When planning a participatory process, an important question to address is its purpose. Understanding why we are initiating the process is important for determining objectives and setting expectations.

There are various reasons for organizing a participatory activity, and a key step is to determine the topic: what issue needs to be addressed?

Topics can vary, and often a problem involves more than one topic. Thinking carefully about the topic when designing participatory activity ensures that the process is relevant, enables effective participant engagement, fosters high-quality deliberation, and leads to impactful outcomes (Chen, et al, 2024). It is essential to select topics that resonate with the public and hold significance for the community to ensure the effectiveness of the process.

Tip: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can be a good starting point to identifying the topic of your participatory process. We’ve organized dozens of cases from Participedia and Latinno according to the SDGs targeted to support you in finding references and inspirations.