Increasing the capacity for co-creative policy-making within government authorities (EE0054)

1.1 Development of a co-creation workspace
What is the public problem that the commitment will address? The e-Consultation Information System (EIS) was introduced in 2011 to coordinate draft legislation between ministries and manage documents of the European Union. In addition, functioning as a participation channel is osale.ee but it is not sufficiently integrated with EIS. Thus, legislation is fragmented between different environments and the management of document versions is scattered (for example, in 2019 the Government of the Republic discussed 718 drafts and other issues). Both officials and interest groups are interested in an open platform that allows for co-creative policy-making from the earliest possible stage of the initiative.

What is the commitment? Within the framework of Estonia’s Open Government Partnership Action Plan for 2018–2020, the terms of reference and prototype for a new information system have been developed, having passed through about a dozen pilot groups (with the participation of ministries, the Riigikogu and interest groups). This Action Plan includes the development of a text editor, the testing thereof and its implementation. The functionality of the public view of the co-creation workspace will be achieved as part of the next action plan. For Impact assessment, additional tools will be created within the framework of the development of the co-creation workspace. Compatibility with information systems previously in use in the country is kept in mind and therefore the administrative burden and duplication of data is not increased.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? As a result of the development, a comprehensive co-creative workspace will be completed, which will enable the creation and processing of draft legal acts. The platform provides an overview of the initiative from its inception to its adoption and ex-post evaluation. The transition from document-based to version-based processing will increase legislative transparency, allow for 10 greater co-creation and reduce the workload of both officials and interest groups spent preparing, updating and processing documents. A thoroughly tested text editor created during this stage of development is a prerequisite for the introduction of a public view of the co-creation environment.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Transparency Civic participation Additional information The activity supports the achievement of the strategic goal of ‘Estonia 2035’, in which ‘Estonia is an innovative, reliable and people-centred country’. The activity is related to the activities of the Civil Society Programme ‘Strong Civil Society’ for 2021–2024.

Milestone Activity Result Start date End date Text editor development work (including development intention, draft law and regulation and creating the text of the explanatory memorandum) The text editor is ready for testing. 08.2020 12.2020 Text editor testing The text editor is tested with five cases. 01.2021 06.2021 Text editor testing The text editor is tested with ten cases. 07.2021 12.2021 Analysis of test results and the planning of further activities (including for the development of a public view) Follow-up activities have been agreed upon. 01.2022 06.2022

1.2 Pilot new co-creation methodologies and tools
What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Policy-making in Estonia is rooted in the engagement of the public, although the capacity of government authorities is uneven. Instead of engagement, the public is increasingly awaiting co-creative policy-making, which requires not only technical support (such as the development of the EIS described above) but also increased skills for officials, including engagement coordinators, which is supported by central training9 . It is therefore important to find methods that would encourage those people who have not joined any advocacy or representative organizations to participate in the process of co-creation. Greater attention must also be focused on those groups within society, whose involvement is more reserved. For example, research has shown that over a period of a few years the proportion of young people who feel that their participation is having an impact at the local level has decreased, while at the same time the proportion of young people who see their participation as contributing to national decisions has increased.10 It must also be taken into account that one in four residents of Estonia will be over the age of 65 in 2035, meaning that the usual (digital) methods of engagement will need to be reviewed. In addition, research shows that while 69% of Estonians are interested in domestic politics (63% in 2015), the level of interest is 54% among Estonian citizens of other nationalities (57% in 2015). At the same time, Estonians are also about 15 percentage points more politically active than people from other nationalities are.11

What is the commitment? To collect and describe the best practices for co-creation and test new methodologies with a view to creating a toolbox of co-creation methods for the agency. At least two pilot projects will be carried out: Development and implementation of the ‘Estonia 2035’ Strategy Day concept (led by the 9 During the implementation of the Action Plan, central training in policy development and impact assessment (including engagement, process management and optional modules on analytical capacity) will continue for up to two hundred people per year. 10 Flash Eurobarometer 455. European Youth. September 2017. 11 The Institute of Baltic Studies, Praxis Centre for Policy Studies. Monitoring of the integration of Estonian society 2017. 12 Government Office and the Ministry of Finance) and analysis and improvement of the work of advisory bodies (Ministry of Rural Affairs). During the course of the implementation of the Action Plan, opportunities will be sought to add a third pilot project to the activity, if necessary. ● The state’s long-term development strategy ‘Estonia 2035’ is an umbrella document for development plans and related programmes in the field. The strategy implementation process envisages that the strategy day with partners and interest groups will take place once per year; however, the aim is to create an opportunity for everyone to contribute to the strategy discussions. To this end, the concept and co-creation methods will be developed in cooperation with civil society. The concept of the ‘Estonia 2035’ Strategy Day will be flexible and will allow for the testing several methods, which can then be used by other government authorities, local governments, and others. ● The aim of the pilot project of strategic partnership and advisory bodies is, based on the example of the Ministry of Rural Affairs (there are more than 15 advisory bodies in the area of governance, with more than 150 organisations participating). The aim is to analyse the practice of planning, managing and involving the work of advisory bodies and to create tools for different levels of management, in order to increase the effectiveness of cooperation between the parties and their level of satisfaction with the process. Other government agencies, local governments, etc can also use the results. In order to assess the activities, a satisfaction survey is conducted among the participants (engagement coordinators, officials from the participating ministries, representatives of non-governmental organizations).

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? The toolbox of co-creation methods will bring together existing experiences and lessons learned, and will allow for the testing of different co-creation methods. As a result, officials have the knowledge needed in order to increase both their courage as well as the skills to shape policy through co-creation (including increasing the capacity of engagement coordinators to advise policy makers in their government agencies). There will also be an increase in the knowledge base and co-creation of policy and legislation, and an improvement in the skills and knowledge of those involved (including in describing and managing expectations). Local government employees can also use the toolbox.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Transparency Civic participation

Additional information The activities support the achievement of the strategic goals of ‘Estonia 2035’ ‘Smart, active and healthy people living in Estonia’ and ‘Estonian society is caring, cooperative and open’. The activity also supports the ‘Development Plan for Population and Cohesive Society until 2030’ (under preparation) and the achievement of the objectives of the development plans in the field of pilot projects. 13

Milestone Activity Result Start date End date Collection and analysis of co-creation methods (including surveys and interviews with representatives from ministries and civil society in cooperation with the network of engagement coordinators) Input has been provided by all ministries and at least ten NGOs. 08.2020 12.2020 The description of the collected co-creation methods with representatives from ministries and civil society, in cooperation with the network of engagement coordinators, and the publication of instructional material At least seven methods are described. 01.2021 06.2021 The negotiations of pilot project objectives and the Action Plan with strategic partners, and the identification and analysis of the current situation (including surveys and interviews with ministries and representatives from civil society) Pilot-projects are ready to start the next phase. 08.2020 12.2020 Implementation of the ‘Estonia 2035’ Strategy Day pilot-project The event is taking place. 01.2021 06.2021 The development and negotiation of pilotproject solutions for advisory bodies with strategic partners At least 30 organisations have provided input. 01.2021 12.2021 Describing the results of pilot projects and supplementing the guidance material with representatives from ministries and civil society, in cooperation with the network of engagement coordinators Instructional material is updated by the deadline. 01.2022 06.2022"

Action Plan Review

Commitment 1: Increase co-creative policy-making capacity within government authorities

• Verifiable: Yes

• Does it have an open government lens? Yes

• Potential for results: Substantial

Commitment #1: Increasing co-creative policy-making capacity within government authorities (Government Office)

Partners: Ministry of Justice, Centre of Registers and Information Systems, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

CSO collaborators: Estonian Cooperation Assembly

For a complete description of the commitment see Commitment 1 in the action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/estonia-action-plan-2020-2022/

Context and objectives:

This commitment continues the government’s and civil society’s efforts to increase civic participation in public policy making, which Estonia has continuously prioritized in its action plans. The commitment combines two streams of activities, that is, developing an online tool for policy co-creation, and publishing and testing a toolbox of co-creation methods. The first continues the previous action plan’s work on developing a novel online tool that would integrate the currently scattered phases of lawmaking into one transparent and seamless co-creation process. Both governmental and civil society stakeholders have reiterated a need for a digital solution to facilitate citizens’ access to policy-making processes, in particular in the early phases of policy development. [1]

As previous attempts to revamp existing online participation tools have not increased citizen participation, [2] Estonia’s fourth action plan contained an ambitious goal of creating a new online tool that would provide a space for co-creation from the very first steps of an emerging policy idea. [3] The fourth action plan resulted in the preparation of a prototype of the co-creation tool. The tool is meant to serve as the following: 1) a limited-access “text editor” workspace for policy makers and selected stakeholders to co-create policy drafts and 2) a public interface that enables all citizens to participate in different phases of policy making and track the status of policy initiatives. [4] In March 2021, the governmental task force coordinating the development of the tool began testing the text editor with real users. [5]

The fifth action plan will release and test the first usable version of the co-creation tool and prepare the development of the public engagement functionalities, to be continued in the next action plan. By the end of this action plan, the government plans to have a fully functional text editor in use, whereas the development of the public interface would continue into the next action plan. In parallel, the Government Office and ministries’ public engagement coordinators will compile and publish a toolbox of co-creation methods in the form of an online handbook, testing selected methods on two pilot initiatives and summarizing the results in the handbook alongside guidelines for implementation. The Government Office plans to update the toolbox regularly based on lessons learned from implementing the methods in actual policy-making processes. [6]

According to the action plan, the public increasingly expects to be able to participate in the co-creation of policies instead of simply commenting on proposals the government has put forward. [7] However, democracy experts note that despite public expectations, co-creation is still an emerging phenomenon in Estonia and not yet a widespread practice in public sector organizations. [8] This commitment focuses on improving public officials’ skills and knowledge in policy co-creation. The Government Office will aggregate methods and best practices in co-creation (both in offline and online contexts) and provide guidelines to policy makers for designing co-creation processes and selecting methods fit for the purpose. [9] The Government Office and Ministry of Rural Affairs will test these methods in real-life policy co-creation processes. The Government Office will also conduct an interactive co-creation process with youth, combining individual and collective online activities to solicit young people’s input to the annual action plan of the “Estonia 2035” strategy. [10] The Ministry of Rural Affairs will use a co-creation approach to engage stakeholders to examine the functioning of the ministry’s diverse policy advisory bodies to increase the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement in these bodies.

The two streams (the digital tool and the co-creation toolbox) form a coherent cluster of activities that aim to provide public officials with an infrastructure and tools for co-creating policy in collaboration with stakeholders. With its focus on co-creation and citizen engagement, this commitment addresses a clearly perceived need around the OGP value of civic participation.

Potential for results: Substantial

This commitment takes a step-by-step approach to changing the role of citizens in public policy making. In the long run, engaging citizens as co-creators could improve the quality and depth of public input to policy and bring more diverse stakeholders into decision-making processes. The Ministry of Justice’s analysis of the policy-making practice in 2018 found that government institutions’ public engagement practices have improved over the years, but in about 20 to 25 percent of cases, stakeholders are still not engaged in the early phases of policy drafting when they could have the greatest influence on the content of policy initiatives. [11] In around half of the cases, opportunities for citizen input in the later phases of policy drafting are limited to the formalistic possibility to comment on fully formulated policy drafts on the Information System of Draft Acts. According to the same source, about one-fourth of the analyzed policy initiatives had actively engaged citizens, sourcing public input both in discussing the policy problems and possible solutions and using various channels to reach diverse stakeholders. This indicates ample room for redesigning public engagement processes to allow for more substantial public input throughout the policy cycle. On the other hand, there are signs of new approaches being adopted. The development of the “Estonia 2035” national strategy in 2018–2020 serves as a flagship initiative in terms of policy co-creation, as it involved close to 17,000 citizens in discussing the national priorities [12] through various forms of participation, from workshops, conferences, and informal discussions in the annual open-air Opinion Festival to online and offline public opinion surveys. [13]

This commitment does not foresee major legal reforms but is nevertheless ambitious, seeking to catalyze a government-wide transition towards a more collaborative policy-making model built around the concept of co-creation. [14] It will do so by creating better digital opportunities for citizens to access key information about policy initiatives and participate in policy development without needing to navigate between various government institutions and information systems. At the same time, the government expects the co-creation-centric design of the system to encourage public officials to engage stakeholders already in the early stages of policy development. [15] The toolbox and guidelines on co-creation methods could support public officials in adopting new practices to transition to a co-creative policy-making model, provided that sufficient resources are allocated to disseminating and promoting use of the toolbox.

The potential results of this commitment also encompass the policy outcomes from the two planned co-creation pilots. One of them engages youth in updating the “Estonia 2035” strategy. As the first step, participants can play an online game to experience how different decisions may lead to different futures. [16] In the end, they will be able to make proposals for improving the quality of life in Estonia. Next, youths will discuss the proposals with their teachers and peers in classes using a methodology proposed by a group of partner organizations involving youth and educational organizations. From the discussions, the participants will select the best proposals to be sent to the Government Office. The Government Office then plans to engage experts and public officials to select the most promising ideas and conduct public discussions of the selected ideas. As the final step, the Government Office will present the ideas to the government and responsible ministries and discuss how to incorporate the proposals into the next annual action plan for the “Estonia 2035” strategy. [17] This pilot could therefore result in youth being able to influence concrete policy changes at the national level.

The potential outcomes of the other pilot pertain more to the methodology of policy making than policy content. The Ministry of Rural Affairs coordinates stakeholder engagement through a number of advisory bodies with varying purposes, some mandated by law, others established by the minister, and so on. However, the ministry lacks a systematic overview of how effectively these bodies work in soliciting input from stakeholders. In partnership with researchers from the Center for Applied Anthropology, the ministry plans to engage various stakeholders in auditing the results of the advisory bodies and improving the setup of these bodies to increase the effectiveness of stakeholder participation. As a result, the ministry plans to document its experience in the form of guidelines for conducting such audit processes in close collaboration with stakeholders that other government bodies could use as a model.

In sum, this commitment takes concrete steps to increase the level and impact of citizen participation throughout the policy cycle and to reduce the fragmentation of information on participation opportunities, which has been a persistent issue in Estonia. [18] The main strength of this commitment lies in its focus on making it easier for citizens to follow policy processes and making it more convenient for public officials to develop policies in collaboration with other institutions and the public. Civil society stakeholders believe the digital co-creation environment may spur substantial changes in the policy-making practice in the long term, if there is institutional will to follow through with the current plans. [19] Actual changes in government practice also depend on public officials’ understanding of how to implement co-creation in these officials’ daily work. The toolbox on co-creation methods along with guidelines for implementation could therefore further reinforce the positive results of this commitment.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

Providing a digital working environment for stakeholder engagement and building public officials’ skills could induce actual change in policy-making practices. To fully realize the potential of this commitment, the government should foster the actual use of the new digital resources. The results will also strongly depend on the institutional will to change the current policy-making routines and allow for more external input and inter-institutional collaboration. Some civil society stakeholders have cautioned that implementation may run into problems such as lack of funding or inability of different institutions to cooperate. [20] It may be especially challenging to effectively integrate the information systems and work processes of the executive government and the Parliament due to their institutional differences and distinct routines.

For this commitment’s objectives to be met, the IRM recommends that the responsible agencies devote specific attention to the following aspects:

• Ensure close collaboration between different institutions while developing and testing the online policy co-creation tool. It is crucial to allocate sufficient time and resources for the task force leading the project to thoroughly engage all government institutions in the development process to understand their specific needs and secure their interest in using the system.

• Engage stakeholders in defining additional priority policy processes whereby the selected co-creation methods could be tested. In addition to the two planned pilots, the government could invite stakeholders to jointly select a few high-priority policy processes and make use of the co-creation toolbox to design the process. This would allow for a more thorough testing of the methods and guidelines in various real-life processes while also improving the outcomes of these policy processes by enabling more substantial stakeholder input.

• Promote the use of the co-creation toolbox by public officials. Simply making the toolbox available online might not ensure the actual use of its methods. This commitment involves conducting pilots to test a few selected methods, but it is equally important to plan dissemination, training, and counseling activities to assure the use of the methods beyond the pilot cases. The Government Office foresees collaboration with ministries’ public engagement coordinators [21] in creating and implementing the toolbox. [22] For the purpose of scaling up and sustaining the results of the commitment, the IRM recommends planning concrete activities that the engagement coordinators could undertake in their organizations to encourage their colleagues to use the toolbox in their work. This could include disseminating information about the toolbox via their organizations’ internal communication tools, organizing tutorials, inviting the pilots to share their experience, and providing individual counselling and tailor-made support to public officials in implementing the co-creation methods.

Strengthen the engagement coordinators’ capacity to assist co-creation and public engagement processes in government agencies. As part of Estonia’s previous action plan, the Government Office facilitated regular meetings and exchange of experience between engagement coordinators to reinvigorate their existing collaboration network. As a result, the engagement coordinators developed a shared view of their role and tasks in facilitating public engagement in their organizations. [23] As the next step, the IRM recommends that the Government Office contact ministries’ top managers to discuss what support it could provide to increase the capacity of engagement coordinators to fulfill their role and how ministries themselves could support the work of engagement coordinators. This may include a common agreement to allocate more working time that the coordinators could spend on public engagement-related tasks along with securing opportunities for training and professional development.

Results Report

Commitment 1. Increase co-creative policy-making capacity within government authorities

Verifiable: Yes

Does it have an open government lens?

Yes

Potential for results: Substantial

● Completion: Substantial

● Did it open government? Marginal

Commitment 1: Increase co-creative policy-making capacity within government authorities (Government Office)

Context and Objectives:

This commitment sought to improve transparency and public participation in the central government’s policy-making processes. Both governmental and civil society stakeholders have noted that the government’s policy development processes tend to be complex and opaque for the public, resulting in low public participation. ^[1] The Government Office and Ministry of Justice are developing a new digital tool which would integrate all steps of lawmaking and enable government agencies to co-create policies with other stakeholders. Since the concept of co-creation is novel in Estonia, ^[2] the Government Office also set out to increase public officials’ skills by publishing an online toolbox of co-creation methods and testing specific methods to involve young people in discussing the “Estonia 2035” national strategy. In addition, the Ministry of Rural Affairs sought to improve stakeholder engagement in its advisory bodies.

Did It Open Government? Marginal

This commitment strives for long-term changes in public governance that requires years to achieve. Since the government has divided this reform into steps that span several action plans, the fifth action plan did not produce a significant qualitative shift in the government’s policy-making practices. However, its outputs helped foster changes that could become observable as public officials learn new skills and adopt more collaborative methods of policy-making. While some activities (e.g., the Ministry of Rural Affairs’ reform of public engagement methods) produced more tangible results than others (e.g., the toolbox of co-creation methods), the commitment as a whole yielded positive outcomes.

During the action plan, the Ministry of Justice and Government Office developed new functionalities for the digital policy co-creation tool, conducted workshops with public officials to test user stories, and launched pilots of legislative drafting processes using a prototype of the tool. The government actively engaged public officials in developing the tool to ensure its usefulness and usability. Work on the public interface and on the functionalities for involving external partners in policy development is ongoing. While the tool is not in official use yet, public officials involved in its testing gave positive feedback to the coordinators. ^[3] According to the coordinators, the tool is being designed to nudge public officials toward co-creation ^[4] and its use will be mandatory once it is adopted. ^[5] Therefore, despite the technical nature of the activities conducted during the action plan, the commitment has helped the government move toward more transparent and inclusive policy-making. Civil society stakeholders believe the co-creation tool will support a qualitative change in civic participation ^[6] and are satisfied with the progress of this commitment so far. ^[7]

In addition to the digital tool, the Government Office worked on describing different co-creation methods and guidelines in a public online toolbox for public officials. The toolbox (“Koosloomeranits”) was published only in November 2022 after the end of the action plan term. While the first version includes basic principles and terminology related to co-creation, it still lacks descriptions of concrete methods, examples, and guidelines. [8] Therefore, this part of the commitment has not yet produced noteworthy results. The Government Office is continuing the development of the toolbox in the sixth action plan (2022-2024). [9]

In parallel, the Government Office tested the “Arvamusrännak” (‘Opinion Journey’) participation method to engage young people in how the living environment in Estonia could be improved. The Government Office engaged 25 different schools in an online game and live discussions. From 200 ideas submitted, the Government Office aggregated 15 proposals pertaining to public transportation, recycling, and sustainable energy use. [10] They then conducted a public poll in collaboration with the Delfi.ee news portal to rate the proposals, receiving 6,218 votes from people of various ages. The selected proposals do not seem to have directly influenced the “Estonia 2035” strategy’s annual action plan, [11] which the Government Office initially quoted as one of the aims. [12] The proposals were presented to the Prime Minister, [13] Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, [14] but it is not clear how the ideas have informed the ministries’ policies. However, people’s active participation in the initiative indicates that the government succeeded in testing a specific engagement method that can be used in future discussions around the “Estonia 2035” strategy. This exercise likely improved civil servants’ public engagement skills and gave youths a valuable participation experience.

As a third stream of this commitment, the Ministry of Rural Affairs undertook an in-depth analysis of its public engagement practices in its advisory bodies. The resulting study reports gave the ministry new insights about the shortcomings of their engagement formats. ^[15] Based on this, the ministry’s public engagement coordinator developed practical working instruments to assist its officials in planning their engagement. One is a short digest of the government’s Good Practice of Public Engagement along with a feedback form that officials can use to assess stakeholder satisfaction with public engagement. With this form, the ministry plans to start regularly measuring stakeholder satisfaction with its public engagement practices. ^[16] The coordinator also created a database of participation and co-creation methods that officials can consult when planning stakeholder engagement. The database describes about 60 methods and lists the contact persons in the ministry who can assist colleagues in implementing specific methods. As a result of this commitment, the ministry is developing an agenda for reforming its public engagement formats in 2023. This process is aligned with the development of the ministry’s organizational strategy to ensure the measures and indicators for engagement support the ministry’s strategic objectives. Addressing public participation as part of strategic planning is a commendable step that could drive substantial changes in the ministry’s practices.

The Ministry of Rural Affairs disseminated the results of this commitment through several channels. The ministry published the analysis reports and resources for public officials on its website, ^[17] and will add the methods from the co-creation database to the toolbox developed by the Government Office. The ministry also shared its experience via the collaboration networks of ministries’ public engagement coordinators and strategic development managers, and during the Partner Days that the ministry conducts a few times a year to exchange information with key governmental and non-governmental partners. ^[18] Moreover, this commitment resulted in several unplanned follow-up activities that support its objectives. One was the launch of co-creation workshops in collaboration with external experts to develop a legislative framework for sustainable food systems. These workshops have brought together stakeholders from the domains of food security, economy, and social issues, who do not commonly collaborate with one another. ^[19] The experience of these workshops will be documented in a public report.

Looking Ahead:

The Government Office is continuing in the sixth action plan the development of the co-creation tool and toolbox and testing new co-creation methods. They are also engaging experts and stakeholders to develop a roadmap to foster open government in central and local governments. ^[20] The government has built its approach to participatory policy-making across multiple action plans to become more comprehensive over time. Until now, this work has mainly involved developing tools and conducting pilots, with a view toward an eventual systematic reform of the government’s policy-making practices. To institutionalize open policy-making practices, the government simultaneously needs to work on the legal and policy framework, public officials’ skills and attitudes, and organizations’ work processes and management cultures. The roadmap in the sixth action plan could provide a long-overdue comprehensive plan for this complex reform.

Regarding this commitment, the following steps could support sustainable results:

• Continue proactively engaging civil society in developing the public interface and participation functions of the co-creation tool, so that the tool will be attractive and easy to use.
• Integrate Parliamentary proceedings of legislative drafts with the tool to provide a single digital access point for public scrutiny and participation. The Ministry of Justice is already collaborating with the Parliament toward this aim. The Parliament has analyzed their needs, but technical developments will require additional funding. ^[21]
• Promote active use of the co-creation toolbox among public officials. The IRM has previously recommended using the toolbox in civil service trainings, organizing tutorials, sharing experience between public sector organizations on using specific co-creation methods, and engaging ministries’ public engagement coordinators to guide their colleagues in using the methods. Training and experience-sharing events could also involve ministries’ civil society partners and local municipalities.
• Empower ministries’ public engagement coordinators to transform their organizations’ public engagement practices. The potential of public engagement coordinators as multipliers of knowledge and initiators of reforms is still under-used in many public sector organizations. Previous IRM reports have recommended allocating more working time and organizational support to public engagement coordinators to increase the impact of their work. Organizations could also benefit from building tandems or teams of public engagement coordinators to increase their reach. ^[22]
• Whether or not this is part of the roadmap process in the sixth action plan, the government could analyze what resources public officials need to engage stakeholders in their daily work without much additional burden. For example, conducting thorough ex-ante impact assessments of policy initiatives could identify high-impact processes that officials could focus their public engagement efforts on. ^[23]
• It is vital to allocate clear responsibilities for implementing the open government roadmap being developed in the framework of Estonia’s sixth action plan. The responsible organizations should be engaged in the roadmap from the outset to secure their ownership. Where possible, mechanisms for improving public participation could be designed and implemented in partnership with CSOs to ensure their impact. In addition, when developing the roadmap, it will be important to work with CSOs on the OGP multi-stakeholder forum to effectively leverage the tools and resources already developed in order to shift toward a more participatory government.