Parliamentary Consultation with Societal Actors (MO0047)

What is the public issue in response to which the commitment was made? • The need for a strong-based and entrenched establishment of consultation with societal actors and their involvement in legislation, control, and evaluation • The need expressed by these societal actors regarding training in the area of submission of petitions and motions on legislation.

What are the components of the commitment? The commitment consists of: • Involving the societal actors as the prime target in the process of implementing the OGP principles regarding Open Parliament; • Responding to the aspirations of societal actors expressed during the hearing sessions organized by the House of Representatives and the regional thematic seminars organized by our partners from the NDI; • Lifting this partnership with societal actors to the level of major commitment. Besides, this commitment builds on the gains and actions undertaken as part of the 2019-2020 Action Plan of the House of Representatives, and aims to: • Reinforce the capacities of societal actors in the principles, values, and fundamentals of the Open Government Partnership Initiative (OGP); • Mold trainers amongst societal actors to ensure the mentoring of local societal actors, mainly in terms of participatory and citizen democracy; • Incite and encourage civil society actors, academia, and research centers to utilize the documents and data produced by the House of Representatives in order to promote scientific research on parliamentary matters; • Accompany societal actors in embodying the roles and functions of the House of Representatives (control and scrutiny, legislation, public policy evaluation, and parliamentary diplomacy); • To achieve this goal, there must be an investment in the abilities of civil society by organizing thematic regional and local workshops and achieving a high level of orientation and training using quality content for civil society actors.

How will this commitment contribute to solving this public issue? The House of Representatives, as a holder of legislative power, will fully engage in the process of reinforcing confidence, dialogue, and partnership with civil society, and hence with society in general, in terms of participatory democracy. The abilities and capacities of civil society and its leadership will be reinforced, which would enable the amelioration of its productivity in the exercise of the rights guaranteed to it by the Constitution.

How is this commitment relevant to the OGP values? This form of democratic exercise, which enables citizens to address petitions to the competent institutions (executive and legislative branches) and motions on legislation, is surely a prerequisite for consolidating and reinforcing participatory democracy. It also aims to: • Ensure the adherence and involvement of citizens in the legislative process; • Promote the openness of the House of Representatives to society; • Encourage citizens to participate in the process of controlling government action and public policy evaluation; • Guarantee access and use of the documentary record of the legislative Institution; • Entrench and disseminate the culture of participatory democracy; • Value and utilize the open data the House of Representatives made available to academia and societal actors; This would enable the realization of the aspired accumulation in the academic research related to parliamentary affairs and democratic questions.

Additional information • The House of Representatives launched a series of consolidated actions aiming at the amelioration of access to information and public participation. It also regularly ensures the respect of this right. The actions are: • Ensuring the implementation of Law 31-13 on the right to access information. • Creating a Committee linked to the Board of the House of Representatives in Charge of receiving petitions and motions on legislation. • The House also created an administrative unit in charge of receiving and responding to the requests for information by citizens. • The House of Representatives launched a process of developing an autonomous online platform to manage petitions and motions on legislation addressed to it. It should be noted that the platform “e-participation” has shown that comanagement by the Parliament and Government poses some hardships in form. • The House of Representatives concluded in January 2020 a partnership and scientific cooperation agreement with the Ministry of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education, Scientific Research, the Ministry Delegate in Charge of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the 12 public Moroccan universities in order to promote scientific research and studies on parliamentary action. • The House created a prize for the best doctoral thesis and academic paper on democracy and parliamentary action. The prize in its second edition was awarded in July 2022. • The first forum with societal actors on general themes of Open Government and participatory democracy, which took place on May 23, 2019, and the second seminar on « Participatory democracy: Reality constraints and development perspectives » with the participation of societal actors and academia, which took place on February 25, 2020, culminated, partly, in ideas that were taken into consideration in the amendments adopted by the Parliament. (Organic Law 64.14 defining the conditions and modalities of the exercise of the right to present motions on legislation, as amended and supplemented by Organic Law 71.21; and Organic Law 44.14 defining the conditions and modalities of the exercise of the right to present petitions to public authorities, as amended and supplemented by Organic Law 70.21).

Key activities with deliverable and measurable results | Start date - End date

• Organization of meetings to select societal actors (civil coalition); • Creation of the Committee in charge of selection; • Launch of call for projects/expression of interest; • Selection of societal actors according to the charter and the following criteria: o Spatiality; o Probity; o Thematic Diversity; o Efficiency and reliability; o Recognition of activities and reputation. | Second semester of 2022 (Action that covers the entire legislative term)

Establishment of partnerships with the selected societal actors and associations | Second semester of 2022 (Action that covers the entire legislative term)

Preparation of trainers | 2022-2023

Organization of quarterly meetings with societal actors to discuss matters related to OGP | 2022-2023