The Government launches “The Chile that We Want”, an initiative for dialoguing and social listening to move forward with new proposals for the country

At a citizen dialogue with a group of 60 senior citizens from different districts of the Metropolitan Region, the government launched El Chile que Queremos” (The Chile that We Want), an initiative that is part of the agreements for Social Justice and a New Constitution. It aims to rebuild confidence and trust and to start a social listening process through citizen dialogues.

The Chile that We Want will have a website where, as of today, any citizen who has had a dialogue and recorded it, can upload it at www.chilequequeremos.cl. The platform will collect all proposals so as to build together new proposals for Chile. For those who wish to state their proposals individually, as of next Thursday there will be an online form they can fill out on the same website. For citizens who want to organize their dialogue and don’t know how, as of Thursday they will be able to download, a “Guía de sugerencia para el diálogo” (guide with suggestions for dialogue) along with a registration form they will be able to share on the website.

“We want to make it easier to carry out the dialogues that are already happening among citizens, but we also want to make this process more transformational, so it meets the goal of rebuilding confidence and social cohesion. But above all we want it to set out an agenda for Chile that is able to harness all of the demands, malaise, and pain into results and concrete actions in the medium term,” explained the Social development and Family Minister Sebastián Sichel.

This initiative involves the following ministries: Social Development and Family, Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Agriculture, the Ministry Secretary General of the Government and the Ministry Secretary General of the Presidency.

The information that will be received from the citizens will be systematized by the Science Ministry, a task that Minister Andrés Couve exemplifies as how “Chile’s scientific community is once again at the service of the nation. In this case, it is to exercise widespread and participative listening in which data science will be a key tool. We want the concerns of the people to be collected as carefully and thoroughly as technology will allow us and the depth and breadth of this social crisis deserves.”

In order to ensure the transparency of this process, The Chile that We Want will be supervised by a Council of Observers for the social listening process, with 8 members who will also prepare a public report and propose recommendations for dialoguing as a formal participation process towards creating public policies.

Annie Dufey, spokesperson for the observers stated that “this is a process that contributes to what is already occurring, what citizens are already engaging in. However, the State must have a key role as conduit of these processes. Our country is at a moment in time in which all processes add up. Therefore, the dialogues of this social listening must be heard with attention and with all due accountability on this road map.” 

Council Members:

Rodrigo Delgado

Annie Dufey

Macarena Letelier

Mónica Retamal

Juan Cristóbal Romero

Alberto Precht

Ignacio Irarrázaval

Eleazar Vargas