Co-Creation and Stakeholder Engagement for Evidence Based Policymaking

We live in a digital world where shopping, working and even meeting our friends and partners are online but, despite the wealth of digital tools at our fingertips, participation in democratic processes is falling across Europe.

The “Stakeholder Engagement Track” of the Evidence Based Policymaking in Europe Summit 2021 explored how new technologies and tools can be used for engagement and innovative collaboration between policy makers and citizens creating ecosystems for a positive change.

It demonstrated that in the case of Stakeholder Engagement and the Co-Creation process, the biggest challenge is cultural and not technical.

To overcome this challenge it is important to be open, trying to adapt the process to what is needed from the citizens’ point of view, to be ready to listen and to keep the process fluid, not forcing it into a specific direction.

Finally, capacity building is a pillar of the process. Traditional training is not working so it is time to start testing role play training or serious gaming to target this objective.