Citizen participation and the Provincial Centre for Civil Society Political Development in driving public policy (food security) to propose a Food Security Bill

The first provincial workshop (26-27 June) under the project "Citizen Councils on Public Policy and Decentralisation: Strengthening Citizen Participation in Democratic Development and Public Policy Formulation" was organised by the Promotion for Local Administration Foundation (PLAF) with the support of the Korad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Thailand.

 The one-and-a-half-day workshop brought together Citizen Council members from Nakhon Phanom and Sakon Nakhon Provinces, alongside representatives from local administrative organisations, civil society organisations, and local communities, to jointly advance participatory public policy-making in Thailand.

Against the backdrop of the increasingly complex global challenges, especially in this year, the workshop aims to strengthen democratic participation and foster collaboration among the aforementioned stakeholders in developing concrete measures on food security, which is one of the most important issues nowadays to prioritise in order to ensure the sustainable social and economic development as well as dependability in the global recognition. The key outcome of the workshop is to strengthen citizen participation in the democratic process by translating public input into concrete policy recommendations that will contribute to the drafting of Thailand's Food Security Bill.

Following this workshop, two additional provincial workshops and a national-level consultation in Bangkok will be organised to provide all relevant stakeholders with the opportunity to tailor the draft legislation before submitting it to the legislature for further process.