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• Final Declaration
• El Barri és Nostre. Vic. Spain. Special mention for videos related to participation experiences
• Inaugural video
• OIDP 4th Distinction: experiences summary
• OIDP 4th Distinction: Pla Comunitari de Millora Barrial de la Ciutat de Mèxic

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The 9th OIDP International Conference took place on 18th, 19th and 20th November in the Italian town of Reggio Emilia, under the title “Youth, Citizenship and Participatory Democracy”.

The inaugural ceremony was presided over by the Mayor of the town, Graziano Delrio, holding the Presidency of the network in 2009, and by Ramon Nicolau, Commissioner for Citizens’ Participation of the Barcelona City Council, as the maximum representative of the Technical Secretariat. The Conference also counted on a forum of diverse participants, consisting of elected representatives, academic experts from different specialities, technical personnel, as well as young people from different towns and cities in the international network and numerous citizens.

The Conference was attended by 300 people from all over the world, from a total of 36 towns and cities in 12 different countries: Italy, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, the Lebanon, Argentina, Brazil, France, Portugal, the United States and Spain, and from 23 Italian towns and cities, which also attended in order to exchange opinions and discuss and debate the subject of the participatory paths described by the new generations: from school to the spaces promoted by the institutions to encourage youth participation and the new social spaces that are being generated through the use of new technologies, as well as images and participation in public spaces, both formal and informal.

Special mention must be made of the participation of around a hundred young people from different network towns and cities: Reggio Emilia (Italy), Aubagne and Nanterre (France), Río das Ostras (Brazil) and San Fernando de Henares and Barcelona (Spain). The production of a video with interviews made specifically for the occasions, based on investigation and with questions drawn up by young people from the host town, also made it possible to include the voices of young people from the towns and cities of Porto Alegre (Brazil), Rosario (Argentina) and Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona).

Within the framework of the inaugural ceremony, as has often been the case in previous conferences, the decision of the International Jury regarding the 4th Distinction was made public and was awarded to the experience: Mexico City “Community Neighbourhood Improvement Program”, along with three special mentions for the experiences presented by the town of Alcobendas (Spain), the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and the town of Ambalavao (Madagascar).

Finally, on Friday 20th November, the Work Groups presented their conclusions and the “Special mention for videos related to participation experiences” was awarded to the town of Vic for their fictional film, “El barri es nostre” (The Neighbourhood is Ours) .

In the Closing Ceremony, held in the afternoon, the town of Reggio Emilia publically handed over the New Presidency of the Network, to Mexico City DF, where the 10th Conference is to be held in November of the coming year, the central theme of which will be: “Global Crisis, Participatory Democracy and Local Alternatives”.

As a result of the work done during these days the host town, counting on the approval of the members of the OIDP Coordinating Committee, as has become the tradition in the network, presented the Final Declaration. This document takes special pains to thank the young people for their participation in the Conference, acknowledging their active role in the present (and not just in the future), as active subjects in the participation process. Their participation is also praised as an improvement element in the efficiency and effectiveness of general interest public policies, underlining the importance of taking into account the acknowledgement of new contexts (social, cultural, territorial and technological) in which there is youth participation and their specific languages, also underling the role of the school, and other informal training spaces, as spaces of cultural production (and not transmission) that respect the knowledge of young people.

At the present time we are working on the systemisation of the contents of the Conference so that we can offer you the results as soon as possible.