Educating Public on Participation in Policy Creation (ME0065)

What public problem does the measure address? This measure responds to the problem of insufficient interest of citizens in participating in public debates on draft legal acts and strategies and in using the e-mechanisms available to them to launch legislative initiatives, which may indicate a low level of information about existing opportunities for participation, a lack of practical knowledge and skills for meaningful inclusion in decision-making processes both at the national and local level, but also lack of trust in the work of institutions and the meaningfulness of the inclusion process. The measure also responds to the problem of insufficient opportunities for practical learning of young people, especially students, about the creation of public policies and the still untapped potential of cooperation between the academic community and non- governmental organizations in promoting youth participation. The results of the Balkan Barometer survey for 2022 on the attitudes of the public in Montenegro on participation in decision-making procedures show that 15% of citizens believe that they cannot influence the decisions of the Government, 31% of them do not want to express their opinion in public, and 21% of them do not at all concern for inclusion in decision-making processes. According to the same survey, when asked if they had ever done anything to influence the Government's decisions, only 3% of citizens took part in public debates, 6% of them left comments on social networks, 15% of them participated in demonstrations, while 33 % discuss Government decisions only with friends, and even 39% of them have never discussed it. Finally, as many as 60% of Montenegrin citizens, according to the Balkan Barometer 2022 survey, have no confidence in the Government. When we talk about the specific challenges of youth participation, the UNDP research identified insufficient information and lack of interest among young people, which indicates the need for significantly greater coverage of young people when creating strategic documents and plans concerning that target population, but also the need to implement activities which should aim to motivate young people for a more proactive approach. In this context, the underutilization of more modern and attractive channels of information distribution, such as social networks and applications through which young people could be more effectively informed about policies, calls, advice and various issues related to young people in different areas, was also recognized.

What does this measure entail? The measure includes a series of activities and initiatives that should increase public awareness and improve citizens' knowledge and skills about the possibilities of participation in public policy decision- making.

In what way does the measure contribute to the solution of the identified public problem? The measure plans several complementary activities: the implementation of a national campaign on the possibilities of public participation (e-participation, e-petitions and other forms of participation) with involved politicians and influencers, workshops on civic activism and the possibilities of citizen participation in decision-making processes for citizens, as well as the formation of haba for students for practical research of problems that can be turned into new public policies, with the involvement and cooperation of universities, NGOs and research centers. It is expected that all of this could contribute to better informing the public and greater motivation, especially of young people, to participate in the creation of public policies.

Why is this measure relevant in relation to the values promoted through the OGP initiative? Proactive promotion of the possibility of public participation in discussions on draft legal acts and strategies can, along with other measures, provide an important incentive for citizens, civil society organizations and other actors to engage in discussions on issues of public interest. By strengthening the active participation of citizens, a contribution is made to strengthening the responsibility of public institutions in the creation and implementation of public policies.

Additional information This measure is complementary to the goals and activities of the Public Administration Reform Strategy 2022-2026, especially in relation to promoting faster communication between citizens and the administration and spreading the good practice of public participation in the policy-making process, with a special focus on consultations in the initial stages of drafting documents. The Ministry of Sports and Youth is preparing a new Strategy for Youth 2023-2027. which will define measures, activities and recommendations related to civic education, which will be implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. Additionally, the measure is compatible with the goals of sustainable development (Goal 16: 'Peace, justice and strong institutions' and tasks 16.6 - Develop efficient, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels; 16.7 - Ensure appropriate, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels).

Budget 31.000 EUR

Activities

3.1 Implement a national campaign on the possibilities of public participation (e-participation and other forms of participation) Holder: Ministry of Public Administration, Directorate for Innovation and Openness of Public Administration, Directorate for Infrastructure, Information Security, Digitization and e-Services, Directorate for Strategic Planning in Public Administration and Monitoring the Implementation of Strategic Documents, PR Service of the Ministry Indicators of activity realization: - Prepared plan and design of the campaign in 2023 - Conducted campaign in 2024 - Degree of realization of the indicators from the Campaign Plan Required financial resources: 10,000 EUR Source of funding: Budget of Montenegro, donor funds, September 2023 - September 2024

3.2.Hold workshops on civic activism and opportunities for citizen participation in decision-making processes for citizens Holder: Ministry of Public Administration, Directorate for Innovation and Openness of Public Administration, Ministry of Education, Directorate for Human Resources, UCG, in cooperation with NGOs Indicators of activity realization: - Created a plan for workshops in 2023 - Online lecture available on the e-learning platform - Online lecture available on the website of the Government of Montenegro - Number of lecture views - Held two workshops for pupils, students and young people in 2023 - Realized three workshops for students, students and young people in 2024 - Number of workshop participants Required financial resources: 4,000 EUR Source of funding: Budget of Montenegro, donor funds March 2023 - December 2024

3.3. Form a hub for students for practical research on problems that can be turned into new public policies, with the involvement and cooperation of universities, NGOs and research centers Holder: General Secretariat of the Government, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technological Development Activity realization indicator - two practical workshops for students were held in 2023, with the participation and cooperation of NGOs and universities - held two practical workshops for students in 2024, with the participation and cooperation of NGOs and universities Required financial resources: EUR 6,000 Source of funding: Budget of Montenegro, donor funds, April 2023 - December 2024

3.4. Prepare a report on the involvement of the economy in the process of drafting the law Holder: Council for Competitiveness/Secretariat of the Council for Competitiveness Activity realization indicator - conducted regular surveys among public administration bodies and business associations - semi-annual and annual reports for 2023 and 2024 adopted at the Council for Competitiveness and published publicly Required financial resources: EUR 3,000 Source of funding: donor funds January 2023 - December 2024

3.5. Conduct an information campaign through the work of the Council for Competitiveness on the possibilities of private sector participation in the policy-making process Holder: Council for Competitiveness/Secretariat of the Council for Competitiveness Activity realization indicator - conducted a campaign in cooperation with business associations Required financial resources: EUR 5,000 Source of funding: Budget of Montenegro, donor funds, May 2023 September 2023 3.6. Conduct a campaign to inform the public about the possibilities of participation in the decision-making process through the "Parliament of Montenegro e-petition" platform Holder: Parliament of Montenegro Activity realization indicator - conducted a campaign in accordance with the objectives of the Communication Strategy Required financial resources: EUR 3,000 Source of funding: Budget of Montenegro, donor funds January 2023 - January 2024

Action Plan Review

Commitment 3. Educate the public about the possibilities of participation in the creation of public policies

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● This commitment has been clustered as: Participation of citizens (Commitments 1, 2, and 3 of the action plan)

● Potential for results (cluster): Substantial

Commitment cluster 1: Participation of citizens

Lead agencies: Ministry of Public Administration, Parliament of Montenegro

For a complete description of the commitments included in this cluster, see Commitments 1, 2, and 3 in Montenegro’s 2022-2024 action plan here.

Context and objectives:

Under this cluster, the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) aims to improve the functionality of Montenegro’s e-participation portal, improve public hearings, and educate the public about opportunities to participate in policy-making. Montenegro’s e-participation portal is part of its general e-government portal. [35] The previous action plan (2018-2021) included a commitment to post at least 60 calls for public consultations on the portal annually. While the targets were largely met, the use of the portal by public institutions remained uneven, and the government’s responsiveness to the public did not noticeably improve. [36] From the IRM researcher’s review of the portal, since the beginning of 2023, public institutions have prepared only six reports out of the 22 consultations and only a small number of citizens participated in these consultations.

Civil society points to underlying reasons for limited public participation in Montenegro, including a lack of trust toward government processes, a lack of government outreach to the public, a lack of public knowledge about available participation opportunities, and a lack of meaningful feedback from the government to citizens that would motivate more participation. [37] Stakeholders note that the government often disregards their comments, which disincentivizes them from using the portal. Moreover, an independent expert says that the e-participation portal is not interactive, and participants cannot see each other’s comments during active consultations. [38] The comments, where they exist, are listed in PDF reports.

Under Commitment 1, the MPA will analyze the e-participation portal using international best practices and develop more advanced functionalities based on the findings, including easier submission of comments, and receiving responses from the ministry online. The MPA will also pilot three public hearings using the new functionalities. Commitment 2 involves strengthening the normative framework around public hearings and monitoring user satisfaction with conducted hearings. [39] The commitment also entails reporting on the steps taken by line ministries to include different social groups on which law or strategy may have an impact, and reporting on the number of women's organizations that took part in hearings. Finally, Commitment 3 aims to increase public awareness of the possibilities of participation in policy-making. Its activities include, among others, a national campaign on the possibilities of public participation, workshops on civic activism, a hub for students to research public policies, and informing the public of the possibilities to participate in decision-making through the Parliament’s e-petition platform.

Potential for results: Substantial

By improving the portal’s functionalities (Commitment 1), the MPA could facilitate more participation of citizens, civil society, and other actors when adopting public policies. The new functionalities could lead to better information on the results of consultations, including accepted and unaccepted comments, and improve the responsiveness of public institutions to matters of public interest. Ultimately, this will depend on the actual improvements to the portal, whether more public institutions use the portal, and whether their responses to comments improve. The main added value of this commitment is the comparative analysis of international best practices for e-participation. This implies that the MPA plans to take a more strategic approach to improving online consultations compared to the previous action plan. However, Institut Alternativa is skeptical that new functionalities alone will address the reasons for low participation, such as the limited impact of public consultations on policies and unsatisfactory feedback to CSOs and citizens on their comments and suggestions. [40]

A major problem for public hearings in Montenegro is the lack of oversight by a central government body. According to Institut Alternativa, less than half of all legal acts underwent a public hearing in 2021, even though there is a requirement for hearings to be open for public consultation between 20 and 40 days before the regulation or act can be adopted. [41] Under Commitment 2, the amendments to the government’s Rules of Procedure (initiated at the end of 2022), the MPA will ensure that proposals of ministries that do not comply with the requirements for public hearings are not sent to the government for approval. Given that fewer than half of legal acts currently undergo public hearings, the IRM assesses this commitment as having substantial potential for results. Institut Alternativa believes that this commitment could improve how institutions organize public hearings, potentially making them more impactful on policies. [42] Moreover, the commitment could improve the quality of public hearings, such as through the planned trainings on quality control for state bodies and annual satisfaction surveys of participants. However, annual surveys may not be sufficient to fully understand how satisfied participants were with their involvement in the hearings.

Commitment 3 could improve some of the issues around low public participation in Montenegro, such as digital illiteracy and mistrust of government processes. The sustainability of these activities is difficult to assess, though the modest amount of money allocated to establishing the hub for students may not be proportional to the scope of the activity. A representative of Institut Alternativa mentioned that the MPA previously announced tenders for awareness raising in this area, but these efforts did not lead to lasting results. [43] The representative stressed that the greatest challenge is not a lack of campaigning, but rather the poor functionality of the e-participation portal. Education of citizens alone is unlikely to lead to a rise in participation if it is not accompanied by a cultural shift within public institutions in how they engage citizens.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

The major challenges to these commitments are the underlying cultural and institutional barriers among citizens and civil servants that have historically limited public participation. While these commitments may not fully reduce these barriers, they are positive steps forward. Learning from international examples of successful e-participation portals could facilitate improvements to Montenegro’s portal.

With a view toward implementation and potential future steps, the IRM recommends the following:

● Consider legally mandating public institutions to use the portal and encourage them to provide adequate responses to comments. To improve public participation in policy-making, it may be necessary to require public institutions to use the e-participation portal and encourage them to respond to comments and suggestions in a reasonable and timely manner. A good example is Croatia’s e-consultation portal, which is legally mandated for state bodies and actively used by citizens. [44] A major deficiency of Montenegro’s portal is that citizens cannot access comments posted while a consultation is still in progress, and the final reports do not state what the comments were about or who they came from. On Croatia’s portal, users can see each comment in real time, and comments are linked to specific parts of the proposed act. Over 150 consultations have been conducted so far in 2023 on Croatia’s portal, most lasting at least one month. Of the closed consultations, most have an accompanying report with the government’s responses to the comments. After a consultation process is finished, the comments and the government responses can be downloaded in Excel format, and the entire process remains visible on the portal.

● Train and educate civil servants on carrying out online consultations. As mentioned, many underlying reasons for low participation in Montenegro stem from the public administration rather than the public. In addition to educating the public on opportunities to participate, the IRM recommends educating and training civil servants on best practices in carrying out consultations. The MPA could consider partnering with the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) for educating and training Montenegrin civil servants. [45]

● Use the demographic statistics to conduct targeted outreach for future consultations. Commitment 1 calls for gathering “more advanced statistics” on e-consultations, including gender, age, and location of the user. The MPA should use these statistics to ascertain which demographic groups are underrepresented in consultations and focus its engagement on these groups. In addition, government bodies could use social media and paid advertising to target specific demographic groups for consultations.

● Consider a holistic approach to reforming citizen engagement in policy-making, beyond online consultations. Functional improvements to the e-participation portal and awareness raising, though useful, may be insufficient to increase citizen engagement. Montenegro could consider a broader reform of how public institutions engage citizens, going beyond online consultations toward deliberative co-creation of policies. For example, Estonia is changing how its ministries engage citizens in policy-making, after recognizing its online consultation platforms did not facilitate meaningful participation. Estonia has used multiple OGP action plans to develop a new online tool for citizens to track the status of initiatives across the policy cycle and participate in different stages of policy-making. [46] The new system will institutionalize citizen engagement in the policy development process, as active participants or as observers who can track progress and provide comments. [47] Montenegro could consider a similar reform across several action plans, depending on the interest among citizens, civil society, and public institutions. Any future reform should focus on closing the feedback loop for citizens after the adoption of policies, for example by publishing a report on the reasoning behind the inclusion or rejection of recommendations.

● Create a “toolbox” with resources, guidance, and models that public institutions can use when engaging citizens. It may be necessary for public institutions to tailor their methods of consulting citizens, depending on the policy in question or the targeted beneficiaries. The MPA could consider creating a “toolbox” with resources and models of online and offline consultation methods that public institutions can borrow from for their own consultations. For example, Estonia is compiling a toolbox of co-creation methods with guides for implementation (part of its broader reform mentioned above). [48] Estonia’s Government Office updates the toolbox regularly, based on lessons learned from implementing the methods in actual policy-making processes. Similarly, in its 2021-2025 action plan, Latvia is encouraging ministries to adopt different formats for public participation to maintain regular dialogue with partners. [49] Latvia’s commitment involves publishing guidance and models of participation with the aim of improving institutional understanding of innovative participation measures.

● Develop clear guidance for public institutions on meeting the legal requirements for public hearings. As part of its oversight responsibilities (Commitment 2), the MPA could publish clear guidelines for public institutions to meet the legal requirements for public hearings. The guidelines could cover how much time must be allocated to the process, who must attend, what information they are required to publish in advance, and instructions on how to conduct roundtables, forums, and presentations. As with e-participation, it will also be important to provide guidance to the public on how to submit comments, and to public institutions on how to submit responses to remarks made by the public during hearings.

● Link the awareness raising and educational activities to ongoing reforms to increase their scope. Institut Alternativa believes that activities related to educating the public on the possibilities of participating in the creation of public policies (Commitment 3) should be linked to reforms in relevant areas, such as the Cooperation Strategy of State Administration Bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations 2022-2026. [50] Regarding youth participation, Institut Alternativa recommends introducing the topic of citizen participation in schools through the country’s educational reform. [51]