How Citizen Partnerships co-produce projects with Yamato City in Japan

Change management

In 2001, Mr. Kimiyasu TSUCHIYA who was the directly-elected mayor of Yamato City at the time, launched a public debate about the benefits of a Citizen Partnership in Yamato City and what its governance structure might look like. A number of public meetings took place and an online discussion forum was set up. In 2002, the local council issued a local regulation which established a ‘new public model’ for collaboration between citizens, community groups, third sector organisations, business and local government in Yamato. This included the definition of the governance structure and the rights and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved. The preamble stated that “we can share time, knowledge, funds, venues and information among individual citizens, community groups and businesses with wider society as social resources for the benefit of all. Government too must provide its resources and participate in the formation of social resources, which form the basis for participation by citizens, community groups and businesses in the “new public” model and the seeds of a brighter future.”

The Citizen Partnership of Yamato City was comprised of

• 2 local government officials responsible for citizen engagement
• 16 citizens recruited through public advertisement
• 2 academic experts (one being an expert on partnership working, another with expertise on local autonomy)
• 6 representatives of local nonprofit organisations.

The local regulation avoided defining in detail how the Citizen Partnership should work together. This was obviously a learning process for both the local authority and the Citizen Partnership and involved continuous debates on how best community representatives and the city government might co-operate.

In order to harness the ideas coming forward from the local communities, the Citizen Partnership organised a workshop in 2003 at which citizen groups could present their project ideas. The responsible local government officers gave feedback and advice to strengthen the proposed projects. After the workshop, the citizen groups refined their projects and resubmitted them to a second workshop. Again, each project was reviewed by both participating citizens and local government officials. At the end of this process, all participants decided whether to recommend the project to the city government for funding or not. The Citizen Partnership then passed the list of recommended projects to Yamato City. The local government officers responsible for the respective projects then discussed the recommendations with the mayor, who made a final decision on the funding of specific projects within three weeks. The citizens involved in the chosen projects then negotiated an agreement with Yamato City on how the projects would be undertaken.

The Citizen Partnership agreed the following process for co-commissioning local projects:

1. Community groups submit project proposals to the Citizen Partnership
2. The Citizen Partnership makes recommendations as to whether the project is in line with local priorities
3. Final decision by the mayor
4. Consultation between the community groups and city government officers responsible for the issue or service on the implementation of the project/delivery of the service
5. Citizen groups and the city government agree a project/delivery plan.

Typically, co-production projects lasted for about three years. If the community group or local government wished to continue the project beyond this term, then either the citizen group or the city government officer involved had to make a new proposal.

In 2007 Mr. Satoru Ooki was elected as the new mayor. The mayor changed the Citizen Partnership regulation in 2008 to make it more effective. In particular, the number of members of the Citizen Partnership was reduced from 26 to 7. Furthermore, the commissioning process was streamlined as well. All projects which were submitted to the Citizen Partnership were directly appraised by the responsible participation unit of Yamato City as to whether they would be suitable for community-led co-production. This meant that the Citizen Partnership could focus on out-reach to local communities to harness their ideas for new projects and market the success of existing co-production projects. As a result, almost all proposals submitted to the Citizen Partnership were approved after 2008.

At the end of every fiscal year, city officers and citizens involved in specific co-production projects undertake a joint evaluation. The results are presented at a public evaluation meeting where the involved citizens are given advice on how to develop the project further.