Ettadhamen’s Participatory Budgeting Citizen Forums
In the context of the Participatory Budgeting process, the municipality of Ettadhamen organized 4 citizen forums through which the citizens participated in proposing project ideas of basic infrastructure, voting for the priority projects of their neighborhoods, and electing citizens delegates whose mission is to monitor the implementation of the final list of projects.
The 4 citizen forums covered the whole municipal zone of Ettadhamen, and had been organized between the 11th and 26th of June 2016, respectively in the following neighborhoods : Echabi, Monji Slim, Khaireddine, 2 mars, 18 janvier, 14 janvier, 9 avril, Ettadhamen et Ibn Khaldoun. A communication campaign preceded the organization of the citizen forums to inform and invite the citizens to take part in the public meetings. Different kind of communication tools had been used during this campaign such as : Flyers, Posters, Banners, car loud-speaker service, radio broadcasts …
In this first year / edition of the Participatory Budgeting, 357 citizens participated to present their project ideas related to roads, and to select the priority projects. The result of the organizations of the 4 citizens forums was a list of 99 project ideas of basic infrastructure. Besides, the citizens elected 12 citizen delegates in order to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the final list of projects.
Citizen Participation Rate
The citizen forums were organized by the municipality of Ettadhamen in collaboration with the local civil society organizations, which provided volunteer members to play the role of “local facilitators” of the Participatory Budgeting. These facilitators ensured, in partnership with the municipality : the implementation of the communication plan to inform and invite the citizen to participate in the citizen forums; the preparation and the organization of the citizen forums; and the support of the citizen delegates in their monitoring and evaluation mission.
Training of local facilitators on the Participatory Budgeting in Ettadhamen
On the 5th of June 2016, the Associative Action organized a training session for the members of local CSOs in Ettadhamen to become local facilitators of Participatory Budgeting.
The role of the local facilitators is to collaborate with the members of the local authorities to successfully implement the awareness and communication campaign aimed to invite the citizens to participate in the citizen forums of the PB, as well as to organize the citizen forums (moderating the debate between municipal officers and citizens, facilitation of the citizens work groups, organization of the voting and election process related to the citizen projects ideas and citizen delegates).
Communication campaign of the Participatory Budgeting in Ettadhamen
During the months of July and August 2016, the Associative Action supported the local facilitators and members of local CSOs in Ettadhamen to implement the communication and awareness campaign, related to the invitation of the citizens to participate in the citizen forums of the Participatory Budgeting process.
Diverse communication tools were used in this campaign, such as : flyers (mailing, direct dialogue, door to door), posters, banners, mobile booths, radio ads, loud speaker car service, social media, press release and digital animation.
Communication training session in Ettadhamen
In order to implement the communication campaign properly, the Associative Action organized a 2 days training session related to the awareness and communication campaign, for the members of the municipality of Ettadhamen, as well as the members of local CSOs, between the 10th and 17th of May 2016.
During the training, the Associative Action trained the participants on the best practices to use with citizens, and proposed a design model for the communication tools. This model was the subject of debate and consultation between the members of the municipality and those of the local CSOs.
By the end of the training, a communication plan was developed identifying the quantity of communication tools that will be provided by Associative Action, the distribution of roles between the members of the municipality and the local CSOs for the execution of the awareness and communication campaign, as well as the dates and the deadline for each activity of the campaign.
