The International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (IOPD) organizes an international conference every year to discuss and reflect on the state of local participatory democracy in the world. The Conference is organized by a local or regional government that holds the presidency of the network, and defines the main theme of the event according to their priorities in this area. 

This event brings together local, regional and national elected officials, facilitators, academics and political activists. These seminars consist of lectures, panel discussions around specific issues, parallel exchange sessions and multiple parallel meetings between participants.

The city organizing the conference commits to assume the costs of organizing the event and finding the necessary partners for this purpose.

The technical secretariat is launching a call for cities interested in organizing the 23th Conference in 2024. In 2022 the 21st conference is hosted by the City of Grenoble in France and the City of Rio de Janeiro will host the 22nd conference in 2023.

Nominations will be discussed at the IOPD General Assembly to be held on December 10, 2022. 

To submit your application, you must send a mail before November 28 to info@oidp.net with:

• Letter from the political head of the local or regional government presenting the bid
• General description of proposed contents of the conference (maximum two pages)
• General description of the technical and financial resources of the local government submitting the bid (maximum two pages) and the alliances desired to organize the event

The following cities have organized the conference since 2001: Barcelona, Quezaltenango, Lille, Buenos Aires, San Sebastián-Donostia, Nanterre, La Paz, Reggio Emilia, Mexico City, Lleida, Porto Alegre, Cascais, Canoas, Madrid, Matola, Montreal, Barcelona, Iztapalapa, Cocody and Grenoble.

More information: 

• Rules for the election of the host city of the conference and for the presidency of the IOPD 2024

• The deadline for submitting a bid to host the conference is 28 November 2022.

• Don't hesitate to contact us at info@oidp.net if you have any questions