End of Commitment Report – Improvement of the decide Madrid platform

Name of Evaluator

Álex González Ruiz and Anabel Suso Araico

Email

madrid-spain@opengovpartnership.org

Member Name

Madrid, Spain

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – Madrid, Spain, 2022 – 2023

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Improvement of the Decide Madrid platform, in order to encourage citizen involvement in decision-making on city matters

Action

Improve the Decide Madrid platform, encouraging citizen involvement in decision-making on city matters from the following perspectives:

• Bringing participation closer to citizens as a whole, and developing new functionalities that facilitate and improve the usability of the portal.
• Innovate through the application of artificial intelligence technologies that enable the classification and processing of content created by citizens and ensure an adequate response to the different contributions received.
• Collaborate with different actors (public, private, non-profit, and individuals) in the development of new ideas to meet social needs through social innovation methodologies.
• Generate alliances with other public administrations and universities and promote the exchange of experiences and good practices in the field of citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More.

Problem

The Decide Madrid website is a tool to facilitate and encourage the direct and individual participation of citizens in city affairs. Neighbors can put forward proposals, create discussion threads, evaluate, comment on, and support different proposals, and take part in participatory processes. It is considered necessary to work on several lines of action in order to resolve the following aspects:

• Bringing the website closer and making it more attractive, providing more immediate attention to citizens, at any time and from any place.
• To deal with the enormous volume of information and contributions that Decide Madrid contains, which are not always responded to promptly and systematically, to the frustration of the public. Decide Madrid contains more than 232,000 comments, 30,000 proposals, and 5800 debates.
• To face in a collaborative way the new challenges and social problems of the city that have become evident after the pandemic caused by COVID-19.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

Complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

• The web interface has been redesigned and functionalities have been developed to improve its usability and accessibility, as shown by the extension of its virtual assistant (chatbot) to all sections of the website. Machine Learning systems have also been installed to classify the participation information contained in the portal.
• In relation to the above, both usability tests with users and a web satisfaction survey have been carried out in order to evaluate the latest improvements.
• Creation of THIVIC, Decide Madrid’s new social innovation laboratory. This has involved the carrying out of two pilot projects to define public problems that can be tackled by the City Council, through the formation of a co-creation group made up of representatives from the institution and civil society.
• The Community of practices called The Participatory Group has continued to be promoted through meetings, various dissemination actions, and improvements to the website.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Decide Madrid
• App Madrid Móvil
• Monitoring Report on the Third Open Government Plan of the Madrid City Council (December 2022)
• Final Follow-Up Report On The Third Open Government Plan Of The Madrid City Council

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted the implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

In the case of the improvements to the “Decide Madrid” website, it is worth highlighting its design based on various requests from users of the portal itself, helped by the carrying out of surveys and user tests for the evaluation and development of the improvements.
An adequate and coherent scheduling of the various milestones of the actions has also contributed to their implementation. Particularly in the case of THIVIC, the scheduling of the various working sessions was scrupulously complied with. This, in turn, made possible another of the key factors in the implementation of this action: the experts’ participation and interest groups in the matters dealt with, which was essential to obtain the expected results.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

All actions were fulfilled in time and content, and actions were even carried out beyond what was foreseen in the III Open Government Plan. Specifically, we refer to the deployment of 7 to 8 awareness-raising campaigns between June 2022 and April 2023 on the relevanceAccording to the OGP Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should include a clear open government lens. Specifically, they should advance at least one of the OGP values: transparency, citizen partic... of citizen participation and dissemination campaigns to publicise the various participation programmes underway.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Third Open Government Plan Madrid City Council (2022-2023)
• Final Follow-Up Report On The Third Open Government Plan Of The Madrid City Council
• Decide Madrid
• App Madrid Móvil

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

On the one hand, the redesign of the “Decide Madrid” website has made it easier for citizens to follow the participatory processes, as well as simpler, more intuitive and accessible navigation. This is also the result of the implementation of a virtual assistant (chatbot) to answer users’ questions about the budget participation processes and the basic use of the portal. Machine Learning systems have also been installed to classify the participation information contained in the portal and thus facilitate navigation for citizens and monitoring by government departments. Nor should we forget the integration of the platform in the City Council’s App, opening up the possibilities and ways of participation to the population.
On the other hand, the creation of THIVIC represents a double improvement in terms of information. First, because the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... of the two pilots carried out has allowed the City Council and the other participating stakeholders to obtain valuable information for the definition and classification of various public problems. Secondly, because this work with civil stakeholders makes new channels and methods viable through which the City Council can disseminate the information obtained (either among the participating stakeholders themselves, or through forms of communication more suited to the receptiveness of the population, etc.).
Finally, improvements to the website of “The Participatory Group” and the addition of informative content about its activity are essential to give continuity to the momentum undertaken by this community.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Decide Madrid
• App Madrid Móvil
• Monitoring Report on the Third Open Government Plan of the Madrid City Council (December 2022)
• Final Follow-Up Report On The Third Open Government Plan Of The Madrid City Council

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

THIVIC and the use of Machine Learning systems in the Decide Madrid portal stand out as innovative ways to gather the opinions of citizens while improving the pre-existing ones (the portal’s website). The first action is based on a participatory process by expert and interest agents that allows information on public problems to be gathered in-depth, in turn enabling new means and ways to disseminate it. In addition, for the experience evaluation, participants completed an anonymous questionnaire.
The second action allows city council professionals to tap into a large amount of information from Decide Madrid in a more systematic and efficient way, facilitating its classification and providing these professionals with more rigorous objective information for public decision-making.
In addition, evaluations have been carried out to assess the results achieved so far in the development of the various commitment actions. For instance, between May and March 2023, a user survey was carried out to gather their opinion on Decide Madrid and the specific digital participationMany governments are creating online mechanisms for citizens to petition, call for action, and participate in making decisions on issues they care about.  Technical specifications: Refers to public p... More sections of its website. In the case of Machine Learning systems utilization, a pilot test was carried out with 9 areas of government and the general coordination of the mayor’s office to check how they work.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Decide Madrid
• App Madrid Móvil
• Monitoring Report on the Third Open Government Plan of the Madrid City Council (December 2022)
• Final Follow-Up Report On The Third Open Government Plan Of The Madrid City Council

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Among the actions carried out is the development of a platform for internal use (DecideML) that uses Machine Learning systems that allow to tap into the enormous amount of information on Decide Madrid, its classification, and referral to the different areas of government with competencies in the issues or proposals that have been raised by citizens with the ultimate goal of being able to respond regularly/periodically to a certain number of the most supported proposals. In this way, civil servants are held accountable, as once they post the precise information on the most supported actions on this platform, this information is published on the Decide Madrid Open Government website for the citizens general knowledge. This allows citizens to obtain answers and information on the activities that are carried out and to see what the decisions that are taken are based on.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Monitoring Report on the Third Open Government Plan of the Madrid City Council (December 2022)
• Final Follow-Up Report On The Third Open Government Plan Of The Madrid City Council

2.1.4 Other Results

Not Applicable

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The main objective of the action was to improve the Decide Madrid platform in order to promote “the citizen’s involvement in decision-making on city issues” (Final Report, p. 34). Based on the considerable increase in user registrations, and participation in the processes, proposals, and debates on the “Decide Madrid” website – which can be found on pages 39 and 40 of the final report – it appears that the improvements have had a considerable positive impact.
On their behalf, THIVIC has managed to involve different stakeholders in the definition of public problems and their solutions, something usually reserved for those in government.
In view of the above, it can be concluded that the objective of the commitment has been fulfilled.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Final Follow-Up Report On The Third Open Government Plan Of The Madrid City Council

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

The user survey conducted in May 2023 on the improvements to the “Decide Madrid” website shows that there are still some elements that need to be improved. With an average score of 6.63/10, these results, together with the large increase in user activity on the website, give a generally positive assessment. However, there are points on which further progress should be made, such as the usefulness of the debates section, with an average score below 6.
The evaluation carried out on THIVIC shows even better results. Among the results of the questionnaire filled in by the participants, it is worth highlighting the consideration of the value that this type of experience contributes to the City Council (9.6) and the consideration that this type of experience can help to define valuable solutions in other areas of the institution (9.4).
Likewise, the first THIVIC pilot allowed for the identification and prioritization of specific public problems from which one was chosen for the second pilot and which, nevertheless, may have continuity with a view to future projects in this area. As for the second pilot, it ended with a series of proposals for public intervention in response to the problem being worked on, the application of which should be explored in the decision-making bodies of the City Council, thus making the participation of the various agents involved in the project a reality.
Finally, as those responsible for the commitment say: “The development and management of the activities developed in THIVIC should necessarily involve different areas and municipal services and it would be necessary to coordinate closely with agents outside the City Council to strengthen the community, integrate other initiatives and spaces and disseminate the initiatives in order to reach the target group in the best possible way”. Also “the constitution of a driving group to promote and monitor the implementation of the solution, as well as a continuous evaluation” was also pointed out.