Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana

What Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana does

Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana is a non-profit inter-institutional technical entity established in 2023 to execute the constitutionally mandated citizen participation track for Chile's 2023 constitutional process. It was jointly coordinated by the Universidad de Chile and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with operational support from accredited universities nationwide, and operated from its headquarters in the Ex Congreso Nacional building in Santiago. Its mandate, grounded in Article 153 of the Chilean Constitution and Article 106 of the Regulations for Constitutional Process Organs, was to collect, systematize, and deliver citizen input on the constitutional draft prepared by the Comisión Experta to the Consejo Constitucional.

The Secretaría operated four core participation mechanisms — Consulta Ciudadana (digital survey), Diálogos Ciudadanos (group dialogues, both convened and self-convened), Iniciativa Popular de Norma (citizen-led constitutional proposals requiring 10,000+ Clave Única signatures from at least four regions), and Audiencias Públicas (public hearings) — plus a dedicated indigenous participation track covering 11 indigenous peoples and the Afro-descendant community, and a civic education program. The technology stack combined the Ucampus platform (Universidad de Chile) for submissions and registrations, Unholster for the public hearing platform with video, transcription, and topic search, and Clave Única for identity verification. Over the 30-day active participation window, the entity recorded 28,725 survey responses, 12,052 dialogue participants, 637,612 supports for popular norm initiatives, and 1,136 public hearings, with 31 initiatives ultimately exceeding the 10,000-signature threshold for submission to the Constitutional Council.

The entity had no commercial revenue model; it was funded by the coordinating universities as a public-interest civic initiative. All participation mechanisms were free to citizens, and outputs were delivered at no cost to the Consejo Constitucional. A senior executive team with prior participation-process experience (2016 and 2021 cycles) led execution, and technology delivery was supported by partnerships with Unholster, Mide UC, and the Centro de Modelamiento Matemático at Universidad de Chile. The Secretaría's mandate concluded with delivery of the final consolidated participation report to the Consejo Constitucional in August 2023.

Name

Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana

Legal name

Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana

Website

https://secretariadeparticipacion.cl

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana is a non-profit inter-institutional entity jointly coordinated by the Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile that executed the constitutionally mandated citizen participation track for Chile's 2023 constitutional process, serving all Chilean citizens aged 14 and older through four digital mechanisms and delivering systematized results to the Consejo Constitucional.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Participation Services

NAICS

Civic and Social Organizations (81341), Public Administration (92)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy (BPAGAFAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Civic Education & Community Engagement (Voting, Local Government) (EDAAAFAC), Civic Participation & Leadership Development (Voting, Advocacy, Community Leadership) (EDAAADAL), Civic Literacy (Voting, Rights, Community Participation) (EDAAAAAH)

Keywords

• Citizen participation
• Civic engagement
• Constitutional process
• Public consultation
• Democratic deliberation

Headquarters

HQ city

Santiago

HQ country

Chile

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Institutional / Government Funding: The Secretaría is funded by the Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, along with accredited universities nationwide, under a constitutional mandate. This is a non-profit public interest initiative, not a commercial enterprise.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana runs four constitutionally mandated citizen participation mechanisms — Consulta Ciudadana (digital survey), Diálogos Ciudadanos (group dialogues), Iniciativa Popular de Norma (citizen-led constitutional amendments requiring 10,000 signatures from four regions), and Audiencias Públicas (hearings before the Constitutional Council). It also delivers a culturally appropriate Indigenous Peoples participation track and a Formación Ciudadana (civic education) program, all delivered through digital platforms to Chilean citizens aged 14+ with Clave Única, including those abroad.

Product overview

Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana is a citizen participation platform for Chile's constitutional process, comprising four core participation mechanisms (Consulta Ciudadana, Diálogos Citizens, Iniciativa Popular de Norma, and Audiencias Públicas), a dedicated Indigenous Peoples participation track, and a citizen education program. Participation is facilitated through multiple digital platforms hosted on Ucampus and Unholster infrastructure. The organization is coordinated by the Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, mandated by constitutional article 153.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Consulta Ciudadana
• Diálogos Ciudadanos
• Iniciativa Popular de Norma (IPN)
• Audiencias Públicas
• Participación Indígena
• Formación Ciudadana

Quantifiable outcome

• 269,864 citizens participated across four mechanisms
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Universidad de ChilecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead coordinating institution for the Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana. The rector (Rosa Devés) served as a responsible rector. Universidad de Chile provided executive management, IT infrastructure (through VTI Universidad de Chile and Ucampus), communications team, and operational staff for executing citizen participation mechanisms.
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de ChilecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead coordinating institution alongside Universidad de Chile. The rector (Ignacio Sánchez) served as a responsible rector. UC provided executive management, policy analysis expertise, and the Centro de Políticas Públicas for methodology and implementation of participation mechanisms.
• Universidad de Las AméricasminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversidad de Las Américas participated as a private accredited university representative in the governing structure, with María Inés de Ferrari serving as Director of Vinculación con el Medio.
• Universidad de AysénminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRectora Natacha Pino of Universidad de Aysén served as a responsible rector, representing regional universities in the initiative.
• Universidad Católica del NorteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRector Rodrigo Alda of Universidad Católica del Norte participated as a responsible rector in the governing structure.
• Tenemos Que Hablar de ChilecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA civil society initiative collaborating on citizen dialogues methodology and implementation. Key team members including Valentina Rosas, Hernán Hochschild, and Manuel Sepúlveda served as coordinators for sistematización, diálogos citizens, and alliances respectively.
• UnholstercoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partner providing the public hearing platform (audiencias.scanner.unholster.com) for hosting video recordings, transcriptions, and searchable content of all public hearings conducted before the Constitutional Council.
• Ucampus (Universidad de Chile)coreTechnology or IntegrationDigital platform (ucampus.quieroparticipar.cl) hosting citizen dialogue registrations, initiative submissions, and hearing requests. Developed and maintained by the Ucampus team at Universidad de Chile.
• Centro de Modelamiento Matemático (Universidad de Chile)coreTechnology or IntegrationResearch team from the FCFM at Universidad de Chile (led by Alejandro Jofré) providing data analysis and systematization for citizen participation results.
• Centro de Medición Mide UCcoreTechnology or IntegrationFlavio Cortés, Director of the Sociedad area at Mide UC, led the Consulta Ciudadana methodology and analysis, including the design of the survey instrument.
• Centro de Derechos Humanos (Universidad de Chile)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCecilia Domínguez, Director of Extensión of the Law Faculty and researcher at the Centro de Derechos Humanos, led the Civic Education (Formación Ciudadana) program.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Direct peers

• vTaiwan: Taiwan's government-led civic participation platform combining online consultation with deliberative polling for regulatory and constitutional-level questions. Comparable as a national-scale, state-mandated digital participation mechanism.
• Decidim: Open-source digital democratic participation platform used by cities and governments worldwide for citizen consultations, proposals, and deliberations. Directly comparable as a constitutional/legislative civic participation infrastructure, though Decidim is a software platform rather than a staffed secretariat.
• Democracia en Red: Argentine civic-tech organization that built and operates the 'Tu Constitución' digital platform for Chile's 2022 constitutional process. Closely comparable as a Latin American civic-tech operator on constitutional participation, though smaller in scale.
• CONSUL (Madrid): Free open-source citizen participation software originally built for Madrid's municipal budgets and consultations, now used by hundreds of cities globally. Closely comparable digital-stack analog for budget and constitutional-style deliberations.

Broad incumbents

• Citizenlab: Commercial civic engagement SaaS platform used by 1,500+ governments worldwide for citizen consultations, participatory budgeting, and idea management. Comparable as a broader incumbent offering overlapping functionality like surveys and ideation.
• Bang the Table (EngagementHQ): Established civic engagement SaaS provider used by hundreds of local and regional governments. Comparable as a broader incumbent offering structured participation tools, though commercial and recurrent rather than event-driven.
• Ethelo: Decision-support and group-engagement platform used for deliberation, voting, and consensus-building by governments and organizations. Overlaps in the deliberation and consultation tools used in the Secretaría's Consulta Ciudadana and Diálogos.

Others

• Unholster: Chilean data/polling firm that built and operated the audiencias.scanner.unholster.com platform used by the Secretaría for public hearings. Comparable as a technology vendor/partner in the same civic participation ecosystem.

Regional players

• Plataforma Perú / Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos: Peruvian state-led digital platform for citizen participation in constitutional reform processes. Comparable as a regional state-driven citizen participation channel in Latin America, though operating under a different statutory framework.

Emerging players

• Stanford Crowdsourced Democracy / CrowdScale: Stanford-affiliated research initiative exploring large-scale online deliberation and crowdsourced constitution-writing. Comparable as an academic/research-led citizen participation effort, though primarily experimental rather than operational.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SPCiudadanaCL
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@SecretariadeParticipacionCL
• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/secretaria-de-participacion-ciudadana
• Instagraminstagram.com/spciudadanacl
• TikToktiktok.com/@spciudadana

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana