Citizen participation in Rome

Cecilia Colasanti

19 Apr 2018, 3:30 p.m.
Auditorium 1

The Municipality of Rome is introducing Civic Technologies and new working methods to implement public policies by involving citizens in deciding about public questions.

In accordance with the inclusive administration policies, the new citizen-centred Roma Capitale portal was conceived, on the model of a ‘digital house’ for every citizen. Two public consultations were arranged to get feedback, comments, suggestions to improve this digital house.

A new area, “Partecipa” has been designed to involve citizens in taking decisions for the city. The project began with the Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility and with the Social Plan for a specific area of Rome, by allowing citizens to propose and vote their ideas. The second step is to turn them into administrative actions.

Some tools are also available to stimulate the use of forums or surveys, with the ultimate goal to create a platform where citizens interact directly with the administration and where they can even decide on some subjects.

Technology is not a solution by itself but can be a great tool for implementing new and innovating ways of doing democracy where technology is the means not the end. In line with the transparency and openness values of their current administration, a permanent Innovation Forum was launched to involve citizens or associations on four working tables: Smart Cities, 5G, digital skills, and digital agenda — with the aim of imagining together ways in which Rome can become more digital, also taking into consideration the uniqueness of the city.

Roma Capitale expects not only to boost innovation policies at local level but also to improve the civic approach to the city: they were surprised by the number of people that joined the event and by the level of engagement in the initiative.

Watch the Q&A for this session here.

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Slides

Citizen participation in Rome (Cecilia Colasanti - Roma Capitale) from mysociety