Promoting Civil Participation in the Work of Civil Society Organizations (HR0025)

Develop a mobile telephone application for the purpose of information citizens of the possibility of participating in the work of civil society organisations in the local community Necessary resources: HRK 40,000 Implementation indicators: • development of a mobile telephone application that enables citizens to search which societies are in their vicinity and provides information on their work and activities, and the possibilities of inclusion, and their contact information, and how to get involved in their work • number of application users Lead institutions: Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs1 Supporting institutions: None specified Start date: Not specified.............. End date: 31 March 2015

16. Promoting Civil Participation in the Work of Civil Society Organisations

Commitment Text:

16.1. Develop a mobile telephone application for the purpose of information citizens of the possibility of participating in the work of civil society organisations in the local community  

Necessary resources: HRK 40,000

Implementation indicators:

• development of a mobile telephone application that enables citizens to search which societies are in their vicinity and provides information on their work and activities, and the possibilities of inclusion, and their contact information, and how to get involved in their work
• number of application users

Lead institutions: Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs^{[Note 81: Editorial note: The leading body was named the Office for Societies in the OGP Action Plan; the correct translation is the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs.]}

Supporting institutions: None specified

Start date: Not specified   End date: March 2015

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aims to inform citizens about the possibilities of becoming involved with civil society organisations through a mobile application, available across all platforms, which would allow citizens to quickly and easily obtain information on associations’ activities in their local communities.

Status

Midterm: Completed

The IRM researcher found this commitment to be fully implemented, although slightly behind schedule based on the timeline in the action plan. According to the commitment language, the application was supposed to be released by 31 March 2015 but instead was not made available until 27 May 2015. However, since the application was available before the end of the first year of implementation (30 June 2015), the IRM researcher still considers this commitment to be complete.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

Civic participation: Marginal

There are over 50,000 registered civil society organisations that have extremely varied activities and scope of citizen involvement, and this commitment aimed to bring more information about CSO activities to citizens through a mobile telephone application. This allows citizens a quick and easy way to obtain information on associations’ activities in their local communities. By implementing this commitment, government practice in the area of access to information and civic participation was marginally opened since most of the information on CSOs’ activities are entered by the organisations themselves, with the government providing technical support on the application. So far, according to the draft self-assessment report, 551 organisations have been using the application, but the number of citizens accessing it to find information on local associations is unknown. The interviewed CSO representatives^{[Note 82: The participants were interviewed in the period between September and October 2015. For more information, see the IRM midterm report.]} stated that the application is functional and user-friendly. However, limitations of the potential reuse of data gathered through the application prevent this commitment from truly transforming the status quo in this area.

Carried forward?

The next action has not been drafted or released by the government in accordance with the OGP schedule. The IRM researcher suggests the following steps be undertaken in the next action plan:

§  Monitoring and evaluating the application’s overall take-up;

§  Promoting the application to the wider public and encouraging more CSOs to use the application and to enter as much data on their activities as possible; and

Opening the data collected through this application, and all such applications, for reuse.