Improve Public Consultation Mechanisms (FR0044)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: France Action Plan 2018-2020
Action Plan Cycle: 2018
Status: Active
Institutions
Lead Institution: Minister of State for the Digital Sector, attached to the Prime Minister
Support Institution(s): Ministry of Public Action and Accounts, Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation
Policy Areas
E-Government, Open Regulations, Public Participation, Science & TechnologyIRM Review
IRM Report: France Design Report 2018-2020
Starred: Pending IRM Review
Early Results: Pending IRM Review
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Civic Participation , Technology
Implementation i
Completion: Pending IRM Review
Description
Provide the administrations with the tools to associate citizens to public decision-making
Lead institution(s):
Minister of State for the Digital Sector, attached to the Prime Minister
Other stakeholders:
Ministry of Public Action and Accounts, Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation
Commitment building on: commitment no. 13 “leverage previous consultations & reform participatory mechanisms” and no. 22 “spread public innovation, and develop research on open government” of the NAP for 2015-2017
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Civic participation, Innovation and technology for openness
Challenges
Numerous consultations have been organized in recent years by administrations on important public decisions, major reforms and draft laws: online consultation on the digital in schools (50,000 contributions) and in academies (150 events); online consultation on the draft law for a digital republic (20,000 participants, 8,000 contributions, 150,000 votes) etc. New consultative approaches have been launched: such as Action Publique 2022 (Public Action Programme 2022), Assises de la mobilité (the Mobility encounters), Assises de l'alimentation (the Alimentation encounters), etc.
Among the many forms of participatory approaches (citizen workshop, forum, hackathon, public meeting, etc.), open consultations on the Internet are becoming increasingly important. Such consultations are one of the instruments of public consultation. A consultation can be more or less broad but the tools used on the Internet often allow everyone to participate. This consultation can take several forms: public inquiry by means of a register and an inquiry report, consultation procedures, formal consultation of voters, public meetings or consultations on the Internet, these different participation tools can be combined.
As indicated by the COEPIA in its November 2016 report on open internet consultations organized by administrations, these have 3 functions:
Informative: to enrich the expertise of public decision-makers, but also to better understand the obstacles and points of discord;
Democratic: to allow everyone to participate in these debates and in the elaboration of the public decision. Consultation is a direct relationship between public authorities and citizens;
Process-oriented: to inform the public on an issue and to foster consensus.
However, the report also stresses that these consultations are only useful if they are organized according to certain "basic" rules and that they require a strong involvement of the organizers. Articles L. 131-1 and L. 132-1 of the code of relations between the public and the administration (CRPA) set the following principles: ensuring a certain publicity to the consultation, making public the modalities of the procedure, ensuring the information of the participants, conducting it during at least 15 days and carrying out a synthesis of the observations at the end, which is made public, in order to eventually announce the considered follow-up.
As these practices spread, administrations may be confronted with constraints in terms of timetable and budget, and legitimately question the tools to be used and the good practices to be implemented. Experience sharing and support thus prove to be useful in increasing the impact of these consultations, ensuring their loyalty and transparency, and effectively mobilizing contributors.
Ambitions
Propose resources, tools and methods to facilitate the use of open online consultations and involve users and citizens in public decision-making.
Since 2016, Etalab has brought together civic tech actors, consultation experts and administrations to establish a common set of principles and practices around online public consultations. A platform - currently in beta version on http://www.consultation.etalab.gouv.fr - has thus been developed in a co-construction approach with the ecosystem in order to:
Reference tools that can be used by administrations and provide a number of facilities and guarantees to public actors, particularly in terms of transparency, dialogue between citizens and administrations, and management of personal data;
Share good practices in open online consultation in government, based on respect for the public and the public interest8.
Etalab is committed to continue the development of this platform in conjunction with administrations mastering consultation or that are collaborating civic tech ecosystem stakeholders and solution providers, the research and expert community and civil society.
Etalab is also committed to continuing to develop and test new formats for contributing workshops, forums, hackathons and other innovative formats, and to document them in order to share this experience and know-how with all public stakeholders.
The road map in detail
Improve and enrich the platform
consultation.etalab.gouv.fr (offer of tools, good practices) in order to cover a plurality of needs and enable administrations to be more and more autonomous in the organisation of consultations S1 2018
Develop a single platform for online public consultations S2 2019
Continue organizing open events (hackathon, datacamp, barcamp, forum, open ministry...) with administrations and ecosystem stakeholders document these events and share feedback with all public stakeholders S1 et S2 2018
In addition to these cross-cutting actions, the following ministries have made specific commitments:
THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC ACTION AND ACCOUNTS UNDERTAKES TO
Support the major public transformation and reform projects in their citizen participation initiatives.
THE MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION UNDERTAKES TO
Set up a crowdsourcing service that will allow the identification and improve the visibility of innovative initiatives that have positive results within the institutions where they are implemented in order to encourage local initiatives and develop direct contacts between field actors (use of the OGPToolbox developed by Etalab, 2018).
IRM Midterm Status Summary
15. Provide the administrations with the tools to associate citizens to public decision-making
Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:
Propose resources, tools and methods to facilitate the use of open online consultations and involve users and citizens in public decision-making.
Since 2016, Etalab has brought together civic tech actors, consultation experts and administrations to establish a common set of principles and practices around online public consultations. A platform - currently in beta version on http://www.consultation.etalab.gouv.fr - has thus been developed in a co-construction approach with the ecosystem in order to:
- Reference tools that can be used by administrations and provide a number of facilities and guarantees to public actors, particularly in terms of transparency, dialogue between citizens and administrations, and management of personal data;
- Share good practices in open online consultation in government, based on respect for the public and the public interest.
Etalab is committed to continue the development of this platform in conjunction with administrations mastering consultation or that are collaborating civic tech ecosystem stakeholders and solution providers, the research and expert community and civil society.
Etalab is also committed to continuing to develop and test new formats for contributing workshops, forums, hackathons and other innovative formats, and to document them in order to share this experience and know-how with all public stakeholders. [59]
Milestones
15.1 Improve and enrich the platform consultation.etalab.gouv.fr (offer of tools, good practices) in order to cover a plurality of needs and enable administrations to be more and more autonomous in the organisation of consultations
15.2 Develop a single platform for online public consultations
15.3 Continue organizing open events (hackathon, datacamp, barcamp, forum, open ministry...) with administrations and ecosystem stakeholders document these events and share feedback with all public stakeholders
Start Date: 2018
End Date: 2019
Context and Objectives
The government aims to improve its ability to consult citizens and involve them in public decision making. A report from the Conseil d’Orientation de l’Edition Publique et de l’Information Administrative provided several recommendations on how to make public online consultation efficient. This commitment aims to integrate those recommendations into the development of new tools for government agencies to involve citizens in their work. The platform, consultation.etalab.gouv.fr, was created in 2016. It is based on the work done for the OGP Toolbox that was presented at the OGP Summit in Paris and work done with civic technology companies (“civic techs”).
The platform already offers various tools to facilitate consultations (e.g., comment boxes, debate platforms, participatory budgeting, co-drafting of texts, voting, and surveys). All public consultations must follow the principles listed in Articles L. 131-1 and L.132-1 of the Code on Relations between the Public and the Administration. [60] (That is, they must guarantee a certain publicity, share details about the procedure, keep participants informed, etc.) Since the platform was launched, Etalab has received about 70 solicitations concerning 25 different consultations. It has also created 35 prototype consultations and hosted eight consultations on the platform. [61]
Online platforms lie at the heart of this commitment. Firstly, the commitment aims to improve the platform that was launched during the last action plan’s implementation period (consultation.etalab.gouv.fr). Secondly, it requires the development of a platform through which all public consultations could be accessed. Lastly, it plans to organize hackathons and bar camps - user-generated conferences primarily focused around technology – to involve experts, officials, and users in the improvement of the platforms.
The commitment, if implemented, could provide a new means for citizens to participate in public decision making. Thus, the IRM researcher considers the commitment to be relevant to the OGP value of civic participation. The commitment is also relevant to technology and innovation. It requires the improvement and enrichment of the consultation.etalab.gouv.fr platform and the organization of bar camps and hackathons to foster innovation.
As written, the commitment is specific enough to be verified. However, the text lacks specificity. It does not provide sufficient details about the activities that will lead to the enrichment and improvement of the consultation.etalab.gouv.fr platform. It also does not give any information about the platform on which the consultations should be centralized or about the purpose of the hackathons, bar camps, and forums.
The IRM researcher deems this initiative to have a minor potential effect. The commitment does not commit authorities to any actual public consultations. The centralization of public consultations could, however, facilitate citizens’ access to these processes.
Next steps
The IRM researcher suggests the government consider the following in the implementation of this commitment:
- Ensure that public consultations are a requirement for relevant public processes, such as the drafting of laws and regulations.
Commitments
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Transparency of Public Services
FR0030, 2018, E-Government
-
Transparency of Public Procurement
FR0031, 2018, Access to Information
-
Transparency of Development Aid
FR0032, 2018, Access to Information
-
Expand Open Data
FR0033, 2018, Access to Information
-
Improved Data Policies and Administration
FR0034, 2018, Access to Information
-
Transparency of Public Algorithms
FR0035, 2018, E-Government
-
Open Data at Sub-National Level
FR0036, 2018, Access to Information
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State AI Lab
FR0037, 2018, Automated Decision-Making
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Administrative Capacity-Building
FR0038, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Public Service Incubators
FR0039, 2018, Capacity Building
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Streamline Data Flows
FR0040, 2018, Access to Information
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Open Etat Forum
FR0041, 2018, E-Government
-
Online Procedures Dashboard
FR0042, 2018, E-Government
-
Govtech Summit
FR0043, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Improve Public Consultation Mechanisms
FR0044, 2018, E-Government
-
International Transparency and Citizen Participation
FR0045, 2018, Aid
-
Public Pariticipation in Sustainable Development
FR0046, 2018, Access to Information
-
Open Science
FR0047, 2018, Access to Information
-
Citizen Involvement in Cour Des Comptes
FR0048, 2018, Access to Information
-
Transparency of Interest Representatives
FR0049, 2018, Access to Information
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Access to Information on Public Officials
FR0050, 2018, Access to Information
-
Open Regional and Local Authorities' Data
FR0001, 2015, Access to Information
-
Publish Municipal Council Decisions and Reports Online
FR0002, 2015, E-Government
-
Publish Building Permits in Open Data Format
FR0003, 2015, Access to Information
-
Increase Transparency in Public Procurement
FR0004, 2015, Access to Information
-
Improve Transparency in International Development Aid
FR0005, 2015, Access to Information
-
Open Access to Public Policy Evaluations
FR0006, 2015, E-Government
-
Involve Citizens in Cour Des Comptes Work
FR0007, 2015, Access to Information
-
Access to Public Officials Transparency Obligations
FR0008, 2015, Access to Information
-
Beneficial Ownership
FR0009, 2015, Anti-Corruption
-
Transparency in Extractive Industries
FR0010, 2015, Anti-Corruption
-
Transparency in International Trade Commercial Negotiations
FR0011, 2015, Access to Information
-
Fix My Neighborhood
FR0012, 2015, E-Government
-
Digital Fix-It
FR0013, 2015, Access to Information
-
Co-Produce Data Infrastructure with Civil Society
FR0014, 2015, Access to Information
-
Open Legal Resources
FR0015, 2015, Access to Information
-
Reform Participatory Mechanisms
FR0016, 2015, Open Regulations
-
Mediation and Justice
FR0017, 2015, Access to Justice
-
Open and Circulate Data
FR0018, 2015, Access to Information
-
Open Calculation Models and Simulators
FR0019, 2015, Access to Information
-
Open Platform for Government Resources
FR0020, 2015, E-Government
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Improve Public Services Through E-Government and User Interaction
FR0021, 2015, E-Government
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Empower Civil Society to Support Schools
FR0022, 2015, E-Government
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Diversify Recruitment Within Public Institutions
FR0023, 2015, Capacity Building
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Culture Change
FR0024, 2015, Capacity Building
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Spread Public Innovation
FR0025, 2015, Capacity Building
-
Protect Against Conflicts of Interest
FR0026, 2015, Anti-Corruption
-
Civil Society & Transparency in COP21 Conference Planning
FR0027, 2015, Environment and Climate
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Open Data and Climate/Sustainable Development
FR0028, 2015, Access to Information
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Collaborate with Civil Society on Climate and Sustainable Development
FR0029, 2015, Environment and Climate