Mycomm

Mycomm We Believe the problems in our world can be solved by empowering citizens to solve their own problems.

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We are on a mission to renew and revive the Civil Agenda for development.

All too many factors related to age, wealth, employment, education, and health of people throughout history have prevented some individuals from having as much control over the public sphere as others. Whether or not, the achievement of democracy depends on how successful we are to enable people to engage in shaping their politics as equal members. Every victory in advancing the cause of democracy, sadly, risks bringing in complacency. Therefore, a rallying call for the regeneration of the power of people is periodically required. We aim at building more cooperative relationships between citizens and the state, much depends on how far citizens are willing to engage in the process of change – especially those who are least active and vocal in political decision making. This move calls for a new kind of partnership between assertive local action and a transformed public realm. To provide a permanent and lasting solution to the plight of citizens, public authorities will need to be open and democratic and shaped through democratic dialogues, and to operate in multiple layers, with heads of public institutions following the principles of subsidiarity. They will do this by ensuring fair and equal access and decent standards, and they will distribute public funds to make this possible. These individuals will see their roles as facilitators, enablers and co-producers of the common good.

Realization of a new Ghana, a new people with all burdens of citizens being resolved and every other ambitious goal will certainly not be realized swiftly. However, inspiration can be drawn from a number of European cities, for example, in Barcelona, in northern Spain, the radical party Barcelona En Comu, which at a point had a majority in the city Government, promotes what it calls a collaborative economy. This included many hundreds of cooperatives and other community-led and public interest organisations, such as Guifi.net, an internet access enterprise and Som Energia Coop, a green energy cooperative which promotes locally generated, clean, sustainable electricity for ordinary homeowners (Bollier, 2016; Van Kouwen, 2016). In Bologna in northern Italy, when the city government introduced a pioneering regulation for the care and regeneration of urban citizens. This envisages the city as a collaborative social ecosystems where the local state hosts a large number of self-organised, shared ventures that aim to serve the citizens interest. There are more than 90 different pacts of collaboration between citizen groups and the Bolognese government, which specify the scope of each project and respective responsibilities. These fall into three categories: living together (collaborative services), growing together (collaborative services), growing together (co-ventures) and working together (co-production) (Bollier, 2015; see also LabGov, 2014). The Flemish city of Ghent has endorsed an ambitious citizens transition plan which considers in detail how to build a partner city - one that enables and empowers three developments; citizens oriented civic initiatives; generative market forms, which sustain the citizens and create livelihoods for the core contributors; and facilitate types of support from civil society organisations. The Ghent plan includes a model of poly-governance, with state, markets and civil society working together to support and scale up the common ideal (Bauwens, 2017).

All these initiatives illustrate the importance of devolved powers hence the Mycomm movement to empower citizens to bring change in their own communities and a greater improvement in their livelihoods.