e-participation and transparency in the decision making process

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e-participation and transparency in the decision
making process

• Rauna NerelliMinistry of Justice, Finland

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National E-participation Environment

• Part of Action Programme on eServices and
  eDemocracy (SADe) 
• Enhances and enables dialogue and interaction
  between citizens, NGOs, politicians and public
  servants
• Improves e-participation possibilities at local
  and national level free of charge
• Ministry of Justice organises training on
  e-democracy
• www.demokratia.fi

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Open Government Partnership

• Finland joined the international program in 2013
• Currently implementing the first national action
  plan
• The cross-cutting theme of the plan is citizens
  participation
• Four working-areas Open Procedures, Clear
  Language, Open Knowledge and Government as an
  enabler
• Unique in Finland Campaign for clear and more
  understandable language at public sector in 2014
• http//www.opengovpartnership.org/country/finland

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Services for e-participation

• www.otakantaa.fi, a channel for participation and
  interaction open to all
• www.kansalaisaloite.fi, a system for the
  electronic collection of signatures for citizens
  initiatives
• www.kuntalaisaloite.fi, a system for the
  electronic collection of signatures for
  initiatives to municipal authorities
• www.lausuntopalvelu.fi, a service for responding
  electronically to official requests for comments

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Otakantaa Have your say

• Ministries, municipalities, institutes, NGOs and
  citizens can open discussions on a certain topic
• Drafting of laws, planning strategies and
  programmes, evaluation of services and policies,
  mapping citizens needs and ideas
• Several participation tools discussion forum,
  chat, web questionnaire, poll
• E-participation can be linked to activities IRL,
  e.g. seminars or meetings
• Marketing of the participation projects essential

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Citizens initiative

• New tool for direct democracy
• Enables a minimum of 50,000 Finnish citizens of
  voting age to submit an initiative to the
  Parliament of Finland to enact an act
• 50,000 electronic and/or paper signatures, 6
  months for collecting them
• A bill or a proposal to start drafting
  legislation
• 6 initiatives have gathered more than 50,000
  signatures
• Audited by Finnish Communications Regulatory
  Authority
• Users names are not visible to the public

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E-participation for youth

• The further development of the young peoples
  online democracy service aloitekanava.fi
• In co-operation with the Ministry of Education
  and Culture and the Youth information and
  counselling centre Koordinaatti
• Children, youth and NGOs taking part in the
  planning process in workshops and online
• Youth can submit initiatives or present ideas for
  the municipality, school or NGO
• To be developed in 2014

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Data protection

• JHS 190 (previously JHS 129) guidelines for
  planning and developing public web services
• Privacy policy published in all services
• Strong electronic identification (optional in
  some services)
• Users can decide if they want to show their
  support openly in municipal initiatives
• User information between different initiatives
  can not be linked in citizens initiatives as
  personal identification number is encrypted
  separately on each initiative

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Key benefits of e-democracy services

• Cost-effective, open
• Reaching larger groups of stakeholders
• Quality and effectiveness of drafting increases
• Tools and methods support variety of
  participation methods
• Participation with less time-bound or physical
  limits
• Increased service level, knowledge and
  interaction
• Legitimacy and increased trust in the society

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Contact informationrauna.nerelli_at_om.fiTwitter
_at_Nerelliwww.demokratia.fihttp//sadepalvelut.f
i/en/facebook.com/otakantaa