Participatory approaches — WEAll Aotearoa

PRIORITY ISSUES > PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES

Better decisions, together.

Participatory approaches empower people and communities to navigate complex challenges together. By adopting more transparent, inclusive, and deliberative approaches we can put people and the planet at the centre of decision making.

“Putting a diversity of people at the forefront of shaping economic systems is the only antidote to an economy designed by and for a narrow group.”

Centre for Policy Development, Australia

Participatory approaches include

Citizens assemblies

Selecting a representative group to deliberate on important public questions, and make recommendations to official representatives.

Participatory budgeting

Empowering communities to discuss and prioritise how to allocate public budget collectively.

Co-design

Designing and developing with communities as equal collaborators, to ensure the solutions meet the needs of the people who will use them.

WEAll Aotearoa’s Economics Listening Tour

Over winter 2023, the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa Director, Gareth Hughes, embarked on a journey across the country to listen. His goal was to engage with everyday New Zealanders from different corners of the nation and walks of life, to hear their perspectives on the current state of Aotearoa’s economy and their aspirations for its future.

Participatory Approaches in Action

Toi Te Taiao - co-design

Toi Te Taiao, Aotearoa’s Bioethics Council, ran a range of national dialogues with various communities between 2007-08 on the complex topic of genetic modification.
An independent study found that participants rated their experience highly, and 30% had changed their thinking and become more tolerant of those with opposing views.
Watercare - citizens assembly

Watercare, working with Koi Tū: Centre for Informed Futures, hosted 40 Auckland residents, representing a range of demographics, to explore what their next source of water should be for by 2040. Over four days participants deliberated and arrived collectively at recommendations for the future of water infrastructure in our largest city.
Participants said they want to see more of this form of engagement, and that they had faith it would be successful if repeated again.
The Wellbeing Protocol - participatory grantmaking

The Wellbeing Protocol is an Aotearoa-based digital platform that allows communities to come together and make decisions about allocating funding. The app was co-designed and piloted with Tāne Ora, a Māori men's group to support collective decision making around the use of Sport NZ funds. Their work has received global interest and they are now scaling the approach with 8 active pilots across Aotearoa, the UK and Australia.
Citizens Convention for Climate (Paris) - citizens assembly

The Citizens Convention for Climate was a nation-wide Citizens Assembly held across 2019 and 2020 in Paris, with the goal of reducing France’s carbon emissions. While the members of the assembly have been critical of the government's lack of action regarding their recommendations, the Assembly led to some astounding results - including 8% of participants running for office in regional elections.
vTaiwan - digital deliberation

Audrey Tang is a Civic Hacker, and became Taiwan’s first digital Minister. Her work in digital deliberation has led to many fantastic outcomes for Taiwan. Using the platform vTaiwan, Audrey and the Taiwanese government have been able to engage citizens on dozens of issues, ranging from alcohol sales, navigating the impasse between taxi drivers and uber, and notably facilitating an incredibly rapid and effective response to the COVID epidemic.
Participatory Melbourne

Participatory Melbourne is building experiments and scaling solutions which generate agency and increase trust so that collective decision making can thrive. In a world often dominated by extreme views, Participatory Melbourne is driving solutions that enable us to ‘sit comfortably in the place between “me before all” and “all before me”.