“Partnership for Public Administration Reform and Public Services” was implemented by two main partners European Policy Centre (CEP) and European Movement in Serbia (EMinS) during the two-year period. The project is realised in cooperation with 12 other partners in Serbia: Pro-Pozitiv, Protecta – Niš, Youth Centre Timok i 9 members of the Network of European Movement in Serbia in Subotica, Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica, Lazarevac, Valjevo, Kraljevo, Kruševac, Novi Pazar i Leskovac.

The goals of the project were:

1. To ensure involvement of CSOs across the Serbian territory in monitoring the progress of PAR and in designing high quality and evidence-based proposals for reviewing/improving the PAR policy
2. To create two-way communication between citizens and responsible public authorities on PAR and public services provision, by collecting citizens’ feedback on the quality of administration and public services and ensuring the reaction of the responsible authorities
3. To deliver methodologically solid evidence on citizens’ satisfaction with three widely used and salient public services, as one of the key reform areas under the EU accession framework for PAR, and on the quality of policy making in those policy areas
4. To provide evidence-based recommendations and inputs related to PAR in the context of EU accession negotiations

Within this project, four workshops were held for local CSOs:

First workshop for CSOs in Kraljevo (in Serbian)

Second workshop for CSOs in Kovačica (in Serbian)

Third workshop for CSOs in Niška Banja (in Serbian)

Fourth workshop for CSOs in Kladovo (in Serbian)

Within this project, we produced the following documents:

Openness and inclusiveness of public policy-making in Serbia

Grey Book of Public Services

Policy briefs:

Challenges and of civil society in the process of public administration reform (in Serbian)

Human resources at the local level: The most important link for quality public services

One of the most important activities is the national ME at spotlight campaign, conducted in order to involve the citizens of Serbia in the process of public administration reform.

The final conference was held on 25 April 2018 in the Metropol Hotel. Find out more about the conference here.

For more information about the project and its results, we invite you to visit the website created within the project: www.mojauprava.rs 

Članak Partnership for Public Administration Reform and Public Services in Serbia – PARtnerships se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The project lasted six months and comprised a series of activities aimed at conceptualising CEPS WeB. These activities proceeded mainly through interactive workshops between the TEN member organisations and their associates in the process of joining. A public event was organised in the last month of the project, to present the final deliverable of collaborative effort during and between the workshops – CEPS WeB position paper. In addition, research of comparative good practices of establishing centres of excellence focusing on policymaking systems and processes in Europe and worldwide was performed.

This project was implemented by the Think for Europe Network (TEN) and financed under the framework of the Regional Research Promotion Programme (RRPP). The RRPP is coordinated and operated by the Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe (IICEE) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). The programme was fully funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Članak Centre of Excellence on Policymaking Systems in the Western Balkans (CEPS WeB) se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The project was supported by European Commission within “The Civil Society Facility and Media Programme 2014-2015 – Support to Regional Thematic Networks of CSOs”, and in partnership with six organisations from the Western Balkans and Europe:

• European Policy Insitute – EPI, Macedonia
• Institut Alternative – IA, Montenegro
• Institute for Democracy and Mediation, Albania
• Foreign Policy Initiative – FPI, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Group for Legal and Political Studies – GLPS, Kosovo
• European Policy Centre – EPC, Belgium

The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations and the media in the Western Balkans to participate in the creation and implementation of public administration reform. Civil society organisations have been recognized as important actors in creating public policy at the national and regional levels, which is why this project sought to strengthen its supervisory and consulting capabilities. Quality and analytical reporting by the media on the topic of public administration reform based on the arguments and evidence had an equally important role in these processes. Therefore, the project as another target group picked media.

Find more about projects’ result here: www.par-monitor.org

Contact: Milena Lazarević, CEP Programme Director and WeBER Project Manager (milena.lazarevic@europeanpolicy.org)

Članak WeBER: Monitoring of public administration reform in Western Balkans se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Think for Europe Network of EU Policy Think Tanks and Policy Research Centres in South-East Europe – TEN, consisting of European Policy Centre (CEP), European Policy Institute (EPI) from Macedonia and Institute Alternative (IA) from Montenegro will be in charge of project implementation. National consumer protection organisations from all three countries (National consumer protection organisation of Serbia, Consumer protection centre of Montenegro and Consumer protection organisation of Macedonia) will also be involved in project implementation while consumer protection organisations from other countries of the region will gradually involve themselves in project activities.

Project will be implemented through set of work packages which will be concentrated around the following activities: development of the regional study and adoption of action plans for advocacy by the consumer organisations (work package 1), arrangement of multi-stakeholder dialogue and preparation of consumers’ awareness raising  strategies (work package 2) and establishment of the regional consumer organisations network – CONWeB  with clear goal of affiliating itself with BEUC – European Consumer Organisation (work package 3).

Project will last for 13 months. Its realisation started in February 2015.

Project is financed by German organisation for international cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit) – GIZ, through Open Regional Fund for modernisation of municipal services.

Članak Strengthening Consumer Protection Organisations for better Municipal Services in SEE se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Cooperation on SIGMA assessments on PAR

Most notably, CEP team has been selected as the local expert point for assisting SIGMA in implementing monitoring missions of the public administration reform (PAR) in 2016 and 2017. In this regard, we provide analysis, data collection and advice to SIGMA for the assessment of implementation of requirements for a well-functioning public administration, in six core areas of reform defined by the Principles of Public Administration.

Collaboration on a study on management responsibility

CEP was commissioned to conduct an in-depth policy study of managerial accountability within the state administration in Serbia. The analysis focused on managerial responsibility, autonomy, and formal decision-making authorities in the areas of policy planning, development and coordination, human resource management, budget management, public procurement, and hierarchical structures of public administration bodies.

The overall goal of the study to provide a policy framework for making management within the public administration more accountable, efficient, and effective.

This analysis assessed the current state of play and provided recommendations that will be used by SIGMA to advocate improvement of the presently fluid concept of managerial accountability and removing systemic obstacles.

SIGMA and WeBER collaboration

In addition, we closely collaborate with SIGMA within our regional, flagship project – WeBER. In this project, independent PAR monitoring methodology is produced by the civil society, and it closely follows the Principles of Public Administration developed by SIGMA. Methodology is based on the selection of SIGMA principles that are best fitted to be monitored by the civil society, and the development of own quantitative and qualitative indicators for measurement.

Watch our animation series on all six reform areas of SIGMA Principles!

Članak Cooperation with SIGMA/OECD se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.