Civico - A platform to shape and transform your community through civic participation

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Alberto Farca | Jul 21, 2020 | in Digital change-maker challenge | ICT applications

Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.

1. Strengthen democratic culture by simplifying and promoting participation in local matters through a digital platform (accessible through any device connected to the internet)


2. Enable citizens’ access to their democratic rights through a trustworthy, secure and easy to use platform 


3. Facilitate citizens and NGOs to rally public support for local and city-wide solutions that may eventually be binding for authorities by taking advantage of digital tools

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

1. Public participation in Mexico City appears to be healthy: in 2018, 70% of citizens over 18 years of age, voted in the mayoral election[1]; but a few months later, only 5.3% participated in the public consultations for projects that affect their neighborhoods[2]. One of the reasons why people do not participate in these public consultations is that it is difficult to include relevant projects in the consultation. People must find, read and understand the law that states which projects can be subject to public consultation. They must collect the names, copies of voter IDs and signatures of a specific number of people that support the project.
2. One of the new civic participation law’s principles is to facilitate access to the mechanisms of direct democracy, but the process has only been used once since the law’s enactment. To exercise this democratic right, the promoter of a public consultation must collect the names, copy of voter IDs and signatures of a certain number of people. Today, there is no platform to securely gather and save this information in a manner that fulfils legal requirements and that generates confidence to users.
3. Thousands of petitions from citizens and NGO’s can be found in sites such as change.org (on July 27, 2020 there were 2,129 petitions linked to Mexico City). Although these petitions are signed by hundreds of thousands of people, they seldom conclude in government action because they do not fulfill the legal requirements to force some government action. Frustrated citizens stop using these digital platforms since there is no result linked to their participation.

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

1. To increase participation in local matters and promote a democratic culture in the community, it is vital that people can propose projects that are important to them. Neighbors that want to improve their community are discouraged to participate if you need a lawyer and considerable resources to include your proposals in the ballot. The proposed digital platform will include a simple guide for citizens and NGOs on what issues can be included in a public consultation process and how to begin the legal process through the platform. Furthermore, it will facilitate users in gaining the required public support in a way that guarantees that the consultation process is legally binding for authorities. As of 2018, 76.9% of Mexico City residents are Internet users and 72% have a smart phone[1]. By simplifying and guiding you through the process and the collection of necessary data, common people and NGOs will promote relevant local projects and participation in these processes will likely increase.
2. The Mexico City Civic Participation Law enacted in 2019 is innovative and promotes direct democracy mechanisms to foster citizen participation in matters that affect us directly. Unfortunately, there is a high cost involved in enabling these mechanisms. Interested parties, citizens or NGOs, must demonstrate that a number of citizens support a particular project or government action through the collection of their names, voter identifications and signatures[2]. To date, only once has a direct democracy mechanism been used. The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic will further constrain the collection of information, as this process usually occurs in public spaces, such as parks and plazas. Mexico City has implemented various measures that restrict the capacity and hours that public spaces are open in order to deal with Covid-19. The proposed project reduces costs and other barriers that enable direct democracy mechanisms. We expect that these mechanisms become more common and frequently used if people can participate through a secure platform where they can easily and safely provide the information required by the Mexico City Civil Participation Law. 
3. NGOs often have original, sustainable, and effective proposals that could transform communities or key sectors of the economy or society. Thousands of citizens from Mexico City participate online through social media or digital platforms like Change.org to propose actions or improvements for their communities. Most of the times these proposals are not implemented or even considered by authorities. Authorities receive thousands of petitions and ideas on a daily basis, sometimes with fake support. If a proposal satisfies legal conditions, including the required number of valid signatures, authorities must carry out a public consultation; the results of the public consultation are binding. The proposed solution helps citizens and NGOs through a platform that guides the user in a simple manner to complete the legal requirements. Through the platform, an NGO will be able to assess if their proposal is eligible for public consultation, choose the direct democracy mechanism that best suits its objective, present it in a way that complies with legal formalities, and define the public participation required to get it started. Additionally, the platform will have the tools, like social media and real time monitoring, to communicate the proposal and collect the support needed to be publicly consulted.

To make Civico a reality, we are currently working in a business plan that incorporates a sustainability strategy. This strategy includes reaching out to international NGOs that have a presence in Mexico and are related to democracy advocacy. We are also considering that buy-in from the local electoral authority will be very important before releasing the platform, as well as testing a pilot version in a few Mexico City neighborhoods with which we are acquainted.  

Share your story (your narrative)

Every day, through social networks like Twitter or digital platforms like Change.org, thousands of citizens from Mexico City express or support ideas on how to improve their community.

In a city with over 9 million people, within a metropolitan region of more than 22 million, it is hard to get your ideas noticed. Citizens are eager to make a difference in their community and their city, but many of us often feel frustrated by the difficulty of being heard by our authorities. In addition to the common citizen, NGOs promote ideas for a wide variety of topics to improve the city, but it is difficult to gain committed support from the public when participation does not guarantee the attention of authorities. 

Imagine a digital platform that enables Mexico City’s citizens and NGOs to take advantage of the city’s innovative public participation law. This new law creates mechanisms to promote local or city-wide actions that become binding for authorities. Imagine a secure platform that enables digital participation and reduces the costs of exercising these rights.

This is Civico.

Public participation in Mexico City appears to be healthy: in 2018, 70% of citizens over 18 years of age voted in the mayoral election. But a few months later, only 5.3% participated in the public consultations for projects that affect their neighborhoods. One of the reasons why people do not participate is that it is difficult to include relevant projects in the consultation. People must find, read and understand the law that states which projects can be subject to public consultation. They must also collect the names, copies of voter IDs and signatures of a specific number of people that support the project.

To increase participation in local matters and promote a democratic culture in the community, it is vital that people can propose projects that are important to them. Neighbors that want to improve their community are discouraged to participate if you need a lawyer and considerable resources to include your proposals in the ballot. 

The proposed digital platform will include a simple guide for citizens and NGOs on what issues can be included in a public consultation process. Furthermore, it will facilitate users, through integrations with social media and real time monitoring tools, in gaining the required public support in a way that guarantees that the consultation process is legally binding for authorities. In 2018, 76.9% of Mexico City residents were Internet Users and 72% had a smartphone. By simplifying the rules and the collection of necessary data, common people and NGOs will promote relevant local projects and participation in these processes will likely increase.

The Mexico City Civic Participation Law, enacted in 2019, is innovative and promotes direct democracy mechanisms to foster citizen participation in matters that affect us directly. One of the principles of the new law is to facilitate access to the mechanisms of direct democracy, but the process has only been used once since the law’s enactment. Unfortunately, there is a high cost involved in enabling these mechanisms. Interested parties, citizens or NGOs, must demonstrate that a number of citizens support a particular project or government action through the collection of their names, voter IDs and signatures. The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic will further constrain the collection of this information, as this process usually occurs in public spaces, such as parks and plazas, that the local government has restricted or partially closed.

Today, there is no platform to securely gather and save this information in a manner that fulfills legal requirements and generates confidence to users. The proposed project reduces costs and other barriers that enable direct democracy mechanisms. We expect that these mechanisms become more common and frequently used if people can participate through a secure platform where they can easily and safely provide the information required by the Mexico City Civil Participation Law. 

NGOs often have original, sustainable and effective proposals that could transform communities or key sectors of the economy or society. Thousands of citizens from Mexico City participate online through social media or digital platforms like Change.org to propose such actions or improvements for their communities. Although these petitions are signed by hundreds of thousands of people, they seldom conclude in government action because they do not meet the legal requirements to force some government action. Frustrated citizens stop using these digital platforms since there is no result linked to their participation.

The proposed solution helps citizens and NGOs through a platform that guides the user in a simple manner to complete the legal requirements. If a proposal satisfies legal conditions, including the required number of valid signatures, authorities must carry out a public consultation, and the result is binding. Through the platform, an NGO will be able to assess if their proposal is eligible for public consultation, choose the direct democracy mechanism that best suits its objective, present it in a way that complies with legal formalities, and define the public participation required to get it started. Additionally, the platform will have the tools to communicate the proposal and collect the support needed to be publicly consulted. We believe that in time, this platform may be adjusted to be used in other jurisdictions, in and out of Mexico, which have direct democracy mechanisms. 

Elected officials receive thousands of petitions and ideas on a daily basis, sometimes with fake support. Most of the times these proposals are not implemented or even considered by authorities.

The proposed digital platform provides citizens and NGOs with a secure tool to promote actions in their communities that will be implemented by local authorities should they win support in a public consultation process. Through the platform, using a simple and straightforward language, citizens and NGOs will be able to understand which direct democracy mechanisms exist, how to use them, recognize what they can and cannot accomplish and identify what is required to use trigger the mechanism. 

The platform will allow users to legally begin a public consultation process by guiding them to comply with the procedures’ formalities and by digitally collecting the interested citizens’ names, voter ID numbers and signatures. This functionality reduces the cost of beginning a public consultation process for NGOs and enthusiastic citizens, and it makes it easy and safe for people to participate, incentivizing taking part in their community’s decisions. 

The results of the direct democracy mechanisms considered in the law are binding for authorities. Therefore, any tool, like the proposed platform, that increases the chances of enacting these mechanisms will strengthen the democratic culture and community participation in Mexico City. This is why we are elaborating a business plan that incorporates a sustainability strategy. This strategy includes reaching out to international NGOs that have a presence in Mexico and are related to democracy advocacy. We are also considering that buy-in from the local electoral authority will be very important before releasing the platform, as well as testing a pilot version in a few Mexico City neighborhoods with which we are acquainted.

With this proposal we want common citizens and NGOs to foster change through public participation in local affairs. Citizens and NGOs should have an easy and safe tool to exercise the right to promote public consultations that are binding for local authorities. We want citizens and NGOs to use our proposed platform so that they can concentrate in building proposals for a better society, solving local problems and improving standards of living for people in Mexico City, while they lean on the proposed platform to comply with legal formalities and considerations and gather required support in a cheaper manner.

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

Sustainability

We are currently reviewing various sustainability models for the project, which include, a fee for using the platform or payments to promote an initiative.

Your Final Proposal for challenge

yes