Community Participatory Governance Forum was held in Chengdu, China

11/17/2010

 

17-18 November 2010, "Community Participatory Governance Forum" was held in Chengdu, China. The forum was co-organized by Central Bureau of Comparative Political and Economic Research Center (CCCPE), China Participatory Governance Network (CCPG), Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, and Public Policy, Social Development Research Center (SSPP) and the Chengdu Public Administration Institute. 

Mr. Wang, Deputy Director of Local Political Power and Community, China Civil Affairs Ministry, Dr. Zhou, Deputy Director of China Comparative Political and Economic Research Center, Mr. Xiang, Secretary of Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, and Mr. Qiu, Deputy Governor of Qingyang District, Chengdu, gave speeches for the opening. 70 participants, who include government officials, researchers, civil society organization delegates, local community delegates, as well as delegates from Brazil, Senegal, and Japan, attended the meeting. Silvio Angrisani Caccia Bava, General Coordinator of Polis Institute, Brazil attended the forum.

"Community Participatory Governance Forum" was held to promote grassroots community participation in governance, as well as to provide a platform for researchers and actors to discuss and explore innovative experiences in practice. 

The forum was divided into three parts: the first part is community citizen participation promoted by government. Mr. Zhang, Deputy Secretary of Chinese Communist Party Committee of Jinjiang District, introduced the social administration system reform, which is characterized by sub-district public administration reform as precondition, community governance mechanism reform as a key to fostering development of community based social organizations to supplement innovation works to enhance practices of grassroots democracy. Mr. Sun, Director of Community Building, Beijing Social Development Committee, introduced the development and implementation of "Beijing Community Catalogue of Basic Public Services" to achieve full coverage of universal public services local communities. And community representatives shared their experiences of local community governance autonomy.

The second part is community citizen participation promoted by civil society organizations. Three CCPG community innovative action cases, and a case of Xiamen Green Cross shared their experiences of grassroots community participation in governance process and changes. The third part is civil society and local governance, domestic and foreign delegates of civil society shared their experiences in local governance issues.

With the transformation of Chinese society, relying on only practices of government has been taking all failures to meet demands of diversified demands emerging, the government unilaterally can not meet all market and social development demands. From a social point of view, integration of the community as a social fabric, this is inseparable from building a common community and governance power. In this process, how to achieve a "the party leadership, government responsibility, community and public participation" model? How to empower local communities? How to effectively integrate resources of society? How to enhance community self-management, self-education, self-service, self-monitoring ability to form a new pattern of community participation in governance? All these challenges have become hot topics of citizen participation and social innovation.

At the Forum the "Participatory Budgeting 72 Questions" (Chinese version), the book is co-produced by UN-Habitat and China Participatory Governance Network, published by China Social Publishing House was launched.

During the Forum, delegates paid field visits to local communities in Qingyang District and Jinjiang District.