Cooperation with Civil Society Organizations in Public Policymaking (RS0011)

Commitment aim:

This commitment aimed to improve the processes of collaboration and cooperation mechanisms between government and civil society stakeholders. The milestones to achieve this aim were the drafting of the National Strategy for the Enabling Environment for the Development of Civil Society for the period 2014-2018 and the related action plan, which were to be created in a collaborative manner, including both civil society and the wider public. Additionally, the Law on Local Self-Government was supposed to be amended in consultation with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM).

Status

Midterm: Substantial

All of the activities related to the national strategy were completed, including holding consultative meetings and public discussion, except the Proposal of the National Strategy and the Proposal of the Action Plan to the Government was not submitted for consideration. The amendment of the Law on Local Self-Government had more limited completion given that, although the law was amended, the amendments were not fully aligned with those envisioned in the action plan. For more information, please see the 2014-2015 Serbian midterm IRM report.

End of term: Substantial

The strategy and action plan were not submitted to the Serbian Government for consideration and adoption. The Law on Local Self-Government was amended,^{[Note 44: Republic of Serbia, “Law on Local Self-Government,” Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 129/2007 and 83/2014, [Serbian] http://bit.ly/2gbtx7t]} but it does not include the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, which was supposed to facilitate collaboration between the central and local administrative levels. Its “limited” completion level could be viewed as a generous rating. However, because efforts were made in the amendment process, the commitment could not be rated “not started.” Hence, the overall completion level of this commitment remains substantial, with no significant developments after the midterm-reporting period.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

Civic participation: Marginal

Serbia’s approach to improving civil society and government participation and collaboration, as well as creating a participatory policymaking process, is not systematic. It leads to civil society participation that is often ad hoc, untimely, and reactive, rather than truly participatory.^{[Note 45: Amanda Orza, “Civil Society and Government: Participatory Policy Formulation in Serbia,” European Policy Centre, 2014, http://bit.ly/2fIo8qy]}

The process of drafting the national strategy and its implementation was supposed to enhance the participatory framework for CSOs, especially given the fact that CSOs were consulted on both the strategy as well as the action plan. Moreover, the amendment of the Law on Local Self-Government was supposed to introduce the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities as an intermediary institution and catalyst for the cooperation between local government and civil society stakeholders. However, the national strategy draft was substantially completed, while the amendment of the law remained at a limited completion level; thus, this commitment had only a marginal effect on creating a participatory policymaking environment in Serbia and enabling more access to information.

The marginal effect on access to information and civic participation stems from the participatory manner in which the first milestone was implemented. The three public discussions^{[Note 46: Public discussion, Belgrade, 30 July 2015; Public discussion, Novi Sad, 3 August 2015; Public discussion, Niš, 19 August 2015. ]} and 10 consultative meetings^{[Note 47: Consultative meetings, ten different cities, October to November 2014. The schedule of the consultative meetings held can be accessed here [Serbian]: http://strategija.civilnodrustvo.gov.rs/javni-pozivi/onlajn-konsultacije-o-strategiji-otvorene-1-12-2014-godine. ]} organized as a part of this milestone presented a step toward more open policymaking in Serbia. Hence, the IRM researchers recognize that the national strategy draft adds to the foundations of the civil society and government collaboration process. Further, the effects may increase in the long term if the national strategy is adopted. The strategy is available on a website, but the IRM researchers found the page was last updated on 19 August 2015, confirming that little progress was made on this milestone.^{[Note 48: National Strategy for the Enabling Environment for the Development of Civil Society, http://strategija.civilnodrustvo.gov.rs/]}

Carried forward?

The commitment was substantially completed and was not directly carried over to the 2016-2018 action plan. However, the action plan contains a complementary commitments focused on providing civil servants and CSO representatives with quality consultation processes. Namely, commitments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 aim at improving the consulting process of public policy documents with the civil sector at the national and local level, as well as increasing the role of citizens in the public policy management system.