Public Pariticipation in Sustainable Development (FR0046)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: France Action Plan 2018-2020
Action Plan Cycle: 2018
Status: Active
Institutions
Lead Institution: Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition
Support Institution(s): National Council for Ecological Transition (CNTE) Ministries contributing to the 17 goals: all ministries Public institutions, particularly: National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), France's inclusive public development bank (AFD) Decentralised government departments
Policy Areas
Access to Information, Capacity Building, E-Government, Environment and Climate, Open Data, Private Sector, Public Participation, Public Service Delivery, Sustainable Development GoalsIRM 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: Access to Information , Civic Participation
Implementation i
Completion: Pending IRM Review
Description
Empower citizens to exercise scrutiny
and get involved in public decisions on energy transition and sustainable development
Lead institution(s):
Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition
Other stakeholders:
National Council for Ecological Transition (CNTE)
Ministries contributing to the 17 goals: all ministries
Public institutions, particularly: National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), France's inclusive public development bank (AFD) Decentralised government departments
Commitment building on commitment no. 26 of the NAP 2015-2017 "Initiate new collaborations with civil society
to develop innovative solutions to meet the challenges
of Climate and Sustainable Development"
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Accountability, participation
Challenges
The energy transition and sustainable development are key issues, and there has been a groundswell of support for them among civil society.
Implementation of the road map charted following the April 2016 environmental conference particularly includes "Launching the revision of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC-2) by calling on all of the stakeholders".
What is more, an action plan on the 17 sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 needs to be set up in France for the period running until 2030. Work towards these goals must not only prompt the ministries to uphold and draw up the action plan together, but also include civil society, businesses, local authorities and citizens in shaping, promoting and delivering the action plan.
Ambitions
Empower citizens to get involved in public decisions on the energy transition and sustainable development.
The Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition (MTES) would like to press on with the efforts already under way to provide digital tools and involve citizens in drafting the plans to implement international agreements and public policies and monitoring them, not least:
The National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, by getting all of the stakeholders to contribute to recasting the previous plan;
The inclusive drafting of the Action Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Enhance the opening up of public environmental data.
Open up new datasets produced by the two ministries, and encourage their re-use;
Give the departments a basic grounding in data and data science;
Build an infrastructure for environmental data: define the reference data and publish
them, including documentation
The road map in detail
Based on the operating arrangements determined by the CNTE, incorporate citizens' proposals in the opinions on the monitoring and assessment of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC-2) written by the members of the CNTE, and particularly the Specialised Advisory Committee of the National Observatory on the Effects of Global Warming (ONERC) 2018 - 2022
Organise cross-government coordination to address the challenges of the PNACC-2, inform and educate all the public stakeholders in the SDGs to encourage their uptake Action programme 2015 - 2030
Inform, educate and mobilise civil society across the board to play a part in the action plan and make their own contribution
to achieving the SDGs -
Undertake an inventory of the data produced by the two ministries and their operators and make all of this data accessible via Github: mtes-mct.github.io/dataroom/
March 2018
Open up the data:
Of the platform SINOE® déchets9 and encourage re-use.
Bearing on sale of plant protection products10 at the most
micro-scale possible and add them, in a map format in
particular, to the Eaufrance website.
Of the building permit database Sitadel in an open data
format, so that it is easy to re-use and process by an automated processing system (subject to approval from the French Data Protection Authority/CNIL) From summer 2017 to end 2018
Provide citizens with access to environmental impact assessments11 via a co-design approach:
Make sure that each environmental public consultation clearly states the possibility of accessing impact assessments via the dedicated display interface. From January 2017 to January 2018
Geolocate environmental compensatory measures12
in order to reduce the accumulation rate of compensatory measures 2017 - 2018
IRM Midterm Status Summary
17. Empower citizens to exercise scrutiny and get involved in public decisions on energy transition and sustainable development
Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:
The energy transition and sustainable development are key issues, and there has been a groundswell of support for them among civil society.
Implementation of the road map charted following the April 2016 environmental conference particularly includes "Launching the revision of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC-2) by calling on all of the stakeholders".
What is more, an action plan on the 17 sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 needs to be set up in France for the period running until 2030. Work towards these goals must not only prompt the ministries to uphold and draw up the action plan together, but also include civil society, businesses, local authorities and citizens in shaping, promoting and delivering the action plan.
Empower citizens to get involved in public decisions on the energy transition and sustainable development.
The Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition (MTES) would like to press on with the efforts already under way to provide digital tools and involve citizens in drafting the plans to implement international agreements and public policies and monitoring them, not least:
- The National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, by getting all of the stakeholders to contribute to recasting the previous plan;
- The inclusive drafting of the Action Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Enhance the opening up of public environmental data.
- Open up new datasets produced by the two ministries, and encourage their re-use;
- Give the departments a basic grounding in data and data science;
- Build an infrastructure for environmental data: define the reference data and publish them, including documentation. [64]
Milestones
17.1 Based on the operating arrangements determined by the CNTE, incorporate citizens' proposals in the opinions on the monitoring and assessment of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC-2) written by the members of the CNTE, and particularly the Specialised Advisory Committee of the National Observatory on the Effects of Global Warming (ONERC)
17.2 Organise cross-government coordination to address the challenges of the PNACC-2, inform and educate all the public stakeholders in the SDGs to encourage their uptake
17.3 Inform, educate and mobilise civil society across the board to play a part in the action plan and make their own contribution to achieving the SDGs
17.4 Undertake an inventory of the data produced by the two ministries and their operators and make all of this data accessible via Github: mtes-mct.github.io/dataroom/
17.5 Open up the data:
- Of the platform SINOE® déchets and encourage re-use.
- Bearing on sale of plant protection products at the most micro-scale possible and add them, in a map format in particular, to the Eaufrance website.
- Of the building permit database Sitadel in an open data format, so that it is easy to re-use and process by an automated processing system (subject to approval from the French Data Protection Authority/CNIL)
Start Date: 2018
End Date: 2020
Context and Objectives
Through this commitment, the government expresses a continued interest in involving civil society in the country’s decision making on key environmental issues, namely energy transition and sustainable development. The previous action plan contained a commitment to involve civil society in the negotiations surrounding and follow-up to the commitments taken at the Conference of the Parties 21. [65] However, the activities undertaken in that framework were time bound, and it is unclear if they contributed to long-lasting changes in government practices. [66]
The current commitment features public participation in the monitoring and assessment of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC-2). It would also involve the public in the development of the national action plan for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The second component of the commitment concerns accessibility to various strategic datasets. The diverse ambitions of this commitment result from the merging of two different commitments. Indeed, the initial version of the action plan, made available for comments in 2017, had two separate commitments on open government and environmental issues. [67]
Some components of the commitment lie outside of the action plan’s implementation period. The Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition started working on the first component of the commitment in 2016. The co-construction phase of the PNACC-2 lasted from mid-2016 to mid- 2017. Six working groups gathered approximately 300 participants from civil society, the expert community, and local governments and ministries. They included members of the Conseil National de la Transition Ecologique (CNTE), which is also a multi-stakeholder entity. The working groups developed 33 thematic notes that served to develop the PNACC-2, which was in turn validated by the CNTE. [68] The implementation of the PNACC-2 will be monitored by a special commission of the CNTE. [69] The government took steps toward implementing the second part of the commitment at the beginning of 2018, with the publication of data from the Sitadel database on construction licenses and dates. [70]
The action plan states that this commitment is relevant to public accountability and civic participation. Given the objectives of the various milestones, the IRM researcher, however, considers the commitment to be relevant to the OGP values of access to information and civic participation. There is no clear indication of how civil society would be better equipped to hold government accountable if the commitment were fully implemented.
This commitment contains five different milestones of varying degrees of detail. They target two different—but complementary—objectives. Overall, the commitment, as written, is specific enough to be verifiable. However, while the second segment of the commitment provides sufficient information on the datasets to be opened, the first segment is vague. Milestone 17.1 does not contain sufficient information about the means given to citizens to make proposals or on the way these would be considered. Similarly, Milestone 17.2 mixes information on the PNACC-2 and the SGDs and does not inform the reader whom should be informed and how. The same thing is true for Milestone 17.3, which aims to inform and mobilize “the whole civil society.” Some of the milestones go beyond the time frame of the action plan implementation, which will be a challenge for the assessment of completion at the end of the cycle.
The IRM researcher deems this initiative to have a moderate potential effect. The open data component of the commitment could provide public access to several new datasets, including data on the purchase of pesticides at a micro-scale. Dissemination of such information would be an important step toward more transparency in the environmental field. However, the participation component is formulated too vaguely to be able to assess potential impact.
Next steps
The IRM researcher recommends that the commitment, or at least its milestones, be carried on in the next action plan and that:
- The commitment be split into two separate commitments, one concerning the involvement of civil society in the monitoring of government action regarding climate-related international and national commitments, and the other concerning opening environmentally relevant data;
- More detailed information be presented in the commitment text regarding how civil society will partake in the monitoring and assessment of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change and in the elaboration of the action plan concerning the Sustainable Development Goals.
Commitments
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Transparency of Public Services
FR0030, 2018, E-Government
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Transparency of Public Procurement
FR0031, 2018, Access to Information
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Transparency of Development Aid
FR0032, 2018, Access to Information
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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
-
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
-
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
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Open Science
FR0047, 2018, Access to Information
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Citizen Involvement in Cour Des Comptes
FR0048, 2018, Access to Information
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Transparency of Interest Representatives
FR0049, 2018, Access to Information
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Access to Information on Public Officials
FR0050, 2018, Access to Information
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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
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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
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Fix My Neighborhood
FR0012, 2015, E-Government
-
Digital Fix-It
FR0013, 2015, Access to Information
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Co-Produce Data Infrastructure with Civil Society
FR0014, 2015, Access to Information
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Open Legal Resources
FR0015, 2015, Access to Information
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Reform Participatory Mechanisms
FR0016, 2015, Open Regulations
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Mediation and Justice
FR0017, 2015, Access to Justice
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Open and Circulate Data
FR0018, 2015, Access to Information
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Open Calculation Models and Simulators
FR0019, 2015, Access to Information
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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
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Protect Against Conflicts of Interest
FR0026, 2015, Anti-Corruption
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Civil Society & Transparency in COP21 Conference Planning
FR0027, 2015, Environment and Climate
-
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