End of Commitment Report – Develop the capacity on open governance for the relevant stakeholders

Name of Evaluator

Calin Rus and Corina Tursie

Email

[email protected], [email protected]

Member Name

Timișoara, Romania

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – Timișoara, Romania, 2022 – 2024

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Develop the capacity on open governance for the relevant stakeholders

Title

Develop the capacity on open governance for the relevant stakeholders

Action

Overall objective: Develop Open Governance CapacityActions:A 4.1. Better synchronization between local – national – international levelsA 4.2. Local Action Plan implementation monitoring and reporting mechanismA 4.3. Training program for civil servants on open governanceA 4.4. Identify stakeholders and their roles in implementing action plansA 4.5. Identify the appropriate funding sources for the implementation of the action plansA 4.6. Local OGP repositoryAccess to relevant information is essential for enabling participation and ensuring accountability throughout the OGP process. An OGP repository is an online centralized website, webpage, platform or ... and websiteA 4.7. Report / research on the relationship between open government and quality of life

Problem

The community (all relevant stakeholders) capacity to elaborate and implement OGP action plans is limited

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

substantial

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Out of the seven actions outlined in this commitment, six were fully implemented, and one was not started, Action 4.7. Report on the relation between open governance and quality of life. We can say the commitment was implemented substantially.

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

Timisoara’s commitment to OGP principles is part of and has resulted from a broader set of measures and reforms aimed at strengthening the public administration and its capacity to respond to the needs of its residents in an effective manner. The past few years have brought several internal changes in terms of reorganizing and optimizing activities and procedures, and also going through an extensive digitalization process on all levels, reducing bureaucracy and response time, increasing traceability of all processes, and setting the ground for more open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici.... These reforms contribute to a solid ground for OGP principles, increasing internal capacity for transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, accountability, participation, and digitalization. Therefore, most resources have been directed towards this cause, leaving limited efforts to put in increasing external capacity on open governance for the relevant external stakeholders.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

Most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Out of the seven actions outlined in this commitment, six were fully implemented and one was not started. The six implemented actions followed the initial plan.

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

“The OGP repository and website, created as part of this commitment, disclose in a transparent manner all steps taken within this initiative.

Google Drive

Website

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Marginal

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

To increase the capacity for implementation and continuous improvement on local governance, a customized curriculum was developed based on local needs and specific context: a hands-on educational program dedicated to 75 civil servants on public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... (August – Sept 2023), working in various technical departments.

Topics covered:

• Fundamentals of public participation
• Design of participative process (using OECD model) & understanding of roles & responsibilities of various departments
• Implementation of Public Participation Strategy

The internal capacity-building training on public participation and direct interaction with citizens and civil society led to an increased capacity in designing and managing participation processes across the administration.
This was the first such initiative in public administration in Romania that responded to OECD recommendations included in the 2023 country report.

Also, 6 public servants participated in the national workshop organized at the end of 2024 on “Streamlining the implementation of regulations in the field of public consultations and free access to information of public interest”.

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Not applicable

2.1.4 Other Results

Not applicable

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The actions undertaken within this commitment improved open governance capacity both internally, through the training done, and externally, through the two stakeholders identified and their educational programs.

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

There were two stakeholders identified and attracted to undertake and implement the OG commitments:

1. UVT is the stakeholder through whose collaboration we cover the following points directly connected to OGP activities:
   – Reporting on OGP plan implementation
   – Developing professional competencies, including knowledge related to OGP, through courses delivered within the Faculty of Government and Communication Sciences, through collaboration with the Faculty of Government and Communication Sciences, the first master’s program in administrative sciences was created în 2025, dedicated to developing management and leadership competencies in modern public administrations
   – With UVT, we are discussing the improvement of the annual research that measures the perception of quality of life.
2. StartupHub is the stakeholder group formed from the academic environment (UVT, UPT), civic environment (Banat IT, CoWork, ABQ Institute), public environment (PMT) and private environment (Growceanu) that develops the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, using principles and methodology inspired by OG: local action plans, annual research, working groups, central repository, periodic meetings, annual evaluations, multi-stakeholder approach, progress indicators, transparency and openness to participation from all interested parties.