Civil participation in the planning processes: good practices

On the 15^th of May 2024, a round table titled “Civil participation in the planning processes: good practices” was held at the Varna University of Management (VUM).

The forum focused on the topic of involving citizens in planning processes as an approach that provides benefits for all stakeholders – citizens, local authorities and businesses.

The event was opened with a brief presentation of the topic and its importance, as well as with a presentation of the project “DEMo4PPL – Digital Education Modules 4 Participatory Planning”, which is funded by the Erasmus+ programme. In the context of this initiative, VUM, together with well-established institutions from Greece, Italy and Poland, will participate in the development of a modular curriculum for citizen participation in the planning processes, as well as in the provision of training materials and resources with the possibility of adaptation to different levels and areas of higher education.

In the second part of the event were presented good practices of civic participation in the cities of Varna and Dobrich. The first, arch. Ventsislava Nedyalkova from “The Spaces of Varna” presented some of the activities of the citizens’ initiative aimed at renovating urban spaces in the city and attracting people to the processes of urban planning. The widespread popularity and success of their actions demonstrates the important role of cooperation between the city government, people and businesses and the benefits of this interaction. After her, Arch. Boyan Kolarov from Citizens + Association with examples from his practice, confirmed that although in smaller quantities (considering the tangible decrease in the population in the city), cooperation citizens – local authorities is also successful on the territory of the town of Dobrich.

The event was closed with the inspiring story of the construction of a modern functional center of Karin Dom Foundation, which was presented by Mrs. Bistra Boncheva. The successful provision of significant resources – terrain, financing and volunteer work, which was needed to create a new therapeutic center for special children, confirm that people, businesses and local authorities work well together when united by a common cause and common values.

The event turned out to be interesting for over 170 active citizens – 30 of them visited it on the spot, and the rest over 140 followed its live broadcast on the Internet.