Transparency and communication

Transparent communication means that readily available, objective and reliable information must be provided to the community and all stakeholder groups. Public administrators and market actors have to be aware of the relevance of transparency as a main driver of acceptance and that in some cases it may be required as a legal obligation.

The WinWind project highlighted how transparency in communication may increase trust in key actors and promote an effective dialogue between the public and the stakeholders. Communication strategies aimed at making the decision process transparent, by providing readily and accurately information on sustained costs and derived benefits, proved to be a deciding factor behind successful citizens’ participation .

In some cases, self-defined minimum standards of transparency were settled via codes of conduct  or codes of practice. In other cases, an intensely participatory process resulted in a common set of criteria for a transparent negotiation between the involved stakeholders.

Find out more

Here below further readings: 

On the role of communication
Technical and socio-economic conditions pages 51, 157

On national and local authorities’ communication strategies
Taxonomy of social acceptance drivers and barriers pages 21,35 and pages 68, 80-82, 89

On transparency as a driver of procedural participation (case studies)
Synthesis and Comparative Analysis of Best Practice Case Studies for Promoting the Social Acceptance page 57, 58

On transparency in voluntary agreement /self-commitment and labelling initiatives
Screening of Technical and Non-Technical regulations, guidelines and recommendations page 51

WinWind has received funding from European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement Nº 764717. The sole responsibility for any errors or omissions made lies with the consortium. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission. The European Commission is also not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein

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