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Supporting the engagement of marginalised communities in decision-making processes
From Department of Rural and Community Development
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In August 2019, the Department of Rural and Community Development published Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities: A Five-Year Strategy to Support the Community and Voluntary Sector in Ireland 2019-2024.
The strategy was co-produced by Government and the community development, local development, community and voluntary and local government sectors through the Cross-Sectoral Group on Local and Community Development (CSG).
Objective 3 commits to ‘Develop and strengthen processes and mechanisms to secure meaningful consultation, inclusion and participation in local, regional and national decision-making structures, particularly by non-engaging and marginalised communities and their representative organisations’.
In support of this important, strategic objective, and of Ireland’s commitment to the Sustainable Development principle of ‘Leave no one behind’; the Department of Rural and Community Development are currently working with Pobal on the development of resources and supporting four pilot projects, which have been selected to develop and test engagement strategies to support inclusive participation.
The project aims to develop toolkits that can be adapted and used by local authorities and other state agencies to enable better engagement with hard to reach groups. Following an expressions of interest process administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development, funding of up to €40,000 has been approved for each of 4 LCDCs.
Clare, Fingal, Galway City and Wicklow will undertake pilot programmes to support participation and engagement by marginalised and disadvantaged communities in the Local Economic and Community Planning (LECP) process which is currently underway in each local authority area.
In addition to the pilot programme, information and resources are being provided to all local authorities to support their engagement with marginalised communities.
National events will showcase good practice in relation to engagement strategies, with inputs from experts and national advocacy and representative organisations. The first National event was held online on 4th May 2022 – a full recording is available below. Further events, and publication of resources will follow later this year.
‘A Guide for Inclusive Community Engagement in Local Planning and Decision Making supports consultation and engagement at local level.
The guide was launched by Minister of State, with responsibility for Community Development, Charities and Integration, Joe O’Brien TD, in February 2023.
An updated, second edition was published in October 2023 using learnings from three pilot programmes and feedback gained from the process.
The guide can be found here:
