Action plan – Žilina (Region), Slovak Republic, 2022 – 2026

At-a-Glance

Duration

Oct 2026

Date Submitted

30th November 2022

Foreword(s)

We acknowledge the policy of openness and transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More as a necessary part of the vision of Žilina self-governing region (hereinafter referred to as ZSGR) for the new election period. It is embedded in our main strategic documents and our actions. ZSGR behaves transparently and openly towards its citizens as well as towards all partner institutions in the region and outside the region. Our aim is to develop and strengthen principles of good governance in our governing in partnership with our regional and international partners.

Our aim is to focus on participation and bring pillars of open governance to the process of public policy creation. We are aligned with the Open Government DeclarationThe Open Government Declaration is the declaration of commitment to upholding the principles of open and transparent government, approved by the founding countries of OGP in 2011. Countries are requir.... We value inclusive participation and believe that public engagement increases the effectiveness of governments. We commit to deepening public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... and creating mechanisms to enable greater collaboration between governments and civil society organizations and businesses. To support and enable organic participation we are going to develop accessible and secure online spaces as platforms for delivering services, engaging the public, and sharing information and ideas. We recognize the importance of open standards to promote civil society access to public data and want to reach interoperability of government information systems.

We envision the continuous development of the region, taking into account the problems and expectations of municipalities, cities, organization, citizens, the private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat... and other socio-economic partners of the Žilina self-governing region towards more cooperative, transparent, participatory and environmentally aware region.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

This subsection details the Open Government Strategic Vision in your local area that should guide the commitments for the action plan period.

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

Our long-term vision for open government in our context and jurisdiction are based in the strategic document called Policy of Openness. The document defines areas of expectation and priorities that are aligned with the open governance: building a modern and transparent regional office, increasing trust towards regional government, transparency, and anti – corruption. The document specifies policies of openness and steps that leads towards them for every Department in the Office. The openness policy aims to address all areas given by the ŽSGR competence framework. It defines total of 13 areas, which affect both the regional authorities and subsequently provided services.

We choose to focus on these main areas: support cooperation and participation, transparency and open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., and environmental awareness imbedded in appropriate policies.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

Besides the Policy of Openness, in September 2022 Žilina self-governing region introduced the Program for Economic Development and Social Development for the years 2021 – 2027 with a view to 2030. It is a key document that sets the direction and priorities of the region’s development. This strategic document was carefully prepared with participatory principles. Since June 2021, five thematic groups and five sub-regional groups of experts, stakeholders, representatives from public sector and non-governmental organizations has intensely worked on suggesting measurements and projects that are significant for our region to be implemented by 2030. The process has been transparent and participatory. The plan includes a SWOT analysis, which precisely defines the strengths and weaknesses of the region, possible opportunities that ŽSGR can use, as well as threats that must be avoided.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

The strategic document Policy of Openness defines total of 13 areas, which affect both the regional authorities and subsequently provided services.

All 13 areas and the activities of ŽSGR listed in the document Policy of Openness are defined by the valid legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r.... The individual areas and following indicators in them largely overlap with the evaluation Transparency International Slovakia (hereinafter TI Slovakia) within the project Open Self-Government 2020, in which TI Slovakia assessed the degree of openness of individual self-governing regions. TI Slovakia rating attracts a lot of media attention and TI Slovakia is an undoubted authority in the fight against corruption and the promotion of transparency in the Slovak Republic. One of our aims is to improve our score and position of this rating in the next election period and support better implementation of open governance principles.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

The objectives of the strategic vision are:

1. Good governance – we aim to become transparent, cooperative and participatory self-government

2. Nature protection and environmental educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... – we aim to become environmentally aware self-government

The goals we set in our Action Plan resonate with our goals, developed in several thematic and regional areas applying participatory methods for the purpose of the Social Development and Economic Development Plan ŽSK2021+ for our region and other strategic documents. The stated intentions will help us to fulfil them in a way that is consistent with our strategic vision for open governance. ZSGR supports open governance built on the principles of transparency, cooperation, participation and accountability, to which our region also subscribes by joining this Initiative, creating and submitting this Action Plan.

How does this action plan contribute to achieve the Open Government Strategic Vision?

In next four years we will implement changes towards better governance and activation of citizens, introduce principles of good governance and public participation. We dedicate ourselves to cooperate with our partners in implementation of these principles throughout the process of implementation of the Action plan 2022-2026 and further. We consider the values of open government as crucial pillar of democracy and we acknowledge their importance in the areas of our work. Becoming member of OGP Local, we support the endorsement of the Open Government Declaration and its principles in order to promote transparency and innovation, empower citizens, support local communities, initiate public participation and emphasize information technologies to make government more effective, accountable and open.

The action plan is set for the beginning of the election period. It is built on a strategic vision, which is supported by four commitments in the field of internal and external capacity buildingEnhancing the skills, abilities, and processes of public servants, civil society, and citizens is essential to achieving long-lasting results in opening government. Technical specifications: Set of ac..., transparency, mapping and developing partnerships for environmental education.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

Through open government strategic vision we are going to implement goals of Policy of Openness to building a modern and transparent regional office, increasing trust towards regional government, transparency, and anti – corruption. The four main areas under ŽSGR competence framework addressed by this document are:

1. The Policy of openness helps to better present our self-governing region externally – to the public as well as to the public partners. ŽSGR wants to build its image as a modern and open region. The Region needs a set of indicators open to the external environment in area of openness.
2. The policy of openness will contribute to greater public trust in ŽSGR and strengthen public confidence in its activities.
3. The introduction of an openness policy strengthens the possibilities for public control of ŽSGR from media and the public.
4. The aim of the openness policy is also to eliminate the scope for internal corruption processes of ŽSGR, against which no institution is immune. Therefore, it is necessary to define clear rules to conduct ŽSGR bodies, which shrinks space for non-transparent behavior.

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• Žilina self-governing region – Participatory Policy Unit, Office of the Head of the ŽSGR

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

Early 2022 the Office of ŽSGR established a Participatory Policy Unit under the Office of the Head of the ŽSGR. This contains three positions for coordinators for participatory policies. Their agenda is dedicated to monitor, analyze and suggest participatory methods in creating and implementing policies and strategies at ŽSGR.

This Unit is responsible for suggesting areas for open and participatory approaches and communication within the Government and towards outside. This Unit initiates cooperation of departments and intensely cooperate with the Department of Regional Development, Department of Communication, IT Department and others. At the same time, the Participatory Policy Unit is a part of a wider network of coordinators for participation in other regions of Slovakia and looks for opportunities for cooperation and networking with institutions and organizations in the region and nation-widely.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

Our Action plan is based on two strategic documents mentioned above: Policy of Opennes and Economic Development and Social Development Program ŽSK 2021+ (PHSR ŽSK2021+). The creation PHSR ŽSK 2021+ took place in the period 5/2021 to 10/2022 with strong focus on a broad involvement of experts and experts all around the Region, evidenced by the participation of more than 200 involved persons in various activities of the preparation and creation of the PHSR ŽSK 2021+. In the process of creating PHRSR 21+ we created 5 thematic working groups and 5 territorial working groups. The latter ones were established as Regional partnership councils. These were represented by various partners from public institutions, civic groups, experts and local stakeholders. All the groups discussed the further strategic direction of the Žilina Region at 74 joint meetings, both online and offline.

The result of this joint effort is a document that captures the external trends as well as the internal needs of the Žilina Region reflected in its strategic and specific goals. The three out of four commitments of the action plan reflects four specific goals within two strategic aims that were acknowledged by the representatives of the Partnership councils in early November 2022, just few days after regional election held on October 29^th 2022.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

Our effort was to involve the largest possible number and diversity of relevant socioeconomic partners and stakeholders from the territory.

Who participated in these spaces?

Great emphasis on the principle of partnership was reflected especially in the work of 5 thematic working groups: Innovation and education, Environment, Infrastructure, Social stability, Identity and self-sufficiency and 5 territorial working groups: Horné Považie,Kysuce, Liptov, Orava, Turiec. These territorial groups were established as Partnership councils and discussed the further strategic direction of the Žilina Region at 74 joint meetings. These meetings were held in previous election period that ended in October 2022. Lacking the timeline due to the early submission of the action plan in process of acknowledgement of the goals for the Action Plan commitments we invited one representative per Partnership council.

How many groups participated in these spaces?

5

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive...?

0

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

In first quarter of 2023 create a Forum, where the new stakeholders will be identified and new manners for collaboration set. There will be representatives from the Partnership council but we will emphasize new members too.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

The monitoring body for the action plan will consist of a consortium of civil society representatives and one government representative.

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

• Ivana Matta, Regional coordinator for youth – Žilina regional workplace Department of Youth Support, ivana.novakova@iuventa.sk

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

The monitoring will meet once after the co-creation process has ended and each time there is an assessment of an implemented commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action....

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

Monitoring body and the team responsible for the implementation will meet annually for reporting and evaluation of the implementation of the Action Plan until 2026 (November 2023, 2024, 2025).

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

The results of implementation will be shared with the public through our official web page where we will publish content on an annual basis, regular communication with traditional media outlets as well as published materials on social media.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• Metod Macek, Director of the Rescue Station and Eco Center Zázrivá, n.o., metod.macek@gmail.com

Introduction Letter
Politika Otvorenosti ZSK (Policy of Openness)