Participatory Democracy

Catalysing civic leadership for citizen participation in local governance

Overview

The Participatory Local Governance team works to promote citizen participation in local governance and civic matters as an essential aspect of a functioning democracy.

Civic leadership is an imperative to nurture and sustain citizen participation in neighborhoods on local civic matters. For civic leadership to emerge, we believe the necessary elements are access to civic data and information, platforms for participation, and the technology, tools and handbooks to guide citizens.

Objectives

Improve transparency & accountability of government.

Improve the quality and accessibility of public infrastructure & services.

Deepen citizenship - the relationship between an individual and the state.

Civic Leadership in Wards

By catalysing Ward Sabha (Ward Committee) platforms and running participatory budgeting campaigns at the ward and neighbourhood level for citizens, civic officials and elected representatives to engage in civic matters we aim to promote civic leadership.

The 74th constitutional amendment and the subsequent model community participation law has mandated Ward Committees in wards in urban areas. They are ward level platforms of resident citizens to participate in the local ward development matters.

The functions of this committee range from planning, budgeting, and monitoring of civic works to identifying beneficiaries and catalysing local volunteering.

Civic Technology Platforms

Another strand in our work towards civic leadership is to provide civic technology platforms and tools to scale the access of civic data & insights, and local ward information to the maximum number of citizens and communities.

This can help effectively create a multi way dialogue between citizens, civic officials and elected representatives.

Our I Change My City technology platform and its products, and our OpenWorks platform on public amenities, infrastructure scores & indices, and city budgets are available for citizens and communities to leverage for strengthening their Ward Sabha interactions.

Partnerships and Coalitions

We promote civic leadership by fostering partnerships and coalitions to scale Ward Sabha platforms, and technology tools and civic data, to all cities and towns.

Local city partnerships with community groups, volunteer groups and civil society institutions are catalysed to run participatory budgeting campaigns and stay engaged in the full life cycle of the implementation of budgeted civic projects through the Ward Sabhas.

We utilise our CityPolitics platform in taking the first steps for nurturing city and region based networks and partnerships to work on local civic matters.