Author: Natalia Altman
How can a city empower its citizens to drive change and improve urban life?
SynAthina is the social innovation online platform of the City of Athens for engaging citizens in problem-solving and reform. Citizens and community groups can submit innovative ideas on how to make their city a better place to live in and are then connected to the relevant government representatives, non-governmental organisations, and private businesses that can support their efforts. This support can take different forms. For example, Synathina can help mobilise the City Hall to update regulations, policies and procedures, as well as bring actors from the public and private sector together to cooperate and experiment with new solutions and ways of working.
SynAthina has changed the relationships between the community, the people, sponsors and the municipal government. One of the successes of the platform is that it connects citizens and community groups with donors, experts and municipality services to help execute ideas and projects. For instance, if traditional ways of working and processes are an obstacle for the emergence of innovative good ideas, the synAthina project team works with members of the City Hall to change or upgrade policies and processes, and help embed a culture of openness and flexibility with the human capacity of the city. synAthina also connects community groups with each other, as well as facilitates connections with potential sponsors, who may support the groups with volunteers, expertise, equipment and funding. Lastly, synAthina can also source support from municipality departments when needed. This has revolutionalised the way in which the government interacts with citizens and other stakeholders. This platform also facilitates connections with sponsors, who may support the groups by providing volunteers, experts, equipment or funding.
The case of SynAthina also stands out for allowing citizens and the municipality to co-design neighbourhoods. Athens has put a lot of effort in including everyone, including the unusual and disengaged suspects in decision-making processes. SynAthina has enabled citizensâ participation and engagement in several municipal and other climate change-related projects and initiatives. Adaptation to climate change and urban resilience in Athens are now addressed through horizontal, multi-stakeholder and resilience-building projects.
Another crucial element of SynAthina concerns its power to shape regulation. In fact, if outdated regulations are hindering the advancement of good ideas or solutions, the synAthina project team can harness innovation within the City Hall to update or change regulations, policies and procedures and incentivise the public and private sector to experiment in new ways of working and cooperating
An innovative approach
SynAthina's approach stands out because it puts citizens at the centre of innovation. SynAthina contributed to identifying grassroot initiatives and connect them. The platform has registered nearly 400 groups that have carried out more than 3,000 activities, from graffiti removal to organising gardening workshops. It also helped develop a culture of collaboration and communication between the city officials and civil society and activist groups (which was not common before), as well as cross-sector partnerships between the municipality and businesses, universities, foundations, and others.
Main positive lessons
- Political: SynAthina had a strong political backing. This initiative sits under the Vice Mayoral Office for Civil Society and Innovation. In fact, the vice mayor Amalia Zepou helped spearhead Athensâ winning entry in the 2014 Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, which provided the city with funding for synAthina. Moreover, the political vision of Mayor Kaminis, and his alignment of international efforts to strengthen democracy in the city were fundamental. He also promoted SynAthina inside the municipality.
- Economic: The austerity measures and the economic crisis in Greece had an impact on the operational capacity of the government of Athens. The budget cuts and shrinking staff pushed Athens to find innovative solutions to do more with less resources available.
- Social: A vibrant and creative civil society working to improve neighbourhoods and communities was key. They became protagonists when it came to providing solutions and bridging the services gaps.
Main barriers found
- Social: Bureacratic culture was a main barrier that Synathina has tried to address. Changing the culture takes time and effort.
- Technical: Outdated regulations and practices constrain citizen activities.
Potential for reapplication and scale-up
SynAthinaâs model is highly adaptable and replicable across other cities and contexts, especially those looking to harness civic engagement and social innovation for urban improvement. The platformâs flexible approach, which connects citizens, community groups, government entities, and private sector actors, can be customized to different local realities and urban challenges.
All images on this site are sourced from synathina.gr. Video content is sourced from Eurocities and ĎĎ Î˝ÎθΡνΏ - synAthina YouTube channel.