What strategies and tools can be used to involve citizens in local policies? How to ensure that minorities and marginalised groups are included? What are the preconditions for successful citizen participation? And how can citizens be empowered to hold their governments accountable?
These issues will be dealt with in an upcoming (in-person) training course on Citizen Participation & Inclusive Governance offered by The Hague Academy of Local Governance in The Hague from 29 August to 9 September 2022. The application deadline for the course is 10 July 2022.
Experience
In this course, you will visit the ecological residential area EVA-Lanxmeer, where public spaces were redesigned together with residents. You will also meet the Ombudsman of the city of The Hague, and learn about restoring and improving the relationship between citizens and the local government. In addition, you will visit local NGOs to learn about their role in enabling civic engagement.
Experts contributing to this course include:
Hans Hoekman: Hans is a senior community police officer with over 20 years of experience working for the Rotterdam police force. He is an expert, advisor and trainer in public participation processes to promote safety and security.
Shakira van Steenis: a citizen participation expert and the director of Love and Sorrow Streets and the Grassroots office, foundations that aim to get participation off the ground, for instance, by designing urban spaces together with citizens.
Anne Graumans: an expert and advisor in democracy and citizen participation. Anne was part of the city council of the city of Amsterdam for four years and has trained groups in more than 15 countries in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Lars Burema: Lars is an expert in citizen participation and inclusion with over twelve years of work experience. He worked for five years on the participation of minority communities in Kosovo. For the past years, Lars has worked for The Hague Academy delivering training on the topic in a.o. Albania and the Palestinian Territories.
Course details and application
Further course details and application materials are available here.
