Barcelona City Council is opening the participatory process for the Municipal Action Programme 2020-2023, to be agreed with municipal groups and citizens. The PAM is the document which sets out municipal activity for the next few years and identifies the most important action and projects to be carried out during the term of office. A programme has been defined which aims to strengthen the feminist vision running through all municipal action and guarantee links with the sustainable development goals in the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

The participatory process starts on 3 February, the aim being to enrich the document further and gather proposals, objections and suggestions from the public, organisations and the rest of the political forces present on the City Council. The platform decidim.barcelona will centralise all the information relating to the process and act as the public forum for people in the city.

The PAM is divided in six strategic areas setting out the priorities for this term of office and identifying the goals and key action in each of these spheres:

1. Social rights
2. Climate emergency
3. Economic progress
4. Right to the city
5. Learning, creativity and links
6. Governance

In parallel to the initial proposal and debate for the PAM there will also be District Action Programmes (PAD). These ten documents will outline the goals and policies to be developed in each of the ten districts during this term of office. The action set out in the PAD documents will have to be in line with the PAM.

Participation from students and people with functional diversity

The participatory process will strengthen input from different groups who have not had much representation in public life and in decision-making processes in the city, with improvements to accessibility and inclusion in the sessions. There will also be sessions with 3,100 students in their fourth and fifth years at primary school and in their third year at secondary school. The pupils will come from thirty different schools in different neighbourhoods in the ten districts. The groups of students who take part in the debate will be involved in a feedback session on the definitive document at the start of the next school year.

Debates will also be held with people with functional diversity, including ten sessions with people with intellectual disabilities or mental health disorders and debates with representatives from organisations in this sector. Sessions with people in vulnerable situations will also be held.

Procedure and calendar for the PAM and the PADs

The participatory process for the PAM will go on until March 2020. The next few months will also be used for reflection and debate on the programme through various participatory bodies, such as the Municipal Council Assembly, the Barcelona Economic and Social Council and the District Councils. If the PAM gets sufficient support, it will be approved by the Full Council in the summer of 2020.