Republic of Moldova Design Report 2019-2020

Moldova’s fourth 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... continues initiatives on access to information and public services and also includes new commitments on the diaspora engagement and extending the network of paralegals. However, many milestones represent routine activities and fall short of transformative potential. To achieve more meaningful changes in opening government, the next action plan needs to consider measures to further improve public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More practices, protect civic space, and increase 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 and integrity of the justiceTo address barriers that prevent citizens from having their justice needs met, OGP participating governments are working to expand transparency, accountability, and inclusion into all systems of justi... system.

The Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP) is a global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... monitors all action plans to ensure governments follow through on commitments. Moldova joined OGP in 2012. Since, Moldova has implemented three action plans. This report evaluates the design of Moldova’s fourth action plan.

General overview of action plan

Moldova has experienced political volatility and struggled to sustain its democratic achievements throughout 2017-2018. With the local election results in the capital city annulled, the country entered a period of protests, leading in 2019 to a political crisis affecting its reform agenda and long standing international commitments.

Since joining OGP, Moldova has made notable improvements in areas such as public procurement transparency, 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..., and access to information. However, the implementation of anti-corruption legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... and improving the transparency and independence of the judiciaryWhile a majority of open government reforms occur within the executive branch, OGP members are increasingly taking on commitments to increase the openness of the judicial branch. Technical specificati... has remained challenging. The country’s fourth OGP action plan, developed in 2018, addresses some priority areas, such as improvement of services, open data, and civil society participation in decision making. However, most 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... activities are derived from pre-existing programs and fall short of potentially transformative commitments.

During the development of the fourth action plan, the State Chancellery established the Coordination Committee to act as the country’s multi-stakeholder forum. The co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... provided numerous opportunities for civil society to give input. However, according to civil society views, the government has not sufficiently prioritized the open government initiatives.

The commitments in Moldova’s fourth action plan focus mainly on access to information, open data, budget transparency, collaboration with civil society, and developing citizen-centered public services. All the commitments are linked to other national strategies and policy documents. While many of the activities are continued from the previous action plan, a new commitment in this plan envisions improving the involvement of Moldova’s diaspora in decision-making processes in the country.

Notable commitments include continuing to improve open data and access to information (Commitment 1) and extending Moldova’s network of paralegals in rural parts of the country (an activity under Commitment 6).

 Table 2. Noteworthy commitments

Recommendations

The IRM recommendations aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan.

Table 3. Five KEY IRM Recommendations