The Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa presents the responses to the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly in a public event

Eider Mendoza, Governance Deputy of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, today has responded to each of the nine recommendations put forward by the citizens in the Gipuzkoa Citizens’ Assembly pioneering deliberative process.

Response to the 9 recommendations

How can we guarantee agricultural activity in Gipuzkoa in order to face the climate emergency? In order to answer this question, an innovative deliberative process, the Gipuzkoa Citizens’ Assembly, was set up by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Arantzazulab and Telesforo Monzon e-lab. This innovative process, which seeks to build capabilities on deliberative democracy and involve citizens in a meaningful way in designing public policies, gives citizens a voice in the challenge proposed by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.

In the session held on 14 January, the members of the Assembly presented the 9 recommendations to the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa: transforming the primary sector into a strategic sector, promoting local products by adjusting taxes and promoting forest management through R&D, were some of the recommendations made after the profound deliberative process. (Read here the recommendations).

The deputy general of Gipuzkoa, Markel Olano, was in charge of opening the public event. Following the commitment made by the provincial council when convening the Citizens’ Assembly, the Governance deputy, Eider Mendoza, explained the Provincial Council’s responses to each of the 9 recommendations presented by the Assembly. For every recommendation the public institution detailed what are the activities that will be implemented, what budget will be allocated to it and within what timeframe it will be carried out. The aim is to guarantee the positive results of this process, the citizens empowerment and the impact on public policies.

The event was attended by the political representatives of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa (Markel Olano, Deputy General of Gipuzkoa; Eider Mendoza, Governance Deputy; Xabier Ezeizabarrena, president of the General Assembly of Gipuzkoa; Sebastián Zurutuza, Strategy Director; Mikel Pagola, Director General of Citizen Participation; Xabier Arruti, Director of Agriculture and Rural Development; Arantxa Ariztimuño, Director of Forests and Rural areas) the 32 members of the Assembly, as well as the entities promoting the process (Arantzazulab, Telesforo Monzon elab); and representatives of the various organisations involved in designing and implementing the process (Deliberativa, UPV/EHU, Aztiker, Artaziak).

To read the details of the public event and the presentations of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council representatives: Press Release of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa (link).

A year long process in collaboration with different stakeholders

The Gipuzkoa Citizens’ Assembly is the second deliberative democracy initiative promoted by Arantzazulab in the territory, at the same time the Tolosa Citizens’ Assembly has taken place. Promoted by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Arantzazulab and Telesforo Monzon eLab, with the support of Deliberativa, the initiative was launched in November 2022 based on the principles of good practice defined by the OECD. After almost a year of design work, 32 Gipuzkoa citizens were chosen through a civic lottery, following different criteria to ensure that the diversity of the territory was represented (age, gender, educational level, linguistic knowledge, place of residence and the importance they give to local products).

The 32 selected citizens participated in a 40-hour deliberative process. Between November 2022 and January 2023, the participants met for a total of 4 weekends to write recommendations to respond to the question posed by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. The members of the assembly have developed their knowledge on the rural primary sector and the climate emergency listening to presentations of various experts, as well as practitioners in these fields.

The results of the process have been very positive, noting that these deliberative processes are an effective way to conduct collaborative governance, bring citizens closer to decision-making spaces and increase citizens’ trust in public institutions. This process has been carried out thanks to the close collaboration between the stakeholders that have promoted it  (Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Arantzazulab and Telesforo Monzon elab), the professional advice (Deliberativa and OECD), the facilitators of the process (Aztiker and Artaziak), and the external evaluators (Parte Hartuz research group of UPV/EHU).

Arantzazulab’s ultimate goal with the Gipuzkoa and Tolosa Citizens’ Assemblies is to develop knowledge on deliberative democracy, generate local capabilities and create the conditions to institutionalise deliberative processes in Basque institutions; to permanently incorporate this deliberative democracy approaches to involve citizens’ in the public decisions of Basque institutions.

Evaluation of the process and results

Within the collaboration framework and agreement between UPV/EHU and Arantzazulab, the Parte Hartuz research group has carried out an evaluation of the Citizens’ Assembly, offering an external and neutral view, and assessing the process from different perspectives: the design and implementation of the process, the experiences of the citizens and the impact of the deliberative process. One of the highlights of the report states that “the process has had a positive impact on people, who after participating in it show greater confidence in politics, democracy and participatory processes”. The full report will soon be available on the project’s website.

Being involved in this process, Arantzazulab has also gathered several lessons learned, among which the following stand out:

-These processes allow us to deepen collaborative governance and democratic innovation and activate new models of relationship between public institutions and citizens.

-They have enabled spaces for deep learning, suitable for tackling large and complex challenges on specific issues.

-They have been implemented through effective collaboration between many local actors.

-They have influenced the internal transformation of public institutions.

-It positions the territory of Gipuzkoa and Arantzazulab in international networks of experts and governments working and researcrhing deliberative democracy.

The process, however, is not finished. In the coming months, the 32 citizens will monitor the implementation of the recommendations with Arantzazulab’s and Telesforo Monzon elab support. In addition, two new milestones are planned: one in autumn 2023 and one at the end of 2024. The aim is to ensure the positive results of this process, the empowerment of citizens and the impact on public policies.