In our vision, public policy simply means solving problems of public concern. We want to use our efforts to find those solutions that are feasible, valuable and sustainable, and that have a higher impact in our lives. We also want this process to be based on the active participation of every day citizens, who would offer a direction to the best line of action.

It is well known that we play limited roles in public life. We are usually called upon during elections to vote and influence the public policies for the next years. But, during an elected term, we do not have efficient means to influence important decisions that affect our communities, be it at a local, national or international level. If we are lucky, some elected or appointed officials really encourage participation projects and we manage to make our voices heard in the community and influence public policies.

We also encounter a limited access to the decision making process that affects our daily life. This is due to a lack of efficient means to offer our feedback to problems of public concern, as well as reasons of a personal matter. At the moment, people can attend official meetings, write letters, emails or send faxes to the mayor, council members, or other officials, request meetings with elected or appointed officials, or use the local mass media to send messages to decision makers. These tools are rarely effective. However, as Brian Adams argues in the book, "Citizen Lobbyists. Local efforts to influence public policy," people do not participate due to "lower socioeconomic status, lack of impact of personal participation compared to collective participation, limited time and money, lack of information and knowledge about issues, and lack of confidence in their ability to be effective."

SMART Association has developed a new method of participation called "Public policies made by citizens." We now have access to an easy, straight forward, step-by-step approach to recommending solutions to community problems. The website, Www.Public-Policies.Org offers two important services:

1. It allows any person to raise a problem that needs a feasible, valuable and sustainable solution, accessing the "Raise a Problem" link.
2. It allows any person to recommend a solution to the existing problems that are published on the website, clicking on a country and then the "What is your solution" link.

Once we have enough solution proposals, our team of consultants in African Studies, will follow these steps to support and endorse the best solutions:

1. First, they analyze each solution proposal individually, and select those that are feasible, valuable and sustainable. A feasible solution is one that can be accomplished by the existing organizations or with help from others. A valuable solution is one that brings value to overseers, people in general or members of the targeted communities, while a sustainable solution is one that is likely to attract public support, as well as authority and money from the political, social or business environments (definitions inspired from Mark Moore's "Creating Public Value").
2. Once the consultants decide upon the best solution, we create a policy paper that follows a format provided by the Citizen Engagement Team. The policy paper describes the problem along with the best solutions given by the citizens. It also contains a recommendation at the end based on the careful analysis of the consultants in African Studies.
3. In the next step, we start building awareness around our solution, so we send the Policy Paper to elected and appointed officials, to implement our solution, as well as to the mass-media.
4. We also archive the Policy Paper on www.public-policies.org so that anybody can download them and send them to whoever might be able to implement our solution.
5. Because solution proposals come from citizens, we will give credit to those people who participate with sustainable, valuable and feasible solutions, by writing their names and professions on the policy papers and mention them as contributors.

We consider that if we follow these easy and straight forward steps, we will have good chances to influence public policies at local, national and international levels. Using the advantages of the Internet, and this website specifically, we will fulfill our mission, that is, to engage people in providing valuable, sustainable and feasible solutions to problems of public concern. This way we will generate "public policies made by citizens!"