Local Dialogue Lab

Over the past five years, public participation and consultation have gradually taken on an increasingly important role. Initially viewed as regulatory obligations or isolated initiatives, they are gradually becoming a key factor in the development of projects. This evolution has contributed to a shift in the perception of participation: from a constraint to be managed, it is increasingly seen as a means of improving projects. 

Nevertheless, our experience over the last years has shown the difficulties small municipalities face in moving from intention to action : even if they prepare for public engagement sessions, the political intent, internal planning and organisational arrangements beforehand, as well as the processing and interpretation of feedback afterwards, remain largely unanticipated, under-developed and lacking in support.

The objective of the ‘Local Dialogue Lab’ project is to provide small local authorities a formalised and tailored methodological support and practical tools enabling them to organise and ensure the success of their participatory processes, without requiring significant human or financial resources. 

The advisory service will take the form of an agile solution that can be used remotely or in person, designed for elected representatives and staff with limited availability. The guidelines could consist of a modular package : decision-making guides, videos, webinars, a toolkit with instructions and ideas for activities, etc…

The use of public design and innovative approaches (co-design with elected representatives and local officials, iterative testing, tool prototyping) will enable the creation of resources that are extremely easy to use, focused on the practical needs of small local authorities, avoiding jargon and limiting the number of steps to the necessary ones.  

The scheme will be tested with a small group of volunteer local authorities, and then refined, so as to provide the urban area with a formalised, robust and shared support framework, enabling participation to be tailored to the ambitions and resources of small municipalities, while strengthening the democratic quality and capacity for action of elected representatives.

We are looking for cities or inter-municipal bodies that are interested in designing the same types of support for their own purposes, with special interest to cities that want to lead a consortium.