The Participation Playbook is an interactive online guide to help you successfully advocate for and implement a participatory program for your government or community. It is a tool for people who want to open up government to meaningful and equitable community participation.
The Playbook synthesizes global knowledge on participation and makes it widely available in an accessible format. It walks you through the key design questions for planning a participatory program, such as participatory budgeting or a citizens’ assembly, providing just-in-time information, data, and options each step of the way.
You can now use the Playbook to plan your own participatory program — for free! To get the best results, we recommend applying for the People Powered mentorship and accelerator programs, to get expert support to help you use the Playbook.
There are hundreds of guides and reports on how to design participatory and deliberative democracy programs (we’ve compiled the best ones in our resource center!). We know so much already about how to build open and participatory government, but this knowledge is not evenly or accessibly distributed. How do we address this?
The Participation Playbook provides a solution by getting the right knowledge in the hands of the right people at the right time in the most accessible way. People Powered and 60 partners have worked together to synthesize global knowledge and best practices on participation, develop a user-friendly interface walking you through key design questions and options, and create learning pathways to help you turn this knowledge into concrete plans. The result is a free “choose-your-own-adventure” style global tool.
Who is the Playbook for?
Government policymakers, staff members and officials interested in designing or building capacity to implement participatory programs.
Civil society organizations or coalitions that advocate for or support participatory programs.
International organizations and funders interested in promoting or supporting open government, public participation, or participatory and deliberative democracy.
What is the Playbook for?
Planning a new participatory program
Improving an existing program
Advocating to win approval for a program
Building capacity to effectively implement a program
Supporting multiple new programs across a region, an issue, or globally
What participation solutions does the Playbook address?
Participatory Budgeting
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which residents directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.
Citizens’ Assemblies
In citizens' assemblies, juries and panels, the government a civil society organization or another institution convenes a randomly selected and representative sample of the community to learn about a policy issue and identify policy solutions.
Legislative Theater
In legislative theater, communities, advocates and policymakers work together, to identify, develop, and build support for new legislation.
Participatory Policymaking
Through participatory policymaking, residents propose, debate, and vote on new policies and policy changes, through online platforms and meetings.
Climate Democracy
Public participation is a key strategy for effective climate action. Cities and other institutions can use participatory processes to build consensus around the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change’s effects. They can also identify specific climate-related projects and policies that respond to local needs.
Digital Participation
Digital participation involves using digital tools and platforms to engage people in decision-making.
Mainstreaming Participation
Mainstreaming refers to the normalization of fit-for-purpose, high quality, and inclusive citizen participation. This can be achieved by adopting institutional reforms and democratic innovations that enable participatory methods to be systematically incorporated in governance systems.
Inclusive Democracy
Inclusion in participatory democracy involves intentional planning and design choices that ensure the representation of traditionally excluded communities in decision-making. This includes considering the structural barriers different groups face, as well as the internal diversity and intersectionality within these groups. Addressing these barriers is key to elevating their voices and making processes equitable.
School Participation
Participatory programs can empower students and other community members to make decisions that shape their schools.
What to do:
Create an account on the Playbook website, take a needs assessment quiz, and start to develop your own personalized playbook.
Apply for our mentorship and accelerator programs, to get expert human support to help you use the Playbook successfully and get the best results.
Contact us about partnership ideas, to use the Playbook to support your regional or global programs, members, or grantees.