The main criteria taken into account to assessing applications are:

- Achieving greater levels of equality by including all of the parties involved and, thereby, strengthening their capacities and creating a more just society.

- Engendering citizenship, extending citizens’ rights, granting new freedoms and responsibilities for democratic activity.

- Instilling a sense of legitimacy and confidence in public powers: fomenting actions that increase transparent decision-making and, thereby, bring about improvements in governance.

- Creating more effectiveness in public management, and improving the results of public policies.

It is also takes into account the degree of innovation of the experience, the transferability to other contexts or the evaluation of the public policy in question.

In this 11th edition of the award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation", 48 local and regional governments have applied their candidacy. These nominations were from the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Portugal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United States and Venezuela.

The International Jury has decided to award the 11th Distinction to the candidature presented by the municipality of La Paz (Bolivia): “Program neighborhoods and communities of truth", a program that emerges of the inhabitants and promotes participation in all stages of the process.

Furthermore there are granted with a Special Mention:

• Ampasy (Madagascar): “Participatory Budgeting”

• Austin (Texas, United States): "Conversation Corps"

• Cabildo de Tenerife (Spain): "Hey! Tenerife"

• Nanterre (France): "The permanent Agora"

• New Taipei (Taiwan): "Participatory Budgeting for Disabled Persons Employment Promotion in the Sanxia District"

• San Casciano Val di Pesa (Italy): "Community Mobility Network"

The material that we present is a synthesis of each of the different candidacies presented. The complete files of nominations will be published on the case of studies IOPD website space.

We would like to pass on our special thanks to all of those local governments that made the time and effort to present a candidacy, along with all of the institutions that have helped us to spread this initiative and those of the network’s collaborating members that, as the Jury, took part in evaluating all of the different experiences presented.