Conference Agenda

The notion of common good is undoubtedly a controversial one. Although the Italian Constitution and Civil Code do not explicitly recognize commons, it is important to recall the well-known definition proposed in 2007 by the Rodotà Commission, which identified these as «utilities functional to the exercise of fundamental rights as well as to the free development of the individual and the safeguarding of the interests of future generations».

According to that definition, gender equality seems to be able to fully enter into the concept of commons. This is supported by Article 3.2 of the Italian Constitution, which mandates that the Republic remove economic and social obstacles – included those related to gender – that prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organization of the country. Further confirmation comes from SDG No.5 of the Agenda ONU 2030.

As a consequence of this, the paper aims at presenting gender equality as an intangible resource that can be “managed” collectively by public administrations, communities and individuals through the model of co-administration.

In this context, Article 118, co.4 of the Italian Constitution provides for the principle of horizontal subsidiarity, according to which public institutions encourage the autonomous initiative of citizens to carry out activities of general interest.

In its landmark judgment No. 131 of 2020, the Italian Constitutional Court defines activities of general interest as those aimed at «civic, solidaristic and socially useful purposes for the promotion and protection of human, civil, social and political rights», also encompassing efforts to reduce gender inequalities. In fact, as a proof of this, some regional laws on shared administration – such as Emilia-Romagna regional law 3/2023; Umbria regional law 2/2023, Molise regional law 21/2022; Tuscany regional law 71/2020; Lazio regional law 10/2019 – identify, among its purposes, the promotion of equal opportunities between genders.

In this perspective, the paper proposes to valorize Gender Budgeting (GB), an analysis and planning tool aimed at incorporating gender perspective into the budgetary process of local, regional and state entities, in order to restructure expenditure in favour of equality.

The involvement of civil society – both individuals and associations – in the gender budgeting procedures of public administrations can notably promote a shared governance of equality.

First of all, GB allows citizens to actively contribute to a more equitable definition of collective interests and needs, through surveys or other instruments, thus promoting paths of evolution of administrative citizenship – in particular gender one.

Furthermore, citizens can participate to the definition of public spending priorities, integrating gender perspective in the budgeting processes and promoting a fairer management of the common good (the so-called participatory gender budgeting).

In conclusion, stakeholder participation in gender budgeting processes fosters co-planning activity that enhance administration’s capacity to deliver services efficiently, especially at the local level.

India's Digital Public Infrastructure, which includes prominent tools such as Aadhar, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Digital Payments, and Digilocker, is collectively known as "Stack India". Digital India aims to provide much-needed impetus to the nine pillars of growth sectors, i.e., Broadband Highway, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Scheme, and Electronic administration: Government Reform through Technology, e-Kranti - Providing Electronic Services, Information for All, Electronic Manufacturing, IT for Jobs, and Early Harvest Programs. The term "digital transformation" has become popular to refer to the shift from digitalization initiatives to a comprehensive overhaul of rules, procedures, and services to simplify user experiences for residents and frontline employees (Mergel, 2018). India's UPI payment system is also touted as a viable alternative to the dominant SWIFT system. This paper will describe our nation's digital public infrastructure along with digital identities to empower people, financial inclusion, the justice system, efficient services, skills, health, and climate action. In this paper, the digital public infrastructure in India is compared with the digital public infrastructure of the G20 member countries. The paper's main objectives are To determine how bureaucratic corruption and digital transformation are related and to determine factors that need to be adequately handled by IT experts to encourage the use of Digital means. The study shows that digitally connecting and offering services online has been the biggest accomplishment of Digital India. Nowadays, many internet services related to financial inclusion, education, health, and agriculture are accessible nationwide. Initiatives like eNAM(National Agriculture Market), eSanjivini, DIKSHA(digital infrastructure for knowledge sharing), and Common Service Centers (CSCs) have given India a true sense of empowerment. The corruption and bureaucratic mindset continue to be obstacles to digital change. It has been observed that corrupt practices have continued even after public services were digitized and that digital services are insufficiently effective in addressing them. (Manda, 2021) It is still challenging to institutionalize new information systems, technologies, norms, practices, and other innovations for bettering planning, governance, operational effectiveness, and service delivery in the public sector.

Participation of people in online services, having Knowledge and skill to use online services, significant use of ICT Technologies, IT laws, online Services, infrastructure for online services, and efficiency and transparency in online services increase trust in Indian Administration. Analysis shows that corruption is prevalent in the public sector. Efficiency and transparency in online services have increased due to digital transformation. People participate less in online services due to network problems, illiteracy, lack of IT skills, and infrastructure challenges. An online survey was conducted using Google Forms to gather data from the education, health, and MSMEs sectors. The purposive sampling method was used to collect data. Three hundred ninety replies representing the broader population's viewpoint are gathered.

In Italy, experiences of bottom-up care of the commons, starting with the occupations of 2012, have rekindled interest in the topic, which was the subject of a draft bill drawn up by the Rodotà Commission in 2007 and never turned into a national law. The illegal occupations of abandoned public property have acted as a spur to imagine managing - even if only at the municipal level - the experiences of community governance that seem to escape the public-private dichotomy, setting themselves in an unexplored legal space to be regulated also by private law instruments. These realities have mostly been managed through cooperation pacts provided for by municipal regulations, but in some cases, collective self-government of the asset has been preferred to shared management. Among these, the ‘Neapolitan case’ stands out. It is especially relevant because, starting from the self-declaration of civic use of the Ex Asilo Filangieri recognised by the De Magistris Council, the City of Naples made an amendment to the municipal statute recognising the category of ‘common good’. These experiences, which represent virtuous examples of participatory urban regeneration, are often realised from initiatives by artistic collectives that use public art as a significant tool for the development of territories, to create places of culture and sharing for the whole community.

Background

Being rooted in the track theme, which sees social innovation as a mechanism for empowering citizens and community organizations, this paper poses a different point of view. Focusing on stakeholders’ participation to overcome the gap between institutions and local needs, we discuss if incoming novelties should be different according to contexts. We consider the empowerment of local communities in developing countries where “new” values and cultures might not be always the same. Particularly we focus upon accountability schemes of initiatives to foster local communities’ growth. And we do this also discussing the concepts of commons. In synthesis we pose the following research question: might it be that reporting schemes of projects cannot account for the effectiveness of a developing program because they are framed on aiders’ view of social innovation rather than on recipients’ empowerment needs?

Design/methodology

We use a multi-method approach to look specifically for both development (to use the results from one to help to develop or inform the other ones) and initiation (to discover paradoxes and contradictions). We investigated three different projects of community empowerment: two in Kenya and one in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian case refers to the realisation of a health assistance and screening Lab, financed by no profit funds; one in Kenya refers to foreign public aids for the agricultural growth of peripherical territories; the other refers to a self-community initiative in a coffee farm.

We firstly run a desk analysis of presentations, schemes, rules, and regulations of the different initiatives. Then, in the Ethiopian case we set our investigation within participant observation frameworks, thus involving active looking, improving memory, informal interviewing, writing detailed field notes. In the first Kenyan case we employ integrative informational resources that transcend traditional documental analysis practices, with the objective of augmenting contemporary frameworks in conjunction with heterodox methodologies, thus permitting a comprehensive analysis that encapsulates emotions and interactions previously overlooked by conventional investigation approaches. Lastly, in the second Kenyan case we conducted exploratory targeted qualitative interviews with privileged witnesses able to offer insights as experts in the area.

Results/findings

Our results are in line with the issues raised by Hopper et al. (2017), under which accounting is an instrument with different impacts and manifestations across Northern and Southern countries. Particularly, we stressed on the fact that there cannot be a simple transference of technical systems, regulations, and concepts, but, especially if considering social and environmental issues, it should take into account context’s specificities. Indeed, the self-initiative is completely different from the externally financed (by public and not profit) ones. But most of all, it appears to be definitively more effective. And one of its specificities relies on the consideration of the farm estate as a common for the community. A common which they fight to defend against the idea of a different exploitation of the land by the owners (not public anymore). These results, although based only on three cases of a still ongoing investigation, strive for reconsidering the concept of sustainability and empowerment in developing countries.