Involving Representatives of Associations and Foundations, As Well As Other Civil Society Organizations, in Transparent and Objective Manner in Sector Working Groups for Planning and Programming of IPA 2 (MK0102)

Status quo or problem addressed by the commitment: Sector working groups set up for IPA 2 planning and programming should be enlarged with involving transparently selected representatives of associations and foundation, to allow civil organizations to take part in the work. Though consultations have been organized with civil organization in preparation of certain draft sector plan documents, they do not provide equal participation of the civil sector in all planning and programming phases of the pre-accession support by the EU. Main objective: Promoting the involvement of civil society in programming of assistance from the pre-accession Instrument (IPA II). Brief description of commitment: The involvement of civil society in the process of programming is one of the preconditions for implementation of sector approach for IPA 2 and in this regard on the sessions held on 31.03.2015 and 07.14.2015, the Government of RM has adopted and amended the composition of the frame for sector working groups for programming, according to which civil society organizations are included in the composition of sector working groups (if necessary, a decision by the institution running the sector working group). For transparent and legitimate involvement of civil society organizations in the work of the sector working groups, the Secretariat for European Affairs announced a call "Open with civil society," for registration of all interested civil society organizations for consultation and participation in working groups for IPA 2. The list of applicants from civil society organizations is published on our website at the following link: http://www.sep.gov.mk/nvo-list/.Also, based on the list of registered civil society organizations, an indicative overview has been made on the scope of work of registered civil society organizations and their connection with the areas defined by the sector working groups for IPA 2 (attached). In order to increase accountability and ownership in the programming process, the published list of civil society organizations and the indicative overview are delivered to the sector working groups, stating that the possibility of cooperation with other relevant civil society organizations is open. Sector working groups have discretional right on the method and timetable of consultation with civil society. OPG challenge addressed by the commitment: Efficient public resources management. Reference to the global objectives of sustainable development: Reference to the Objective 16. “Peace, justice and strong institutions” Target 16.6: Development of effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. The measures of this commitment contribute for improvement of transparency and accountability of the public finance managing institutions. Relevance: The measure allows citizen participation in the planning and programming of foreign assistance. It will ensure greater legitimacy and inclusiveness of the process of planning and programming of pre-accession assistance through the direct involvement of civil society representatives in the preparation of sector planning documents. Ambition: - Created new mechanisms for citizen participation in the management of public resources. - Application of knowledge and data available to civil society to better identify the key social challenges and how to deal with them. - Enhanced mutual trust between the state and civil society as a result of increased transparency and inclusiveness of the process of programming, and improving the quality of democracy

For Commitment details, please see the IRM reports: Macedonia Mid-Term Report 2016-2018 and Macedonia End-of-Term Report 2016-2018