An interview with Valentina Bucchi, ANCI Toscana, on removing logistical barriers and adopting a multidisciplinary approach to make participation truly inclusive and grounded in real community needs.
How can we make participatory governance truly accessible and effective for all citizens?
We put these questions to Valentina Bucchi, ANCI Toscana, who offers practical and concrete insights on what works and what gets in the way.
For Bucchi, the key competency for both public officials and civil society is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary and multisectoral. Citizens do not experience problems in sectors, but horizontally, and governance must reflect this. Collaboration pacts have proven effective precisely because they favour stakeholders with an immediate willingness to act, prioritising doing over simply influencing policies.
On good practices, Bucchi is specific: organise participation in the evenings and on weekends, offer childcare and eldercare services so that women with family responsibilities can take part, and use visual and accessible tools that help people engage directly with the issue without requiring prior expertise. Too often, participatory processes demand a level of knowledge that excludes people at the very first step.
Digital tools can expand participation significantly, allowing citizens to contribute from home at any time. However, training digital intermediaries is essential to avoid leaving behind those groups who are completely excluded from these platforms.
The biggest barrier remains logistical: we cannot ask citizens to take time off work to participate. The solution is to bring the project to the community, identify places at the heart of the community, and produce regular reports that feed feedback back into the process.
Watch the full interview below.
Last Update
28/07/2026
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