SMART Method showcased at the launching events of the 2010-2011 International Year of Youth

The Brochure of SMART Method of Public Policy

SMART Method of Public Policy was showcased at the launching events that marked the beginning of the 2010 – 2011 International Year of Youth. The presentation was made at the Information Office of the Council of Europe in Bucharest, in front of students, representatives of various NGOs and representatives of local and international public organizations. I was happy to answer many questions regarding the method, as I presented its 5 steps showing practical examples on the Romanian citizen engagement platform available at www.PoliticiPublice.ro. This event was also a warm up for the official launching of SMART Method in Romania, that will take place at the Information Office of the Council of Europe in Bucharest on September 23, 2010.

The events that marked the beginning of the International Year of Youth under the slogan “Our Year Our Voice” were organized by UNDP Romania, the Information Office of the Council of Europe in Bucharest, The City of Bucharest, the National Authority for Youth and Sports, FOND, the Cultural House of Students from Bucharest, ECDL Romania, the Romanian Youth Council, and many more.

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August 18, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: council of europe romania, international year of youth, our year our voice, smart method of public policy · Posted in: 1 SMART Method of Public Policy

The Young Entrepreneurs Association from the South-East Region of Romania has been established

The Young Entrepreneurs Association from the South-East Region of Romania

After quite a long period of time that took to do the paper work, the Young Entrepreneurs Association from the South-East Region of Romania (YEASER) has been legally established. The association is formed by young entrepreneurs from six counties of Romania: Galati, Braila, Buzau, Vrancea, Tulcea and Constanta. The purpose is to better defend and promote the interests of the young entrepreneurs, at every level of government. During times of economic and financial crisis, it is more than ever necessary to propose and manage to make officials enact economic and fiscal policies specific to the problems that young entrepreneurs are

The South East Region of Romania

facing:

the minimal tax
supporting the start-up businesses
the access to funding
business networking
collaboration opportunities inside the country and abroad
representing the interests of the young entrepreneurs at every level

The official launching events in the 6 counties will begin in October 2010. Meantime, we are going to establish the projects that we want to make and the services we want to provide to our members. YEASER is affiliated to the Young Entrepreneurs Association from Romania (YEAR), but maintains its own legal status.

July 31, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: young entrepreneurs association in romania, young entrepreneurs in romania · Posted in: 8 Special Events

Active participation at the nonformal education lab

Participants at the nonformal education lab in Gura Portitei, Romania

The Romanian Agency for the Youth in Action Program organized the nonformal education lab at Gura Portitei, in Romania. SMART Method of Public Policy was one of the 14+ methods that were tested. During one day, I made 5 theoretical presentations for the 45 participants, followed by two sessions of practical training. As a result, the young people who expressed a deeper interest in the method published three problems of Romanian public concern, along with one or two solutions:

The personnel from the foster care placement centers: many times, the personnel is poorly trained; this is affecting the children who often end up begging on the streets, instead of living a responsible and independent life.
The nonformal education in schools: schools in Romania do not have spaces
Gura Portitei, Romania

adjusted for nonformal education that stimulate the creativity of young pupils.
Clean Cincis: Cincis is a lake nearby Hunedoara that is usually very polluted.

Any person can now offer solutions to these three problems on www.PoliticiPublice.ro. Publishing problems and solutions means making the first two steps in the framework of SMART Method of Public Policy. In step 3, we issue a policy paper to decision makers to solve the problems using the solution/s given by citizens. Step 4 means that an official answer is received from the authorities and step 5 means that the problem poster is satisfied with the answer or action of the public institutions.

But the nonformal education lab was also a nice place to socialize. Gura Portitei is an interesting wild place surrounded by the salty waters of the Black Sea on one side and the sweet inland waters. You can reach the place only by boat.

Arrival in Gura Portitei:

Some social activities on lipovean traditions next to a camp fire does not hurt:

Departure, with all the participants:

July 9, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: active participation in romania, gura portitei, nonformal education lab, smart method of public policy, youth in action · Posted in: 1 SMART Method of Public Policy

Recommendations to promote access to e-participation

Working group on promoting access to e-participation: Nicky (UK/Holland/Sudan), Radu (Romania), Federico (Italy), and Claire (Belgium/France).

The recommendations below are aimed at making e-participation more important in generating change in the community. They are the result of the working group on “promoting access to e-participation” organized within the Expert Seminar New Ways of Participation in Multicultural Youth Work from Budapest, Council of Europe Youth Center, during June 14-18 2010. Good working time with Nicky, Federico and Claire .

Recommendations to Youth organizations. They should:

Empower, develop and promote the use of e-participation tools such as social networks, interactive platforms, audio-video materials, to their members. These tools should be structured and developed into a strategy to approach disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Combine the e-participation tools with regular face-to-face meetings.
Organize trainings and workshops to develop e-participation skills.
Engage authorities and civil society representatives in virtual meetings in order to shorten the distance between the two sides and generate a structured dialogue.
Create e-learning opportunities for young people, adjusted to the specific problems of their disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Develop e-youth work to prevent dangers on the web, by training courses and exchanges of good practices.
Network better between themselves to exchange good practices, success stories and tools of participation and e-participation.

Recommendations to Researchers. They should:

Create evaluation tools to monitor the effectiveness of e-participation activities in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Better identify and explain the status-quo or the problems in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Implement specific participatory endeavors to young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Identify the disadvantaged neighborhoods and shape their profiles.

Recommendations to Policy makers (local, regional and national authorities). They should:

Develop free internet coverage in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
Develop and encourage structural dialogue so that at least once a month they are engaged in participation or e-participation activities.
Support the work of youth organizations by providing materials, spaces and funding opportunities to them.
Be more engaged in partnership agreements with NGOs and the private sector to attract more resources to the local community.
Offer recognition to the participation and e-participation activities that make a difference in the community.
Use grants/vouchers/other types of support to help young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods to acquire technological equipment.
Train policy makers in the benefits of e-participation opportunities in their line of work.
Ensure the presence of at least one youth centre adequately equipped with computers and other materials necessary for e-participation, in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Have user- and youth-friendly websites.
Have multiple language support of the websites of public authorities in multi-ethnic neighborhoods.

Recommendations to European institutions. They should:

Encourage all of the member states to develop the job of youth worker.
Develop the profile of e-youth work.
Act as the driving force to implement policy change at a high European level.
Organize and support training courses at European level for e-youth work. They could be long-term and sustainable, followed-up by e-platforms.
CoE recommend the members of CLRAE to encourage and be more involved in e-participation activities in their neighborhoods.
CoE use CLRAE to share good practices of e-participation as a way to solve or better address community problems.
The European Commission could allocate more resources to help disadvantaged communities use e-participation tools.
European institutions could make participation in disadvantaged neighborhoods a priority in their line of action.
European Commission should make a more effective promotion of the e-consultations on various topics when working on draft papers.

More details can be found on ENTER project website.

June 22, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: e-participation, generate social change, New Ways of Participation in Multicultural Youth Work, ways to promote access to e-participation · Posted in: 1 SMART Method of Public Policy, 2 Participative Democracy

Seminar on e-Participation unfolding in Budapest, Hungary

During June 14-18 I am attending the Expert Meeting on New Ways of Participation in Multicultural Youth Work Based on Information and Communication Technologies. The seminar is organized by the Council of Europe at its Youth Centre in Budapest, Hungary. The aim is to bring policy makers, youth researchers, youth organizations and young people together to explore how new ways of participation can contribute to improving the access to social rights of young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods. The objectives are very generous and include:

To explore the concepts of youth participation and e-participation.
To explore current trends of e-participation in multicultural youth work.
To explore the challenges of inclusive multicultural youth work and how e-participation can be a tool to overcome these.
To analyze the motivation of young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods for e-participation, as well as the effects of e-participation on their social inclusion and democratic participation.
To exchange experiences and good practices of e-participation in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
To explore ways of overcoming digital divide and ensuring that e-participation is democratic, inclusive, meaningful and empowering for young people.
To make recommendations on promoting e-participation as a mean to support the access to social rights for young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Here’s a presentation of the results of a working group on challenges to youth participation and e-participation:

There are some good research documents that the Council of Europe has issued so far. They include the “Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life,” the manual “Have your say!” which is related to the implementation of the Charter with young people, the report of the seminar “New ways of participation based on information technologies” organised by the DYS in 2009 where SMART Method of Public Policy is also mentioned, and the Agenda 2020. The seminar is organized under the framework of ENTER project on access to social rights for young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

And here are some relevant photos:

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June 15, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: e-participation, enter project, multicultural youth work, new ways of participation, social rights, youth centre budapest · Posted in: 2 Participative Democracy

The Brochure of SMART Method of Public Policy now ready

This brochure tells about SMART Method, citizen engagement problems, advantages of SMART Method compared to other forms of citizen engagement, the management team of the project “Public Policies Made by Citizens,” the partners of the project, and its objectives. Enjoy!

Download the Brochure of SMART Method of Public Policy

June 10, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: citizen engagement, online participation platforms, participation problems, smart method of public policy · Posted in: 1 SMART Method of Public Policy

Rural evening in Moeciu

During the international workshop on SMART Method of Public Policy, we had a special evening. We took three carriages pulled by horses and went sightseeing. This is what happened:

June 7, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: carriage and horses, carriage in moeciu, carriage in romania, romanian horses · Posted in: 4 Travels

Attending the International Conference on Administration and Business

The International Conference on Administration and Business

The Faculty of Business and Administration from the University of Bucharest is organizing the International Conference on Administration and Business during June 4-5, 2010. I am attending the Education, Administration and Law Section, with the paper “Online vs. Offline vs. Mixed Participation for Better Governmental Policy-Making.” This paper is focusing on the area of participative democracy from my thesis. Here are some conclusions:

SolveNet (term referring to a hypothetical better citizen engagement model) is a combination of online and offline citizen engagement. It benefits from advantages specific to the online dialogue like little to no cost of use, flexibility of participants to give solutions to problems of public concern, educational approach, and interactivity among the participants. At the same time, SolveNet is coping with the disadvantages of offline engagement, like the lack of accountability of the end result of a participation endeavor, limited time and money of participants to offer input in pressing community problems, polarization of discussions, and lack of knowledge about issues.

: Download the Conference Manual (8MB) that contains all the papers.

As the majority of the work is done online, the policy-making process is pushed further using the authority of a legally established

nonprofit organization. This way, the most feasible, valuable and sustainable solution proposals from citizens, are sent to the desks of elected and appointed officials.

The participation model lacks the advantages of face-to-face discussions between the participants, but the online citizen engagement platform offers an interactive participation experience that allows people from different regions to work together creatively in solving community problems. The people who participate are not representative for any given community. That is why the main focus is on the quality of the solutions that are exchanged on the platform and not on the background of the citizens.

SolveNet faces however the problem that every participation model has: effectiveness in generating a change of policy. It is ultimately up to the decision-makers to consider the results of any participative democracy exercise or not. The main advantage of SolveNet is in this case the little effort that every-day people make, in order to make their voices heard in the community.

A mixed participation model to support governmental decision-making seems to work the best, in order to benefit the most from citizen engagement. This model has to provide for authority, accountability, creativity, exchange of constructive ideas, educational approach, and perseverance. Future research could identify such a model and showcase it.

June 4, 2010 · Radu Oprea · One Comment
Tags: administration and business, better governmental policy making, faculty of business and administration, international conference, online vs offline vs mixed participation, participative democracy, university of bucharest · Posted in: 6 My PhD in Economics

Citizen engagement workshop ended in Moeciu, Romania

Rollups for the 4 national citizen engagement platfoms serving "SMART Method of Public Policy" in Romania, France, Italy, and Greece

The international workshop “Public Policies Made by Citizens,” financed by the European Commission, has ended. The European citizen engagement platform available at www.public-policies.eu, as well as the national citizen engagement platforms for Romania (www.politicipublice.ro), Italy (www.politiche-pubbliche.it), France (www.politiquespubliques.fr), and Greece (www.public-policies.gr) have been tested and are now ready to be used. However, we have yet to do the content of the menus. Here’s the result of our work in terms of problems and solutions posted:

www.public-policies.eu: 10 problems and 13 solutions
www.politicipublice.ro: 18 problems and 31 solutions
www.politiquespubliques.fr: 2 problems and 1 solution
www.politiche-pubbliche.it: 4 problems
www.public-policies.gr: 3 problems

Every platform serves “SMART Method of Public Policy.” The most difficult parts are to define the problem of public concern and to offer a valuable, feasible and sustainable solution to it. So….a big hand to the participants!

May 30, 2010 · Radu Oprea · No Comments
Tags: public policies europe, public policies france, public policies greece, public policies italy, public policies romania · Posted in: 1 SMART Method of Public Policy

The international workshop “Public Policies Made by Citizens” currently unfolding in Moeciu, Romania

The management team of the project "Public Policies Made by Citizens" - www.Public-Policies.eu: Andrea (Italy), Joanna (Greece), Guillaume (France), and Radu (Romania)

During May 17-23, the international workshop “Public Policies Made by Citizens” is taking place in Moeciu, Romania. We are together 21 young people from four countries – Romania, Italy, Greece and France – who are coordinating the five platforms of participative democracy available at this moment:

www.Public-Policies.eu for Europe
www.PoliticiPublice.ro for Romania
www.Politiche-Pubbliche.it for Italy
www.PolitiquesPubliques.fr for France
www.Public-Policies.gr for Greece

Besides testing the steps of “SMART Method of Public Policy” and identifying opportunities to generate greater leverage to the participation attempts of every day citizens, we are also publishing problems of European, national and local public concern, as well as solutions.

This workshop is the first major attempt to develop “SMART Method of Public Policy” to a new level, that would generate the first success stories of participation. A success story happens when a problem of public concern that is published on one of our citizen engagement platforms is solved by a public institution, using the five steps of SMART Method.

Today we created a new video to promote the European platform www.Public-Policies.eu:

And of course, we have some photos from the first three days:

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