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WHO WE ARE? |
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The International Observatory of Participatory Democracy is a space open to all of the world's cities, entities, organisations and research centres that want to learn about, exchange or apply experiences relating to participatory democracy on a local level to strengthen democracy in city government, to promote the integration of all of the citizens in the local government, to apply local policies for sustainable development and social cohesion and to learn about innovative practices of active citizenship participation in urban planning and management.
So that it was created a Bank of Experiences where the innovating experiences in the field of the participatory democracy carried out by the members are gathered. An International Conference is held annually to advance in the international debate on participation in local democracies and facilitate knowledge about the projects of the different cities. Also the OIDP's web provides information about the local activities schedule, news, links of interest, studies about participatory democracy and grants and awards for local governments.
The initiative of the OIDP was presented and approved at the gathering of the URB-AL Network 3,
held in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) in 2001, and at the International Conference of Saint Denis (France).
The OIDP was officially setting up on November 2001 in the 1st OIDP Conference, held in Barcelona from 21st to 24th November 2001, at which its Laws of operation were approved.
The Observatory works in co-ordination with the new world organisation of cities UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) and other cities' networks.
From the results of the work made by the OIDP a new project had been promoted: Local Observatories of Participatory Democracy. The aim of this project is to setting up local observatories in 9 cities of Europe and Latin America to know and to evaluate the quality of the development of the participatory democracy forms to be able to orientate the experiences carried out. This project is framed within the URB-AL program of the European Commission which the OIDP also takes part.
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