In this 12^th edition of the "Best Practice in Citizen Participation" award, 65 local and regional governments have presented their candidacies, with nominations having been received from the following countries: Albania, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Indonesia, Italy, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Mozambique, Palestine, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey and Uruguay.

The proposals have been evaluated by an expert jury, having passed through a first stage of evaluation by all IOPD members via the PARTICIPATE OIDP platform. The purpose of this initial phase has been, on the one hand, to publicise all of the proposals and, on the other, to collect the opinions of members with regard to all relevant practices.

The International Jury has decided to award the 12^th Distinction to the candidacy presented by the municipality of Taoyuan (Taiwan): “2017 Participatory Budgeting for Migrant Workers".

Furthermore the following have also been granted a Special Mention:

• Águeda (Portugal): “The Sustainable Schools Project”

• Luhwindja (Democratic Republic of the Congo): "Local Government-NGO Partnership, Stepping Stone for the Advancement of Women"

• Penang (Malaysia): "Our Money, Our Say!’ - Budgeting by Inclusion"

• Sakha (Yakutia) Republic (Russia): "Yakutia LISP"

• Valongo (Portugal): "A More Enlightened Community, a More Participative Community"

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 IOPD’s website experiences section.
 

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