Venezuela

Technical Water Boards of Caracas

City/State/Region: Caracas
Begin – End: 1993 – 1996
Name of organization in charge: HidrocapitalAlcaldía de Caracas
Type of organization in charge: government
Level: local

Impact

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Implementation: was the innovation effectively, partially or not put into practice at all?

Fulfillment of Aims: were the goals of the innovation completely, partially or not achieved at all?

Output: has the innovation generated recommendations, initiatives, decisions or policies?

Outcome: if there were a policy output, was it enacted or implemented?

Implementation: partial
Fulfillment of Democratic Innovation’s aim: partial
Output: yes
Policy Outcome: yes

The Technical Water Boards of Caracas were participatory experiences organized on the initiative of the Mayor's Office, aimed at establishing a dialogue between the inhabitants of the parishes of Antímano, El Junquito and Sucre and the company providing the drinking water service, Hidrocapital. Through the formation of these Boards, it sought to resolve a severe social conflict motivated by the lack of service, lack of access to water and lack of sanitation infrastructure for the most excluded populations in these areas of the city. Through this call, citizen representatives were invited to participate in the design and implementation of concrete measures aimed at improving the service. Citizens were charged with conducting a census, making a diagnosis and submitting proposals to the company. The Boards also participated in the implementation of these measures accompanying the execution of the projects. In this way, it was possible to improve the infrastructure of water pumping and waste disposal. The experience was widely evaluated as a successful formula for citizen empowerment and for strengthening relations between the community, the government and service providers, and served as a guide for the subsequent implementation of the Technical Water Boards at the national level from the year 1999.

Institutional design

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Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?

Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?

Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?

Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?

Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?

Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?

Formalization: unknown
Frequency: unknown
Mode of selection of participants: open
Type of participants: citizens civil society
Decisiveness: unknown
Co-Governance: yes

Means

Deliberation
Direct Voting
E-Participation
Citizen Representation

Ends

Accountability
Responsiveness
Rule of Law
Political Inclusion
Social Equality

Policy cycle

Agenda setting

Formulation and decision-making

Implementation

Policy Evaluation