Barcelona January 4th 2016
Dear friends
Since June 2015 I have been the Barcelona City Councillor for
Participation and Districts, at the heart of the government for change led by
the Mayor, Ada Colau. As part of my duties I am also the Secretary-General of
the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (IOPD) and I would
like to assure we will maintain and strengthen our commitment to boosting
international cooperation in participatory democracy, transparency and
governments moving towards the joint production of public policy.
The municipal government is strongly committed to public participation,
transparency and the social inclusion of all the city's sectors. The very
people leading the new city government were a confluence of political and
public players from social movements and struggles bearing the hallmark of
association work and participatory democracy. Hence our aim to innovate in way
we govern, by involving every citizen and making use of the collective
intelligence of all the city's inhabitants. The political and social context we
find ourselves in, in the cycle of the Arab spring, the 15M anti-austerity
movement and the Occupy movements, force us to rethink the way we govern, so we
can achieve working methods with more democratic quality, by including the
voice of the people in them.
Besides the political will of our municipal government, I would like to
highlight my own personal commitment to this project, the result of my career
which has been linked to the local residents' movement, to defending our rights
and freedoms on the Internet and to implementing techno-political and
democratic practices online. Hence our aim to boost participatory democracy not
just in Barcelona but on an international level too, through the IOPD.
I shall be delighted to provide you with further information and I look
forward to meeting you in person at the various international meetings the IOPD
coordinates and takes part in, so we can share experiences and exchange points
of view on democracy in our cities.
Yours sincerely
Gala Pin
General-Secretary of the IOPD
Councillor for Participation and Districts
Barcelona City Council
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