Public Engagement in Policy
With our expertise in public participation, we assess and deliver the right methodologies for optimizing public engagement and stakeholder consultations.

What We Can Do For You
services we can help you with
Citizen Engagement for Smarter Cities
InnovaPolis at the 2018 ECOSOC Preparatory Meeting
School Participatory Budgeting
UNESCO-MGIEP’s #KindnessMatters Campaign
Policy Training Modules
InnovaPolis at the 2019 TechCamp in Mumbai
Collective Intelligence Practices
Revamping Civic Education for Indian Public Schools
Citizen Engagement for Smarter Cities
To develop a vision for its future, Chhattisgarh state nominated Bilaspur city for the ‘City Challenge’ of the Indian government’s Smart Cities Mission. InnovaPolis engaged Bilaspur’s citizens over two months for stakeholder consultations around the city’s Smart City Proposal. After intensive door-to-door surveys of all 66 wards (the smallest body of local government) of Bilaspur, organizing consultation meetings with stakeholders from different sectors (including transport, energy and health) and gathering inputs from students on their vision of a Smart Bilaspur, Bilaspur eventually won funding from the Indian Ministry of Urban Development to start its journey towards becoming a Smart City.


School Participatory Budgeting
School Participatory Budgeting (School PB) happened in India at a public school in New Delhi. Students were tasked with deciding how to best use an amount of INR 200,000 to improve their school. 500 students from this school came up with innovative ideas, deliberated on them and voted to decide their priorities. The results showed that what students needed the most from their school was a futsel ground. The initiative was praised by the local elected representative and officials from the Delhi Government’s Directorate of Education. Since School PB promotes and innovates positive practices in school governance, the exercise also garnered positive attention from the media: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/czech-mate-kids-learn-to-budget-for-schools-needs/articleshow/62044172.cms
Collective Intelligence Practices
The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance (releasing in March 2023) is an unprecedented collaborative academic book that will provide policymakers, practitioners, and academics with a diverse set of case studies illustrating how collective intelligence can be mobilized for developing effective policies and strengthening democracy. Ankitha Cheerakathil from the InnovaPolis team is a co-author and contributing editor of the book, playing a key role in curating the compilation and identifying multi-disciplinary conceptual frameworks for categorizing successes and failures in collective intelligence practices.


UNESCO-MGIEP’s #KindnessMatters Campaign
The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) is UNESCO’s Research Institute in India that focuses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 (towards education for building peaceful and sustainable societies across the world). There are 1.8 billion young people in the world today, the highest population of youth ever to have existed in history. InnovaPolis has been leveraging these huge numbers of young people in India to promote values of democratic participation and active citizenship. In recognition of this work, UNESCO-MGIEP made InnovaPolis a partner in 2019 for its #KindnessMatters Campaign. To inspire social change through their stories, UNESCO-MGIEP’s #KindnessMatters Campaign will inspire young people to carry out transformative acts of kindness to tackle the SDGs and create a positive culture of kindness.
InnovaPolis at the 2018 ECOSOC Preparatory Meeting
SDG 16 calls for ensuring “responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels”. To further this, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN organized a preparatory meeting in Prague on March 26–27, 2018 in partnership with the Institute of International Relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and Institute H21. The conference engaged with civil society, local government, the private sector and academia. Best practices and experiences in fostering participation in various contexts and sectors including education, economic development and good governance were discussed. A best practices panel showcased the role of civil society organizations in mobilizing participation and inclusion with the use of emerging technologies and other instruments. From InnovaPolis, Ankitha Cheerakathil presented findings of the School Participatory Budgeting project implemented successfully in India. The presentation was met with tremendously positive feedback and interest, and was included in ECOSOC’s manual of best practices and case studies from the meeting.


Policy Training Modules
JK Lakshmipat University in Jaipur city believes that true business leaders have a background in holistic education, including elements of community leadership, responsible citizenship and active participation in democractic governance. The question InnovaPolis tries to answer for university students is whether it is useful for a professional to know about global governance and public policy practices even if you’re an entry engineer or a manager at an IT company. JK Lakshmipat University invited the FCC team in 2019 for a two-day workshop to teach their MBA students these very principles. Core concepts of participatory democracy, active citizenship and public policy were introduced to great effect. The workshop enriched students with different perspectives and innovations in governance systems and voting systems, inspired by the global use of the Janecek Method (D21). Our experience made it to the media as well: https://menafn.com/1098139599/Liberal-Arts-Week-at-JK-Lakshmipat-University-Concludes-on-a-Successful-Note
Revamping Civic Education for Indian Public Schools
When was the last time an Indian school student really enjoyed and imbibed civic education in the classroom? To reform the curriculum and bring aspects of experiential learning into the system, FCC and Janaagraha worked together to develop new lesson plans for school teachers in alignment with the current Kerala State Board for education of school students. Each lesson plan includes a mix of experiential learning techniques including activities and games. Concepts such as Participatory Budgeting (a process where citizens are allowed to come up with ideas for and vote on a portion of their city/state budget) are introduced through simulations modeled after actual governance practices, such as those practiced by New York City Council. These simulations also introduce the innovative new Janecek Method (D21) for voting with the objective of instilling curiosity in students for exploring new ideas and concepts in order to arrive at better governance. To learn more about the lesson plan, email us at info@innovapolis.ca


InnovaPolis at the 2019 TechCamp in Mumbai
As people flock to cities in India and Afghanistan, the growing urban population can overwhelm the infrastructure, affecting transportation, the environment, sanitation, education, and disaster response. “TechCamp Mumbai: Building our Urban Future” – organized in collaboration with the US Department of State and TERI - brought together Indian and Afghan civil society and government officials with civil planning and civic participation technology experts. They collaborated over three days on digital skills and strategies to develop sustainable solutions to the urbanization challenges faced by both countries. From InnovaPolis, Ankitha Cheerakathil offered her expertise on public engagement as a Trainer for teams that worked on presenting innovative solutions to the issue for a prestigious jury panel.
Citizen Engagement for Smarter Cities
To develop a vision for its future, Chhattisgarh state nominated Bilaspur city for the ‘City Challenge’ of the Indian government’s Smart Cities Mission. InnovaPolis engaged Bilaspur’s citizens over two months for stakeholder consultations around the city’s Smart City Proposal. After intensive door-to-door surveys of all 66 wards (the smallest body of local government) of Bilaspur, organizing consultation meetings with stakeholders from different sectors (including transport, energy and health) and gathering inputs from students on their vision of a Smart Bilaspur, Bilaspur eventually won funding from the Indian Ministry of Urban Development to start its journey towards becoming a Smart City.

School Participatory Budgeting
School Participatory Budgeting (School PB) happened in India at a public school in New Delhi. Students were tasked with deciding how to best use an amount of INR 200,000 to improve their school. 500 students from this school came up with innovative ideas, deliberated on them and voted to decide their priorities. The results showed that what students needed the most from their school was a futsel ground. The initiative was praised by the local elected representative and officials from the Delhi Government’s Directorate of Education. Since School PB promotes and innovates positive practices in school governance, the exercise also garnered positive attention from the media: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/czech-mate-kids-learn-to-budget-for-schools-needs/articleshow/62044172.cms

Collective Intelligence Practices

UNESCO-MGIEP’s #KindnessMatters Campaign

InnovaPolis At The 2018 ECOSOC Preparatory Meeting

Policy Training Modules
JK Lakshmipat University in Jaipur city believes that true business leaders have a background in holistic education, including elements of community leadership, responsible citizenship and active participation in democractic governance. The question InnovaPolis tries to answer for university students is whether it is useful for a professional to know about global governance and public policy practices even if you’re an entry engineer or a manager at an IT company. JK Lakshmipat University invited the FCC team in 2019 for a two-day workshop to teach their MBA students these very principles. Core concepts of participatory democracy, active citizenship and public policy were introduced to great effect. The workshop enriched students with different perspectives and innovations in governance systems and voting systems, inspired by the global use of the Janecek Method (D21). Our experience made it to the media as well: https://menafn.com/1098139599/Liberal-Arts-Week-at-JK-Lakshmipat-University-Concludes-on-a-Successful-Note

Revamping Civic Education For Indian Public Schools
When was the last time an Indian school student really enjoyed and imbibed civic education in the classroom? To reform the curriculum and bring aspects of experiential learning into the system, FCC and Janaagraha worked together to develop new lesson plans for school teachers in alignment with the current Kerala State Board for education of school students. Each lesson plan includes a mix of experiential learning techniques including activities and games. Concepts such as Participatory Budgeting (a process where citizens are allowed to come up with ideas for and vote on a portion of their city/state budget) are introduced through simulations modeled after actual governance practices, such as those practiced by New York City Council. These simulations also introduce the innovative new Janecek Method (D21) for voting with the objective of instilling curiosity in students for exploring new ideas and concepts in order to arrive at better governance. To learn more about the lesson plan, email us at info@innovapolis.ca

InnovaPolis At The 2019 TechCamp In Mumbai

Testimonial
What our students think about us

Simar Sangla
Modern School Vasant Vihar (India)
Fellow, 2022

Aarnnesh Kapoor,
Sanskriti School (India)
GPPL 2.1 Fellow - 2019

Raghav Dembla
OP Jindal Modern School (India)
Fellow, 2021
