Today, 1 February 2021, the project “CSO Dialogue – Platform for Structural Participation in EU Integrations” organized the sector consultations around ”Effects from Work of SWG Public Administration Reform and Future Challenges for Improving Cooperation between Civil Society Organizations and Institutions”.
The sector consultations were opened by Marija MIRCHEVSKA, Program Coordinator at the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia, who presented main findings from the Shadow Report on SWG Public Administration Reform for the Period January 2019-February 2020. In that, she underlined as positive the fact that its members include 12 civil society representatives; however, organization of only one instead of four plenary sessions (as planned) prevents the civil society voice to be heard. Moreover, she said that the process for selection of civil society members in this sector working group need to be democratized, and urged for better coordination within the sector group and greater transparency from the institutions.
The Minister of Information Society and Administration Jeton Shaqiri expressed preparedness for greater involvement of civil society organization in work of the sector working group on public administration reform and announced efforts for civil society participation to become “norm, instead of exception”. Moreover, he announced that recommendations from the Shadow Report will be seriously taken into consideration and stressed that the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) will be partner to the civil society.
Neda MALESKA SACHMAROSKA, Executive Director of the Center for Change Management, agreed that work of this sector group lacks dialogue and meaningful debate. She stressed that it is of outmost importance for the sector group to discuss key issues related to reforms in this sector, instead of focusing discussions on directing donor assistance. Key areas for restoring citizens’ trust in the institutions include the public administration’s independence and introduction of the merit-based system.
The event was attended by more than fifty representatives from civil society organizations, state institutions, members of the sector groups, and the media.
This conference is organized as part of the project “CSO Dialogue – Platform for Structural Participation in EU Integrations”, coordinated and implemented by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia, in partnership with Reactor – Research in Action, Eurothink – Center for European Strategies and Center for Civil Communications.
A video recording of the event is available of this link.
The full Report on SWG Public Administration Reform is available for download on this link.