Participation and Monitoring of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (IT0076)

What is the problem that the commitment will address? The problem that the commitment intends to address is twofold: on the one hand, the lack of public confidence in the government bodies that plan and implement investments in public works, often subject to delays and rising costs, which risks manifesting itself in the PNRR; on the other hand, errors in the design of interventions that are not integrated with the territories, and the conflicts and disputes that often arise as a result, for strategic infrastructures for the relaunch of the country that risk being subject to major delays.

What is the commitment? The commitment aims to promote the opportunities for participation provided by national legislation for the interventions contained in the NRRP and the plan of complementary funds, to support the implementation of paths of citizen involvement aimed at improving the implementation of the measures provided. It is implemented through the promotion of knowledge on the processes of public debate on major works (Activity 1) and the creation of structured collaboration between MIMS and CSOs to improve accessibility and usability of data and interaction between PA and citizens on the platform that MIMS is preparing to give evidence to the data on the interventions managed under the NRRP (Activity 2).

How will the commitment contribute to solving the problem? The planned activities will contribute to increasing transparency and the quality and quantity of citizen participation of citizens in the design and implementation of public works provided for in the NRRP and the Supplementary Fund. With regard to transparency, the platform for monitoring the progress of works prepared by the MIMS, worth a total of approximately 63 billion euros in investment will offer an openformat data sharing space to citizens, Encouraging civic control over the progress of the works and their impact. With regard to the active participation of citizens in the actions of the NRRP, the activation of debate processes on the feasibility project are underway for public works of a certain cost and impact threshold, contributing to the improvement of their quality and capacity for integration with the territory. The planned activities aim at increasing knowledge of this opportunity for participation in order to favor a broadening of the public involved, a higher quality of the listening and consultation processes and expert management by the coordinators.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? 1. The commitment is to disseminate more information on the NRRP’s works, to improve the quality of the information disseminated and the accessibility to the public, through the open format of the data and involvement of CSOs in the definition of the monitoring indicators, and to enable the right to information (relevant to transparency) 2. The commitment, relevant to civic participation, offers the opportunity for citizens to influence decisions, through public debate at an early stage in the planning process, and improves the conditions for a favorable environment for civil society allowing for the potential involvement of all citizens in decisions affecting their territory (relevant for civic participation). 3. The commitment is to create a mechanism whereby public officials responsible for implementing the NRRP are obliged to present and publicly argue their choices, both in terms of procedures and of project designs, with particular regard to any changes made to projects after the public debate (relevant to public accountability).

Additional information Links to NRRP Links to complementary plan to the NRRP for infrastructure Link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG n 17 Partnership for the Goals)

Activities Activities Start date End date

Activity 1 Actions to implement the instrument of public debate 27 Publication and dissemination of the national list of public debate coordinators (see Article 46 of Decree 77 of 2021 converted by Law 108 of 2021) and the requirements for inclusion on the list on an IT platform. 1st September 2022 31st March 2023 Training actions addressed to central and territorial administrations and information on public debate addressed to citizens and civil society organisations Implementation of the training programme for central and territorial administrations by the CNDP on the skills of the public debate coordinator at the National School of Administration. 1st March 2022 31st March 2023 Development of tutorials to be disseminated on CNDP, ParteciPA and Participation Hub sites (see commitment 3.02) for both public administrations and citizens (action subject to funding) 1st October 2022 30th September, 2023 Communication actions and promotion of the instrument of public debate on major works Institutional communication and awareness-raising plan to be launched with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in the context of progress advertising. 1st September 2022 30th September 2023 Implementation of the communication campaign including an up-to-date mapping of ongoing public debates; information moments on DP at events or major events on the theme of citizen participation; a public meeting of the Commission on its work (following the presentation of the biennial report). 1st March 2023 31st December 2023 28

Activity 2 Engagement and collaboration actions with CSOs to improve the usability of the data made available on the MIMS monitoring platform and the way they interact with citizens. As of 31 August, for reasons related to the different attribution of competences on the monitoring of the PNRR works defined by the Government, with the exclusive assignment of this competence to the MEF, the commitment could not be maintained as originally planned. The web platform presented in the first phase of implementation, although launched, was not made public, although it was considered very positively by the CSOs. For this reason, the planned actions of the MIMS to engage and collaborate with CSOs, aimed at improving the usability of the data available on the monitoring platform and the modalities of interaction with citizens, could not be realized. In any case, the assessment at the CSOs highlighted the particular role of the associations Monithon and Libera in, respectively, making available methodologies for civic monitoring and facilitating engagement and data collection activities in local communities. In this regard, a dialogue was initiated with the MEF's contact persons, aimed at exploring with their contribution further initiatives in this area, which will be a priority subject for action when defining and implementing the future national strategy for open government. to evaluate and provide feedback on the proposals within a short and defined timeframe. Subsequently, the implementation by MIMS of the functionalities considered to be improved, able to include in the monitoring platform the civic monitoring information, in order to achieve a better impact assessment of the investments. Preparation by MIMS of web-based tools to disseminate information and data on interventions and worksites to a wide audience. 1st May 2022 31st December 2023 Promotion of the initiative to other organisations involved in monitoring activities on specific pilot interventions. - Mapping of target groups - Communication - Facilitation of monitoring activities 30th May 2022 31st December 2022 28 Organisation of public events to discuss the results obtained from the civic monitoring of the pilot projects to which representatives of the organisations that carried out the monitoring and the responsible administrations at various levels of government would be invited. 1st March 2023 30th June 2023

Action Plan Review

Commitment 3.01: Promoting opportunities for participation in the PNRR

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

Results Report

Commitment 3.01. Promoting opportunities for participation in the PNRR

The commitment saw limited completion. It sought to promote opportunities for participation and oversight of the PNRR in two-fold: promoting public debate for increasing knowledge on major works and fostering structured interaction and monitoring between the Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility (MIMS) and civil society through use of a dedicated MIMS platform for monitoring PNRR funds. However, efforts to establish a dedicated MIMS platform were halted due to an overlap of responsibilities between the MIMS and the MEF, which is formally in charge of setting up the ReGiS system to monitor implementation of the PNRR. [106] Similarly, activities to promote public debate were affected by an amendment in the legislative framework (DL 133/2023) that regulates the role of the National Debate Commission. [107] Within this updated landscape, activities focused on awareness raising actions such as training courses in cooperation with the National School of Administration and workshops, webinars, and short promotional videos on public debate. [108] In December 2023, cross-fertilization with Commitment 3.02 and the Participation Hub led to the launch of a dedicated working space on participation towards improved quality of public works. [109] Beyond the action plan period, the working space is expected to continue as a forum to disseminate tools to promote public debates. [110]