Chile: Citizen Participation and Public Politics Program

Director: Gonzalo Delamaza
Communications Coordinator: Karla Palma
Programa Ciudadanía y Gestión Pública (Citizenship and Public Management)
Antonio Varas 531
Providencia, Santiago
Chile

Phone: (562) 236-3060
Fax: (562) 236-3049
E-mail: gdelamaza@innovacionciudadana.cl
Web site: http://www.innovacionciudadana.cl/

The mission of the Programa Ciudadanía y Gestión Pública (Citizenship and Public Management Program) is to contribute to the improvement of democratic governance in Chile through the dissemination of sub-national practices that encourage citizens to participate in government. The Citizenship and Public Management Program has operated since 1999, but 2006 was the first year that it distributed awards. Currently, the program operates with the support of the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University, United Kingdom; Universidad de Los Lagos; the Corporation for Innovation and Citizenship; and the Ford Foundation.

The program calls for award submissions every two years. Publicity for the awards targets local administrators in government and civic and social organizations. The award is primarily a mechanism to identify and recognize innovations that promote civic engagement in Chile. Award winners share a common focus on citizen participation; however, their goals are diverse, with projects ranging from the protection of the Nonguén forest to the creation of a communal Children’s Bank to improve the lives of youth in the poor community of Cerro Navia, in Santiago.

Some award partners have joined the deliberative process in evaluating award applicants, including Chile’s Ministry of Health; the German Agency for Technical Cooperation; Sinergi@Regional (a network of regional universities); the Innovation Council of Coquimbo Region; and a private bank. Each of these partners has focused on a specific thematic element in reviewing applicants, such as local development, health management, and youth programming. By building partnerships with award-winning programs, the Citizenship and Public Management Program hopes to generate Regional Councils of Innovation, forming a network of institutes to gather best practices throughout the nation in a variety of different fields.

Gonzalo Delamaza is a sociologist at the Catholic University of Chile, with a diplôme d’études approfondies (diploma of advanced studies)in the social sciences at the School for Advanced Studies in Paris. Mr. Delamaza has worked in social development projects with Chilean NGOs since 1977, and is now director of the Citizenship and Public Management Program at University of Los Lagos in Chile. In addition, he is a university professor and a consultant for public and international institutions in the area of design, evaluation, and gender in social programs. Mr. Delamaza was also president of ACCIÓN, a Chilean NGO, from 1991 to 1995. In 2003, he was a visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Mr. Delamaza is currently conducting doctoral studies at Leiden University, the Netherlands.