A web page to change the world
Imagine being able to have access with the click of a button to when, how and what are the members of the Spanish Parliament doing related to poverty and social justice. This is the base of TIPI project, one of the financed within the EEA Grants Active Citizenship Programme.
19.11.2014
Transparency. Information. Participation. Impact. These are the four words behind TIPI, one out of the 38 selected projects within the EEA Grants Active Citizenship Programme, operated by the NGO Platform of Social Action. A project which offers an innovative approach to the way that civil society organizations try to have an impact on political process and public opinion regarding poverty and exclusion topics in Spain.
The TIPI project is an online tool for organizations, media and civil society in general who can have free and easy access to all the information about what the Spanish politicians are doing related to social justice. That brings the opportunity to have an impact in public policy-making from objective and reliable data and demand for accountability. In essence, “put an end to the promises made and later broken by politicians under the cover of anonymity”, explains Javier Pérez, from CIECODE, the project promoter.
Child poverty, immigrants, health, education, decent work or homeless are some of the keywords in the search engine TIPI, according to the promoters in the launching public event. “The project stems from the citizen’s need to take part in public life and the limited ability to influence because policy process are complex, there is not real transparency or there are scarce opportunities for citizen involvement”, said Alba Gutiérrez, from CIECODE.
And, how are they doing it? Through the online platform but also with data journalism; dialogue between civil society and policy makers, opinion makers and influencers; and with workshops in 19 Spanish cities, “to pass some of our enthusiasm back to the citizens about the power society have to change things”.
In this project, with an overall objective to give the citizens the tools to take better decisions after knowing what their politicians are doing for a better society, the project promoter, CIECODE, have two Spanish partners (porCausa and EAPN Castilla la Mancha) and one collaborator (Unicef Spain).
The total amount of the Active Citizenship Programme is 4,6 million euros to support the Third Sector by strengthening its capacity in policy engagement, promoting active citizenship and addressing social justice and sustainable development.