INCLUSION

Diversity is richness

A participatory process can be defined as “high quality” if it reaches and welcomes anyone who has an interest in contributing to the subject in question, whether they are representatives of organized groups or individuals.

The process must be accessible in terms of the time and spaces chosen, and the language used. It must give every person the opportunity to listen, reflect and express themselves, regardless of education, culture, gender, social level, age, or health condition.

TRANSPARENCY

Everything is clear and accessible

A participatory process is transparent when it makes available to the community all the relevant information relating to the object under public choice: the context in which it is placed; the objectives, the rules, and the progressive outcomes of the process itself.

To guarantee this transparency, every actor in the process must commit to responsibly contributing information only from verifiable sources.

FAIRNESS

Parity and responsibility

A participatory process which creates optimal conditions aims at resolving inequalities and power imbalances. It gives everybody the opportunity to contribute.

It guarantees a balance between different points of view, safeguards generational and gender equal opportunities. Its founding value is fairness and looks responsibly towards people, living beings, the planet, and future generations.

COOPERATION

Together is better

A participatory process promotes collaboration among all the parties involved using a perspective of co-creation, reciprocity, and co-responsibility.

This favors the construction of social capital and a shared sense of working for the common good.

EFFECTIVENESS

Creating change

A participatory process recognizes that the exchange of people’s opinions, knowledge, and experience can increase the quality of public policies at different local levels and can generate empowerment and have a positive impact on society.

To be effective, the process must focus on issues of shared relevance and aim to achieve change.

TRUST

Cultivating relationships

A participatory process cultivates transparency and respect between people. It ensures the legitimacy of different ideas and the recognition of different roles, and thereby generates mutual trust.

To maintain this trust over time, it is fundamental that the commitments made at the end of the process are implemented and responsibility is shared.

INVOLVE

Every voice counts

A quality participatory process takes care to identify, and actively approach all the people who can enrich the discussion by bringing a different point of view, analyzing the issues, problem- solving and contributing to making decisions.

This involvement of the Community must be activated in all the phases, from programming and design to implementation, monitoring, and the evaluation of the results over time.

INFORM

To increase knowledge

In a quality participatory process, the aim must be to overcome information asymmetries and create an equal exchange of knowledge among all the subjects involved.

Following this principle, the participatory process will be accompanied by the continuous communication of emerging relevant information and of the different phases of the discussion. This information must be provided in a transparent and accessible form to all people and in all phases of the process.

FACILITATE

Expand and guarantee oppositions

One of the fundamental principles of participation is that all instances and points of view are valued. This helps to bring out different positions, favors the exchange of knowledge and promotes both listening and discussion.

In order to manage conflict and see it not as a threat but as a generator of change, competent third-party facilitators are used to guarantee the process.Their facilitation must be impartial, “equidistant” (or “equi-close”) to the different positions, and, while attentive to the needs of future generations and ecosystems, must be oriented towards immediate concrete results.

CO-CREATE

Generate what does not yet exist

A participatory process values individual talents in the search for shared choices. It designs projects bearing in mind the resources, times, and methods suited to individual needs, and in so doing transforms participation into collective intelligence.

Whoever designs the participatory process does so with care and flexibility, using methodologies that facilitate dialogue and promote creativity, both in person and remotely. The aim is to go beyond the simple addition of individual opinions, to activate an understanding of and response to common expectations which go in the direction of the common interest.

EVALUATE

Measure to improve

Evaluation is essential in the different phases of a participatory process (ex-ante, ongoing, and ex- post) in order to orient actions and assess the paths taken, the results obtained (even if different from the initial expectations), and the impacts generated.

Evaluation must be conducted using adequate methodologies, common metrics, and indicators. It should involve those who participated and those who promoted and facilitated the process. The results must be made public and be accessible so that improvement can be continuous.

ACCOUNT FOR

Justify outcomes over

A responsible participatory approach is able to account for the outcomes which have been achieved during all the phases of the process. These are responsibly, and transparently made public. The impact and the added value of the participation are evaluated.

All the parties involved in accounting for the implementation of the commitments taken over time must motivate any variations. This is important to strengthen citizens’ trust and to guarantee credibility in the co-creation process.