Citizens as Partners – Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-Making

This OECD Handbook on Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-making is a practitioner’s guide designed for use by government officials in OECD Member and non-member countries. It offers a practical “road map” for building robust frameworks for informing, consulting and engaging citizens during policy-making. The Handbook recognises the great diversity of country contexts, objectives and measures in strengthening government-citizen relations. As a result, it offers no prescriptions or ready-made solutions. Rather, it seeks to clarify the key issues and decisions faced by government officials when designing and implementing measures to ensure access to information, opportunities for consultation and public participation in policy-making in their respective countries.

The policy lessons and examples provided in the Handbook are drawn from the OECD report entitled “Citizens as Partners: Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-making”. The report is the result of over two years of joint efforts by OECD Member countries and represents a unique source of comparative information on measures taken for strengthening citizens access to information, consultation and participation in policy-making. A short Policy Brief designed for policy-makers, setting out the report’s main findings and policy lessons, is also available on the OECD web site.