Activating the Maturity Model for Public Participation

At a time when governments are pressured to ensure effective use of resources when seeking public input on complex policy decisions, the Maturity Model clarifies key benchmarks for high-quality engagement that delivers useful outcomes for decision-makers, while fostering trust with the public.

The Centre for Dialogue’s Nicole Armos and Robin Prest, supported by Masters of Public Policy graduate student Kody Sider, additionally presented the tool at the Open Government Partnership’s Global Summit in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Among other workshops and panel presentations, the Centre for Dialogue and Government of Canada’s delegations co-hosted an invitational roundtable with OGP member and civil society representatives to explore how countries can use Open Government Strategies to deepen their approach to public participation.

Since the tool’s release, we have received multiple inquiries from governments and organizations in Canada and abroad interested in activating the Maturity Model within their context. Alongside individual coaching with some of these groups, the Centre is collaborating with Canada’s Treasury Board Secretariat to host a Public Participation Maturity Model (PPMM) program with six federal government teams from October 2025-June 2026. Workshops in the PPMM program support teams in assessing their current public participation capacity and identifying feasible changes they can pilot to enhance their public participation practices. Meanwhile, feedback from the teams will support the Centre in refining the Maturity Model (published now in a Beta version), particularly in relation to organizational change. 

Are you interested in using the Maturity Model tool in your team?

• Our launch webinar provided an introduction to the tools, followed by a discussion exploring the levers for fostering a culture of participation in organizations, featuring the Maturity Model author Nicole Armos; the Centre for Dialogue’s Executive Director, Aftab Erfan; Democracy and Participation Lead for the Open Government Partnership, Tim Hughes; and Charles Taillefier, Executive Director at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
• This tipsheet provides suggestions and tools to facilitate an assessment and action planning workshop using the Maturity Model tools. 
• The Centre for Dialogue can additionally provide tailored support and facilitation of assessment and intent-to-action workshops through our consulting services. 
• Finally, we encourage any organization who engages with the tool to share their feedback through our online websurvey.