10.3.2017
At the end of 2016, European Policy Centre has published position paper Policy in the Western Balkans: Creating Demand for Evidence Beyond EU Conditionality that provides overview of current state of policy-making processes in Western Balkan countries and advocates for greater participation of CSOs in these processes.
Some of the key findings and conclusions are following:
- Inclusivity of policy-making processes is not at a satisfactory level. Although formal framework for inclusion of stakeholders in policy-making processes are developed to some extent in all six countries, public and inter-ministerial consultations usually have formal character, that is, without possibility for substantial impact on policy-making. Furthermore, public consultations are usually conducted in the later phases of the process. Finally, public consultations are usually implemented in very tight timeframe what can be considered as important constraint for participating in and influencing these processes.
- The participation of civil society in the policy making processes is insufficient and limited. The causes of this situation can be found in the two key factors: (a) the unfavorable legal and institutional environment for the involvement of civil society organizations in these processes; In this sense, participation in the processes is largely ad hoc, reactive and reduced to engaging in public debates and working group for drafting the law; Moreover, in some cases, there is no established mutual trust between civil society and government institutions (decision makers); (B) the limited capacity of civil society organizations to advocate for transparent and fact-based policy development process and, with the exception of several think tanks in the region, largely insufficient internal analytical and research capacities, what hampers their more substantial participation in these processes.
- Government institutions in these countries suffer from lack of capacities and skills for adequate monitoring of the implementation of public policies. Therefore, it is generally impossible to properly "measure" and assess achieved results of implementation of certain policies. Consequently, the European Commission requires from these countries to improve their analytical capacity, as well as the capacity to collect and process data in accordance with international standards, which would create institutional preconditions for better monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of public policies and of their respective effects in the Western Balkans.
- System for evaluation of the effects and impact of adopted policies is also underdeveloped. Evaluations are not conducted systematically and their quality usually varies from institution to institution. Besides, evaluation reports published by government institutions are mainly focused on outputs instead of outcomes and effects that are targeted by these policies.
- The results of evaluations are usually unavailable for the public. In other words, the reports in this area produced by government institutions are predominantly internal and non-institutional stakeholders and wider public do not have access to the results of these evaluations.
The full report is available is on the European Policy Centre' website.
We also recommend articles published by PolicyHub on this topic (available only in BHS language):
- ALEKSANDAR BOGDANOVIĆ: Think tank organizations in Serbia: in search for the impact
- DAVOR MARKO: Media policy in Serbia: Participation of non-institutional stakeholders in the process of media policy creation
- ADNAN ĆERIMAGIĆ: The benefits and challenges for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the process of answering the Questionnaire of the European Commission
- AMAR NUMANOVIĆ: How employment policies are created in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
- ADNAN ĆERIMAGIĆ: Statistics is (not) important: public policies and dinner for five