Four more Municipal Development Councils have unanimously adopted recommendation papers and presented these to political decision-makers in their municipalities. With the completed processes in Cottbus/Chóśebuz, Duisburg, Frankfurt (Oder) and the Joint municipality of Meinersen another round of participation projects supported by the Governance Platform comes to an end.
In four to five meetings each, stakeholders from politics, administration, business and civil society contributed with great intensity and commitment. The processes were challenging, but worthwhile: the result was bold, forward-looking recommendations for a socio-ecological transformation on the ground.
The accompanying evaluation also clearly shows that the municipal development councils approach works. It promotes mutual understanding and strengthens trust in politics and local democracy:
At the end of the project, we invited not only the four municipalities from the recently completed processes, but also representatives of the six previously participating municipalities to Berlin. Over 50 coordinators, advisory board members and mayors came together in February 2025.
Together, we toasted the successfully completed processes and honoured the work of the teams from Cottbus, Duisburg, Frankfurt (Oder)-Słubice and the joint municipality of Meinersen. At the same time, we took stock after ten completed processes, exchanged experiences and made new contacts.
The event also formed the Kick-off for the network of municipal development councils and the Launch of a digital toolboxThe network's central findings and materials were brought together to ensure that they remain usable within the network in the future.
In the evening, we held a panel discussion with actors from politics, civil society and administration on how municipalities can strengthen democratic processes "from below". The contributions impressively demonstrated the diversity and effectiveness of local approaches to promoting plurality, cohesion and democratic participation.
We are grateful for the great commitment of many people who believe in the format of the municipal development councils and are committed to their municipalities. A very special thanks goes to the administrative coordinators in our four partner municipalities - for their trust, their time and their willingness to meet with us again and again in chair circles. We would also like to thank the more than 150 advisory board members who invested long weekend days and led the processes to success.
Special thanks also go to the E.ON Foundationwhose valuable support as a partner made the project possible in the first place.
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We are currently preparing the next round: The focus is on municipal heat planning. The municipal development councils approach is to be further developed as a social business model and trialled in four to six other municipalities from autumn 2025.
More on this soon here in the blog.
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