The Rector of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche, Juan José Ruiz Martínez, and the Regional Minister for Participation, Transparency, Cooperation, and Democratic Quality, Rosa Pérez Garijo, signed a collaboration agreement on the morning of June 7, 2021. Through this agreement, both institutions will collaborate on activities related to promoting, developing, and carrying out citizen participation and fostering community involvement. Also present at the signing were the Vice-Rector for Research at the UMH, Domingo Orozco Beltrán, and the Regional Minister’s Chief of Staff, Jaume Giner Santos.

To carry out this project, the Valencian Regional Government will contribute up to €15,000. The overall objective of the work is to evaluate the participatory budgeting process as a public policy tool in the Valencian Community. The actions to be developed in the project are divided into different areas. First, the necessary indicators for evaluating the criteria will be specified. To this end, secondary sources of information will be analyzed, and indicators used in other processes will be adapted to the specific case at hand. Furthermore, an analysis of the participatory actions will be carried out, studying the district sessions by listening to them and reviewing the technical documents generated. The differentiated participation of women and men, as well as the type and form of participation of each, will always be taken into account.

This agreement also includes the development and analysis of interviews and surveys. The fieldwork will be carried out considering the groups involved in the process itself: political leaders, the technical team responsible for the participatory process, and the general public. The fieldwork will be carried out sequentially, taking into account the different stages of the citizen participation process. At the end of each stage, interviews and surveys will be conducted with the groups involved in order to partially evaluate the process and identify potential areas for improvement that could affect the next phase. Finally, the partial and final results obtained will be analyzed by the scientific and technical team responsible for this project, from a gender perspective, and the final report will be written.

On behalf of the UMH, the monitoring and control committee for this agreement will be composed of the Vice-Rector for Research or their designee, while the project will be directed by Professors Margarita Brugarolas Molla Bouza and Laura Martínez-Carrasco Martínez. Representing the Ministry of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality will be the Director General of Citizen Participation, the Deputy Director General of Citizen Participation, and the Head of the Citizen Participation Policies Service.