Today, 4 October 2021, during the online meeting with representatives from the Secretariat for European Affairs and IPA Coordinators, research teams from the project “CSO Dialogue – Platform for Structural Participation in EU Integrations” presented the draft shadow reports on work and effects from sector working groups in 2020.
The meeting, attended by around 40 representatives from institutions and teams that worked on drafting these reports, featured presentation of key information from reports and discussion about experiences of IPA Coordinators in respect to operation of sector working groups and dynamics of future activities.
In her presentation, Nada Naumovska, Senior Program Coordinator at FOSM, informed attending representatives that, for the purpose of developing these reports, interviews were conducted with 11 IPA coordinators from relevant ministries and 34 representatives from civil society organizations participating in nine SWGs, followed by survey conducted among 82 representatives from civil society organizations, and submission of 312 freedom of information requests addressed to 14 different institutions, in order to collect necessary data on performance track-records of sector working groups.
Key improvement noted in this reporting period, as underlined by Naumovska, include:
- certain improvement to SWG transparency and operation;
- improved cooperation with IPA Coordinators, who were willing to share information, views and advice;
- mild increase in terms of frequency of SWG plenary sessions;
- registered participation of CSOs at SWG operational meetings;
- welcomed and encouraged participation of CSOs at SWG plenary sessions;
- contributions in consultations on IPA SWGs made by 31.3% of civil society organizations, representing an increase by 5.3% compared to the previous year.
From the civil society perspective, the meeting included reiteration of their requests related to unified status of civil society organizations in all sector working groups, setting the number of civil society representatives in proportion to other SWG members and based on predefined criteria, involvement of civil society organizations in other consultation mechanisms to improve information made available to them and to ensure access to minutes or conclusions from operational/technical meetings.
During their interviews, IPA Coordinators shared the opinion of civil society organizations that the rules of procedure need to be amended in order to regulate the role and selection of civil society representatives, as well as that SWGs should have annual calendar of sessions and meetings, websites of line ministries that chair individual SWGs to feature separate link for documents related to sector working groups, and to establish better channels for exchange of information between SWGs and other institutions in respect to various reform strategies.
Irina Jolevska from Reactor addressed the segment concerning gender mainstreaming and assessed that the importance of gender equality as cross-cutting issue is still insufficiently recognized by most SWGs, thereby giving rise to the need for incorporation of gender perspectives in operation of all SWGs, including gender analyses on state-of-affairs in specific sectors in policy development, implementation and evaluation.
During the discussion moderated by Sandra Anastasovska from FOSM, many IPA Coordinators took the floor to present their views on shadow reports and performance of sector working groups. The process for finalization of shadow reports on work and effects of sector working groups continues.