On 1-2 December 2023, representatives of public authorities, civil society, and practitioners of local governance from Cyprus were introduced to Council of Europe standards and tools on civil participation at the Academy on Participatory Democracy. The Academy was organised jointly with the EU co-funded Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for the Rule of Law and European Values at the School of Law of the University of Central Lancashire in Cyprus, and facilitated by Council of Europe experts and the team of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law, Alternative and Innovative Methods.
In the course of the event, participants learned about the Council of Europe Civil Participation in Decision-Making Toolkit and the CivicLab methodology, which support public authorities to map stakeholders in their community, establish dialogue platforms on relevant political issues and effectively engage citizens in the political decision making. The participants also learnt about the Council of Europe U-CHANGE game, an innovative tool which raises awareness and knowledge about the different participatory mechanisms available in a community and supports public authorities, civil society and citizens at large to choose the most appropriate mechanism to address an issue in their community. Furthermore, the participants developed their understanding of deliberative democracy through an introduction to the Citizens’ Assembly format and how to organise it.
The participants had the opportunity to apply what they learnt through practical exercises such as community assessments, stakeholder identification, evaluation, and the formulation of participation strategies. The highly interactive sessions also enabled them to exchange ideas regarding civil participation, strategic priorities and good practice examples from different countries, thus strengthening the interaction between public authorities and civil society in Cyprus.
Finally, the training concluded with a Focus Group discussion, during which the participants formulated follow-up actions to implement these tools in their communities and to achieve efficient engagement of citizens in political decision making in Cyprus.
