Streamline processes of consulting and involving citizens in innovative policy-making (RO0066)

Which public issue will be addressed by this obligation? Although the current regulatory framework establishes a number of legal mechanisms capable of stimulating participation and establishing a strong collaborative relationship with the civil society, most of the time, the use of these mechanisms fails to make a real contribution to improving the quality of decisions and the adequacy of public decisions. The accelerated expansion of the associative environment, without managing a real-time record of the dynamics and evolution of interested stakeholders, has generated knowledge problems and difficulties in accessing information specific to the existing civic space, as well as discussions on the efficiency of levers through which citizens can be involved in the elaboration of public administration decisions according to certain areas of interest. Opening the administration to the real needs of the civil society must involve managing the innovation process in the public sector, in order to become able to understand and encourage the new approaches needed to solve the complex problems of society. Civil servants need to acquire new tools, knowledge, skills and connections to help them explore appropriate opportunities to interact with the general public.

Description of the commitment What is the obligation? 1. Development of a single digital tool to support communities of expertise interested in making public decisions and those responsible for the central 8 executive dealing with the relationship with the civil society. 2. Developing structures for the relationship with the associative environment at the level of ministries in order to acquire the capacity to collect innovative initiatives promoted by civil society, in each field of activity and to carry out uniformly the practices of consultation and involvement of citizens in the governing act.

How will the fulfilment of the obligation contribute to the solving of the public problem? - by encouraging participation in public decisionmaking and facilitating dialogue between public administration and civil society by involving civil society in the public policy-making process; - by standardizing the practices of consultation and involvement of citizens in the governing act; - by creating a better coordination of political and public decisions in order to provide innovative ways for civil society to take action; -by increasing the quality of consultation processes by ensuring that NGOs have access to advisory structures and the necessary information; - by building the skills of civil servants for the innovative approach to the interaction between the public sphere and the interested stakeholders.

What is the main objective The development of a coordination mechanism at the level of the General Secretariat of the Government in order to support central public authorities to manage the necessary innovative processes in the public sector with the purpose of interacting appropriately with the civil society to streamline participatory processes, by: ensuring stakeholder access to advisory structures for areas of interest; simplifying and increasing the quality of communication between institutions and civil society; facilitating the understanding, testing and incorporation of new ways of interacting with civil society.

Goals/activities Responsible (institution / partner) Start date End date The evaluation at the level of the target groups formed by ministries of the stage of the processes of involvement of the civil society and of the quality of the administration-nongovernmental sector relationship. (1 questionnaire / meeting with public institutions, 1 questionnaire / meeting with General Secretariat of the Government /Public institutions/ NGOs 2021 2021 9 NGOs) Information and training sessions with representatives of the institutions in the target group on the practices of consultation and involvement of civil society in the decisionmaking process. (meetings with information and training public institutions) General Secretariat of the Government /Public institutions/ NGOs 2021 2022 The establishment and implementation of additional functionalities for the CONECT platform, designed to configure a national map of the distribution by development regions of non-governmental organizations, public administration officials and advisory structures. (1 questionnaire / meeting with public institutions, 1 questionnaire / meeting with NGOs) General Secretariat of the Government /Public institutions/ NGOs 2021 2021 Elaborating a Guide for the innovative approach of the processes of involvement of the citizens in the decision-making process. (2 questionnaires / meetings with NGOs, 2 questionnaires / meetings with public institutions) General Secretariat of the Government /Public institutions/ NGOs 2021 2021 Informing and disseminating the Guide at the level of public administration and civil society authorities, as well as monitoring the use of the digital tool. (information sessions with NGOs and public institutions) General Secretariat of the Government /Public institutions/ NGOs 2022 2022

Commitment 1: Streamline participation in public administration decisions