The Free Software Association Decidim has signed a collaboration agreement between the Department of External Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Barcelona City Council.

The aim is to promote participatory democracy and to develop and implement open, free and democratic digital infrastructures for participation.

It also seeks to promote the use of Decidim for citizen participation by both public administrations and social entities and to work collaboratively with other public institutions such as social entities and social agents in order to join forces to deepen technological sovereignty and improve the quality of democracy in the digital age.

Both institutions recognise Decidim as a key infrastructure for the deployment of citizen participation policies and as a tool for the extension of democracy in all types of organisations.

Created by Barcelona City Council and the Decidim community in February 2016, it has been adopted by the Generalitat de Catalunya and other public administrations and social entities in Catalonia and around the world. There are currently more than 300 active instances and it has been implemented in 18 countries, by local governments and very diverse institutions such as the governments of Mexico City, Helsinki, New York and Kakogawa (Japan) and the National Assembly of France, to name a few. In 2019, it was recognised by the European Commission as one of the most innovative open source projects in Europe. The governance of its code is the responsibility of the Decidim Free Software Association, which is in charge of ensuring the democratic practices of the platform and the promotion of its community Metadecidim.

The signing of this agreement is therefore of particular interest in order to collaborate in the maintenance of this infrastructure and to promote its use in organisations around the world. This collaboration should serve to reinforce the sustainability of the project and the preservation of the democratic principles contained in its social contract.

The agreement establishes a financial contribution framework that serves as a scale for other national or international public bodies that wish to join in the future.

The event was attended by Jordi Foz Dalmau, Secretary for Transparency and Open Government. Department of External Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Marc Serra, Councillor for Participation of Barcelona City Council, Guillem Marpons, President of the Association Decidim and Carol Romero, President Elected of the Association.

See discussion at Metadecidim.