People's Voice Project International Centre for …

1 CITIZEN PARTICIPATION HANDBOOKP eople's Voice ProjectInternational Centre for policy StudiesEditorsGina Gilbreath HoldarandOlha ZakharchenkoManaging Editor Agnes NatkaniecTranslationTetyana Dihtyar and Iryna PiontkivskaPublisher"iMedia" 2002 Kyiv, UkraineFunding provided by TABLE OF CONTENTSF orewordCitizen Participation in Central and Eastern Europe:A Catalyst for Reform and Monitor of Progress5 IntroductionCitizen Participation Conference and Handbook9 Section IPractical Issues for Citizen Participation13 Section IICitizen Participation Methodologies19 Citizen Advisory Groups21 City Strategic Planning291) Participatory Urban Assessment In Capital Planning312) Strategic Planning for Healthy Communities39 Coalition Building49 Community Organizing59 Participatory Budgeting and Capital Investment Planning71 Participatory (Action)

2 Research81 Public Education91 Public Hearings101 Report Cards111 Social Monitoring125 Annexes131 The Role of Citizen Participationin policy Development and Implementation133 Internet Resources on Citizen Participation139 Conference Participants144 FOREWORDCITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN CENTRALAND EASTERN EUROPE: A CATALYSTFOR REFORM AND A MONITOR OF PROGRESSTom MonastyrskiDirector, People's Voice Project , UkraineAt the core of democratic development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is the need for peo ple to believe that the politicians they elect to represent them are addressing their concerns andbest interests in improving the welfare and "quality of life" for the local community.

3 This isincreasingly important at the municipal government level where the effectiveness and efficien cy of service delivery is more acute and where the lack of accessibility of citizens and transpar ent decision making fuels corruption, inhibits good governance and decreases the likelihood forsocial and economic improvements. In the pursuit of more effective and efficient government service delivery, a number of localgovernment bodies and representatives of civil society throughout CEE are taking activeapproaches through the implementation of a number of citizen participation mechanisms.

4 Theinternational conference that took place in Yaremche, Ukraine from November 22 25, 2001under the auspices of the People's Voice Project provided an excellent opportunity for theseindividuals to share their methodologies, the problems that they encountered and, most impor tantly, the results of their work. The conference welcomed approximately 90 participants from17 different countries throughout CEE and showcased a broad spectrum of different approach es, guidelines and possible was significant about the conference itself was that it represented a wide range of citizenparticipation methodologies and it was clear that there is an increasingly important trend toinclude the input and feedback of citizens in development of policies and programs.

5 This trendmanifests itself in a number of ways: public hearings, community advisory councils, social mon itoring, report cards, participatory budgeting, etc. Some of the participants are making moreprogress than others, but there is no doubting the existence of a collective effort pushing thereform process even further and ensuring that politicians remain accountable to the citizensthey proceedings from this citizen participation conference in Yaremche, Ukraine were not onlyabout sharing experiences and strategies.

6 Rather, the participants used it as an opportunity tosee what their counterparts in other parts of CEE are capable of accomplishing and to build andexpand networks, both formally and informally, with them. The work being done in citizen par ticipation is only one example of the increasing influence civil society is having on the processof reforming local governments. Coupled with other development initiatives, there is a growingforce that pushes the reform agenda and proposes specific problems through monitoring servicedelivery and cooperating with local authorities in proposing policy alternatives.

7 The opportunity to share ideas and lessons learned in citizen participation has been an impor tant part of the People's Voice Project . It is the hope of the Project management team that the5results of this conference can be used not only in the Project pilot cities (Ternopil, IvanoFrankivsk, Kupyansk and Chuguiv), but in other parts of Ukraine and CEE. The CitizenParticipation Handbook, which is the product of this conference, will be made available not onlyto participants of the conference but to partners and municipalities throughout Ukraine.

8 It willinitially be published in Ukrainian and English, but will eventually be translated into of the handbook will be used as part of the training program associated with thePeople's Voice Project and will likely be used in the expansion of its methodology to other will also be made available on the website of the People's Voice Project ( ) and we hope that a number of practioners, academics and researchestake advantage of this resource. At this time, I would personally like to thank the organizers of the conference, specifically OlgaZakharchenko, Agnes Natkaniec and Gina Holdar, for all the hard work they did in organizing andfacilitating the conference.

9 I would also like to thank the Open Society Institute, the CanadianBureau for International Education, the World Bank and the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency (CIDA) for their financial support for this conference and other related ini tiatives under the auspices of the People's Voice PARTICIPATION CONFERENCEAND HANDBOOKThis publication contains results of the International conference "Citizen Participation in theDecision Making Process at the Local Level in Central Eastern European Countries (CEE):Concepts and Practices", which took place in Yaremche, Ivano Frankivsk region, Ukraine onNovember 22 25, 2001.

10 The conference was organized by the People's Voice Project , which focus es on building integrity and improving governance at the municipal level in Ukraine, and itslocal partners the Urban Development Institute (Ivano Frankivsk) and the Institute of UrbanDevelopment (Nova Odesa). The goal of the International conference was to increase opportunities to enhance citizen par ticipation in the decision making process at the local level in CEE countries through the learn ing and sharing of concepts and practical skills.