Description

The 19th general assembly of the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy took place in the framework of the homonym conference. The mayor of Iztapalapa and president of the IOPD, Clara Brugada, chaired the general assembly with the IOPD general secretary, Marc Serra. During the assembly, management reports were presented and questions about the network governance, the work plan, next locations for the IOPD conferences and the final declaration were debated. 

The city of Cocody in Ivory Coast was elected for hosting next conference in 2020, and Grenoble, in France, was elected to host the 2022 conference. Other cities also showed their interest in organizing the conference in 2021, 2023 and 2024.

The assembly voted for the creation of the new function of copresidency in order to reinforce the network's political visibility and leadership. So the presidency will be co-chair by the mayor of the city that organize the annual conference and by the mayor of the city organizing the previous conference. Therefore, the mayor of Cocody, Jean-Marc Yacé, will co-chair the IOPD in 2020 with the mayor of Iztapalapa, Clara Brugada. 

Regarding promoting members and regional offices, it was decided that their political leadership will remain a function for local and regional governments, while civil society organizations should boost network's actions.

Concerning the work plan, the two thematic priorities elected are "citizen participation and climate change mitigation" and "gender perspective in citizen participation". Finally, the necessity for the IOPD to better coordinate with the work of UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) was lado discussed. UCLG was represented during the assembly by Pablo Fernández Marmisolle from the world secretariat. He invited the IOPD members to actively participate in the UCLG's mechanisms of political deliberation and to the open forum for civil society organizations.

Political declaration adopted by the General assembly