatives that impact health (4.5); and the DFP and DRI to conduct a public consultation on the Operational Handbook (4.1) between December 2019 and March 2020. [67] The Ministry of Health’s consultation targeted both public administrations and the general public via four separate questionnaires (two per category). Seventy-nine responses were received from public administration representatives, and 168 from the general public. [68] The information collected is expected to feed into the development of a best-practices exchange platform (“Sustainability in Health”). The platform is not yet available.

Ninety-three comments were received during the public consultation for the Operational Handbook (4.1). [69] According to the consultation report, most of these comments were either fully incorporated in the draft (49.4%) or partially incorporated (18.07%). [70] A comparison between the previous guidelines [71] and the current draft of the handbook [72] confirms that the handbook is a step forward, as it provides practical advice for implementing public consultations. The handbook includes a detailed checklist for implementing public consultations and is based on international best practices, ^[73] including the need for inclusive, accessible, and transparent processes. [74] However, despite the consultation’s end in March 2020, the handbook’s publication has been delayed due to several constraints including internal staff turnover and the COVID-19 pandemic. [75]

Overall, the current implementation of the milestones under the responsibility of PCM-DRI (4.1–4.4) represents a major change in government practice regarding civic participation. The Partecipa.gov and Consultazione.gov websites are novel; representatives from both the government and civil society confirmed that these initiatives have strengthened civic participation in Italy. [76] Public administrations are now better equipped to implement digital civic participation processes, and the creation of the websites as single access points for consultations redress the previously fragmented participation landscape in Italy. [77] A DRI representative further explained that, although Partecipa.gov is mainly used by central public administrations, there is increasing use by local administrations. [78] Public consultations have been held on important topics of high public interest such as transparency and anticorruption, [79] remote working arrangements, [80] and ways to simplify public administration working methods and services. [81]

Furthermore, each completed consultation is accompanied by a report that analyzes the quantity and quality of the comments received. The reports indicate whether and how the public’s suggestions have been taken up by the responsible public administration, [82] thus evidencing tangible results of the consultations. This is a step forward as previous consultations were not always accompanied by result reports. [83]

Regions and Autonomous Provinces

The region of Emilia Romagna completed milestones to establish and promote a participation platform (4.6 and 4.7). The initiatives undertaken by the City of Milan (4.8–4.12) and the City of Rome (4.13–4.15), explained below, also are good examples of local entities improving their engagement with citizens in decision-making. [84]

City of Milan

The cluster of milestones under the responsibility of the City of Milan (4.8–4.12) sought to develop and implement an open-source participation platform and a consultation platform for online contributions to the Government Territorial Plan of Milan (4.8–4.11). It also aimed to restructure the registers of associations and active citizenship into a single digital tool for registration and access to information on existing local organizations (4.12). [85] Both initiatives were fully implemented. The City of Milan launched the platform Milano Partecipa [86] in late 2020. It is currently the official institutional tool for civic participation and therefore gives binding requirements for administrations. [87] It differs from the preexisting civic engagement platform, partecipaMI, [88] which is managed by the CSO Fondazione RCM (Rete Civica di Milano) and is more of a forum for exchanging opinions among the general public. [89] The software is also different [90] and there are no plans to join the two platforms. The creation and launch of Milano Partecipa is a major change toward opening this local government.

The 2019 creation of a platform for online contributions to the Government Territorial Plan of Milan [91] is a novel way to approach public consultations for this kind of strategic plan. [92] The consultation was accessible by both users registered with the Milan municipality portal as well as any citizen with a digital identification on SPID (Italy’s public digital identity system). [93] Citizens could also provide comments via email or on paper by visiting a relevant municipal office. [94]

The reorganization of association and active citizenship registers (4.12) was launched in December 2019. [95] It is a step forward in access to information as the register used to be only available in PDF format, and organizations wishing to register had to do so through a separate online form. [96]

City of Rome

The milestones under the responsibility of the City of Rome (4.13–4.15) aimed to draft regulations for the new participation tools discussed in the Statute of the City of Rome (4.13), the systematization of these tools (4.14), and pilot e-voting using blockchain technology (4.15). This latter initiative was not implemented due to the excessive administrative costs. [97] Although these milestones are part of a broader existing city strategy that goes beyond the OGP framework, [98] the IRM acknowledges the steps taken by the city. As indicated by a city representative, [99] the Statute of the City of Rome was amended [100] in October 2020 and January 2021 to expand existing provisions for civic participation. These amendments will lead to changing the institutional web portal for civic participation with a view to providing adequate platforms for digital civic engagement. [101] The institutional portal for civic participation was further updated in June 2021 to include additional information on ongoing participation processes. [102]

For the national and local governments, the IRM notes that the lack of outreach and awareness raising about the new participation tools might mean that consultation participants thus far are a small segment of the population and not fully representative. This can lead to a significant bias in the input received. To avoid this risk, and to build upon results so far, the fifth action plan could commit to train public administrations. Trainings could include information on the national platforms and communication strategies to raise awareness among public administrations and citizens to foster civic participation. [103]