New group established to boost democratic participation across Wales
The Welsh Government has brought together a group of leading experts in democracy, community engagement and policy development to explore new approaches to improving democratic participation across Wales.
The Innovating Democracy Advisory Group, led by Dr Anwen Elias, was established by the government in response to a recommendation from the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales which found that many Welsh citizens feel disconnected from decision-making processes that affect their lives.
The group hopes to address the lack of engagement through what it describes as “innovative approaches to civic education and participation covering all levels of government.”
Expert advice
Reporting to the Deputy First Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies, the Group will provide expert advice to the Welsh Government, while also seeking to engage directly with the Senedd and local government in coming months as they begin their work.
The Deputy First Minister met with the Group during its first meeting. He said: “Through their combined expertise, members of this Group will work to ensure everyone’s voices are heard and valued. Their innovative work extends beyond traditional electoral processes to revitalize democracy at all levels.”
‘Real value’
Dr Anwen Elias said: “I am delighted to be leading the Innovating Democracy Advisory Group to take forward the Commission’s recommendations. We have brought together a diverse group of influencers and advisors in the field of democratic innovation, participation, and involvement.
“We are committed to working in partnership with others across Wales who are already demonstrating best practice in public participation and democratic education. Together, we’ll explore where this Group can add real value to ensure that the people of Wales are heard in decision-making at all levels of government.”
The members of the group are, Mo Alamgir, Sarah Allan, Jess Blair, Mike Corcoran, Tomos Dafydd Davies, Professor Sally Holland, Yvonne Murphy, Julie Sangani, Professor Diana Stirbu, Daisy Thomson and Leanne Wood.
More information on the members of the advisory group is available here.
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The best platform to get people motivated into politics is social media. Facebook, You Tube etc. Hardly see anything online in regard to Welsh politics.
I think we will most definitely need another “democratic “group of experts to assess this expert group of experts. And perhaps a subsequent evaluation group to assess their evaluation, followed by a task and finish report group leading to an interim report, and a subsequent major conference at one of Wale’s finest conference centres, with guest speakers from other European democracies and beyond.
This could be game changing. I for the life of me can’t see why people don’t vote.
I doesn’t help when the press run “don’t vote for them and don’t for them either”. i dont use the socials but guess the same message was there as well. But it was evident last ge. Including here.
On the knocker with Huw and chums…
That is a football team there…this guy is a waste of money…Huw’s Day Out…
Perhaps everyone who votes for the first time could be given a £20 Spoons voucher.
I don’t think there will be a shortage of voters next year as I have recently met so many people, mostly ex-Labour voters, who said that they are going to vote Reform. The people of Wales will turn out in decent numbers for the Senedd Election and they’ll be supporting English Thatcherite Nationalism.
It amazes me that Westminster elections garner more people than the Senedd elections.
They don’t really when you look at by-elections. That’s when people who really care about their representation in SW1 make the effort The general election boost is just down to habit, “because we’ve always done it”.
More navel gazing by expert navel gazers.
Picking fluff out of each others’ navels. Very productive !
It would be incredibly difficult to find a more impressive, talented and well connected line-up of ‘experts’ and advisors than this one. I’m sure their report will be brilliant and learned and the Welsh government will take due notice and act positively according to their recommendations… oh, wait! It wont be ready for a year? Damn.
In reality this newly created group to boost participation in democracy in Wales shouldn’t actually exist because the Welsh public should care about their country not be reminded. Sadly most here aren’t engaged Welsh politics because for decades both Labour & Conservatives has dumbed down Welsh society, so much so, the public here aren’t even aware because what they read & hear in their newspapers and on TV doesn’t feature or reflect Wales or their own lives back, this because the media is largely anglocentric in Wales or based entirely in England. Why do we think Wales voted for Brexit… Read more »
The usual suspects!
Is there an election coming up, now Mr Davies wants to engage with the population by spending our money engaging consultants to tell him what’s wrong with the population. the madness of it all.
We will never hear from them again.