News

Luxembourg carves out its niche in CivicTech

  • Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE)
    University / Central Administration and Rectorate
    21 June 2021
  • Category
    University

As part of the OGP’s (Open Government Partnership) 2019-2021 national action plan, through which Luxembourg has established six action plans to promote transparency and citizen participation, ETICC and the University of Luxembourg have signed an agreement with the Ministry of State to promote the use of participatory technologies (CivicTech) in democratic processes (action plan n°5). The goal is to encourage civic initiatives in the greater Luxembourg area and encourage young entrepreneurs to develop CivicTech start-ups for the common good.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to mobilise governments worldwide to make measurable commitments to promote transparency, citizen participation, anti-corruption and good governance, mainly through the use of new technologies. The OGP was launched in 2011 by eight countries (South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States). More than 75 countries and 20 local communities are currently participating in the partnership.

The University of Luxembourg is contributing to this project via the Luxembourg Platform for Participatory Democracy (PLDP) and its business incubator. The PLDP was created in December 2020. It aims to evaluate and strengthen participatory projects in the pilot city of Dudelange and, secondly, to assess and promote country-wide participatory democracy projects.

The collaboration referred to in the agreement originates from ETICC (Europe Technology & Collective Intelligence for Citizens). ETICC is a Luxembourg think & action tank created in June 2019 by a group of committed citizens. Its mission is to promote models of active citizenship, notably through technology (CivicTech, AI4Citizen) and to develop projects generating European collective citizen intelligence and large-scale positive impacts.

This convention lays the foundation for a joint effort to strengthen the democratic relationship and mutual trust between citizens and institutions over time. The commitment includes several deliverables such as the organisation of a CivicTech awareness campaign and multi-stakeholder launch conference, the opening of a CivicTech incubator, as well as the launch of a national online citizen platform dedicated to participatory democracy.

PLDP and ETICC will kick off the project with a series of interviews with stakeholders in participatory democracy (public and academic institutions, associations, etc.) to raise awareness and promote this topic. University of Luxembourg‘s incubator will promote the CivicTechs to potential contractors within the University.