On Tuesday 8th May the Mayor of Messina City, Renato Accorinti, and the President of "The Democratic Society" (Demsoc) Anthony Zacharzewski, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the formal start of the project "Le Agora di Messina". The aim is to develop a programme of interconnected activities in order to stimulate democratic participation and to create a local democratic infrastructure independent from political will.

At the heart of the proposal is the idea that participation is more effective if designed with the people who use it and who will support it within their communities.

The results of this process will directly feed the “World Forum for Democracy 2018”, particularly about the project’s contributions to gender mainstreaming of participatory democracy and its impact on the participation of women in democracy.

Last year Messina became a member of the “Incubator for Participatory Democracy”, organised by the Council of Europe during the WFD. The Incubator connects cities with democracy innovators who can support and scale up participatory initiatives. The Incubator was the occasion for Messina’s administration to develop a participation infrastructure for the city that supports and enhances existing ground-up networks and actions in a systematic way.