The Challenge
Our partners were Engage Britain in the UK, and UNDP in countries around the world. Both organisations wanted to know what issues citizens thought needed to be tackled to make their countries better places to live
The Approach
Working initially with Engage Britain we helped design a process that sought the views of citizens on the challenges facing the UK. Using an online citizen engagement platform called Polis, participants could put forward their views on what they thought the biggest challenges were; and 'agree' or 'disagree' with the views of others. Working with UNDP, we then posed the same question, using the same methodology, to young citizens in Bhutan, East Timor and Pakistan.
The Result
In total, more than a million votes were cast in processes that highlighted the similarities and differences in concerns of citizens across the world. In the UK, the biggest challenges facing the country were identified as being health and social care, which became Engage Britain's first big policy priority. UNDP identified a diverse set of challenges facing young people across Pakistan, Bhutan and East Timor, including health, climate change and the rights of minority groups.
More than 1 million agrees or disagrees
Over 10,000 participants
“It was great working with CogCo, who helped us engage thousands of people, using technology that had never been deployed at this scale in the UK before" - Julian McCrae, Founding Director, Engage Britain
"CogCo has helped us engage youth and hear their ideas and concerns in new and exciting ways. The potential policymaking implications are enormous" - Laura Sheridan, Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific of UNDP
