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The city of Oulu’s Open Government Action Plan received EU’s URBACT Recognition for Good Practices

01.11.2024

The city of Oulu has received EU’s URBACT Recognition for Good Practices for Oulu’s Open Government Action Plan ‘Open and Shared Oulu’. Oulu received recognition as the only Finnish city in 2024. In Europe, 116 cities received recognition for good practices this year. 

An assessment panel consisting of independent specialists granted the recognition based on recommendations in Veszprém, Hungary on October 29, 2024. URBACT Good Practices are urban initiatives that are effective, participatory, significant and easily transferable to other European cities. 

 

The city of Oulu’s recognized practice is international and promotes local openness and participation. Finland participates in an international open government partnership project. Countries participating in the project are committed to pursue three main goals: promote the openness of governance and citizen participation, harness technology to enforce governance, and fight against corruption. The city of Oulu is the only city in Finland that has compiled an open government action plan on the local level and promotes goal-oriented implementation of the plan’s focus areas. The city of Oulu’s Open Government Action Plan includes central and concrete focus areas to promote the openness of governance: Openness and Comprehensibility, Trust and Responsibility, Accessibility and Availability, and Human-Focus and Participation.  

The Regional Civil Society Academy offers organizations and the public sector a meeting place. The events are implemented and planned together with associations, Youth Councils, the wellbeing services county of North Ostrobothnia, the Council of Oulu Region, the Organization Advisory Board, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Finance. The goal of the activities is to reinforce organizational cooperation in North Ostrobothnia and the city of Oulu, highlight local and regional structures and their good practices. Dialogue is an integral part of the event. In the 2024 event, national civic organization strategy will be discussed with the Ministry of Justice. 

 

Recognized URBACT Good Practices will be promoted in URBACT’s communication channels during the years 2024–2025, and they will be the main operators in the 2025 URBACT City Festival held on April 8–10, 2025, in Wrocław , Poland. The 2025 URBACT City Festival offers a chance to present URBACT Good Practice initiatives and other European cities to be inspired and start project partnerships with other cities that are interested in transferring their Good Practices into the URBACT transfer network.  

Different city joint bodies, municipalities and cities, public utilities and consortiums and development companies have applied for the URBACT Good Practice recognition from all EU member states as well as from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova. The application period lasted from April 15 to June 30, 2024. 

 

URBACT Good Practices | urbact.eu