Several municipalities have established the figure of the Municipal Ombudsman and the respective statute, mostly through the approval of their own municipal regulations.

This is a bid to bring citizens closer together and encourage their participation in community life, which includes the right to quality public services.

The ombudsman's office thus emerges as a mechanism that aims to guarantee the impartial assessment and treatment of complaints, claims and suggestions from citizens in relation to the workings of the municipality, with a view to resolving the problems that gave rise to them and presenting proposals for improvement to the competent bodies.

Although to a lesser extent, some municipalities have also adopted the figure of ombudsman associated with specific social groups and animals.

The Network of Participatory Local Authorities is attentive to this phenomenon, carrying out two fronts of activity:

1. identifying municipal ombudsman initiatives in operation in our country. Check them out in the Observatory;
2. a stocktaking study on the work of ombudsmen, based on a questionnaire survey.