Continuous Education for Participatory Policymaking (SK0132)

Despite the fact that it brings the topic of involvement of relevant actors in public policies - participation -USSR ROS since 2011 through the agenda of open governance and other projects,to which the ÚSV ROS deals. 38 Participation and the participatory process of public policy-making are stillfinds in the first phase of its development and housing in the Slovak public administration environmentall levels. The process of participation faces according to the knowledge and experience gainedfrom monitoring and evaluating the fulfillment of previous tasks from the Action Plans of the Initiativeopen government, or from participation projects implemented by the USSR ROS morechallenges in:
• education for participation,
• willingness to participate,
• and personnel and economic capacities allocated for participation.
The process of implementing the principle of partnership, cooperation and participation in practice in the state administrationand dealing with these challenges is gradual. This evolutionary process must be built onmutual learning, evaluation and continuous incorporation of good and bad practiceother public involvement processes in public policy-making. It is therefore desirable to continueon the part of the state administration in the creation and subsequent implementation of public policies by participatoryin a manner with adequate support for these processes. Intensified concentration can serve this purposeby the USSR ROS for capacity building in the area of ​​participation in the public administration environment, butalso on the part of civil society through education aimed at acquiring knowledge about the processparticipation and practical experience in developing and implementing individual public policies or othersprocesses. During 2019, the ROSO ROS prepared the first training program focused on supportimplementing participatory public policy-making. The content of the training program forrepresentatives of public administration is to pass on to participants the experience and good practice with participatorydeveloping public policies, particularly in the areas of developing and conducting participatory processes,facilitating various types of meetings related to participatory public policy-making, implementationparticipatory procedures in public policy-making, coping with crisis situationsand the subsequent implementation of public policy.The willingness to develop cooperation between public administration and civil society Slovak RepublicDeclaration in several strategic and legislative documents, including PVV, or in the forthcomingThe strategy and vision of Slovakia 's development up to 2030, which has the ambition to promote open governance andmechanisms for participation in the formulation, implementation and control of public policies.

Specific milestones towards the goal:
16. Identify and prepare the conditions for public policy making to be selectedMinistries and other CSOs created or implemented participatory in cooperation with therepresentatives of civil society
Deadline: until 31 December 2021
Responsible: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment of the Slovak Republic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of the SR; Minister of Education, Science, Research and SportSR; Minister of the Interior of the Slovak Republic
Co-responsible: Government Plenipotentiary for Civil Society Development

17. Implement a training program to strengthen public competenciesgovernance and academic environment, with a focus on supporting the creation and implementation of participatory policies in public administration
Deadline: until 31 December 2021
Responsible: Government Plenipotentiary for Civil Society Development

7. Develop training to support participatory policymaking and put it into practice

Main Objective

“Strengthen participative creation of public policies through continuous education on participation.” [114]

Milestones

1. With selected ministries or other central authorities, identify and create public policies in a participatory manner with the engagement from representatives of civil society.
2. Implement educational program focusing on promoting participatory creation and implementation of public policies.

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Slovakia’s action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/slovakia-action-plan-2019-2021/.

Commitment Analysis

The main aim of the commitment is to continue with developing selected policies in a participatory manner and strengthen participatory culture in the public administration through an educational program for public servants. Participatory policymaking has been a part of national action plans since Slovakia joined the partnership in 2011. [115] The newly elected government supports participation in legislative processes, [116] pledges to closely collaborate with civil society, [117] and simplify bureaucratic processes and remove obstacles to participation. [118]      

The commitment is relevant to the OGP value of civic participation because milestone 1 seeks to develop public policies in a participatory manner, and the education program for public servants (milestone 2) could help them incorporate best practices in their agency’s participatory processes. It could also help public authorities to develop new opportunities for civic engagement. Improvements in this area across public authorities could bring a positive change in practice relative to previous action plans.

This commitment is unclear about how ministries and policies were selected, limiting the certainty of authorities without prior experience of participatory processes taking part. At the time of writing this report (April 2020) the following ministries have already identified the policies to be implemented in a participatory manner: Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Interior. Some of the proposed policies, e.g. Act on volunteering, were continued from the previous action plan (as they were not implemented then). All of these ministries have a history of developing policies in a participatory manner. For instance, the Ministry of Environment’s environmental policy strategy 2030 was stated in the last implementation report as an example of good practice. As a result of the second action plan, the Ministry of Interior adopted the Law on CSOs’ Registry, the Ministry of Agriculture developed policies supporting small-scale, young and family farmers with the input from civil society, and the Ministry of Education adopted the Concept to support youth work. Thus, the commitment will not substantially go beyond the status quo and, therefore, represents a minor change.      

However, although some previous participatory processes were evaluated positively by civil society, the latest implementation report [119] concluded that the scope and quality of participatory processes still varies between public authorities. Some lead professional consultations open to key stakeholders from the policy design stage to the final assessment stage, while other processes easily prevent important actors from taking part. For instance, evidence of how the Defense Strategy was developed and who was involved in the process is unavailable despite government promises. The Ministry of Defense did not respond to the IRM researcher’s request to provide this evidence. [120] Thus, the potential impact of this commitment could be determined by which ministries or other central authorities are involved and the kinds of policy processes which incorporate participatory mechanisms with engagement from civil society representatives. However, given that initially selected ministries already have experience with participatory processes, it is assessed as minor.

Previous IRM reports [121] have concluded that both representatives of public administration and civil society perceived the availability of workshops and training on participatory processes as very useful. A civil society representative interviewed for this report [122] argued that a high-quality education program could improve the quality of participatory processes and shift public authority attitudes towards greater support for participation. However, its potential impact would depend on the number of public servants trained and their seniority within the administration and also on the innovativeness of the program compared to that previously organized. The commitment text is unclear to this end.     

7. Develop training to support participatory policymaking and put it into practice

Substantial

The government substantially completed the commitment to identify and create public policies in a participatory manner with civil society involvement. Four ministries participated in this commitment: the Ministry of Education to develop a new grant scheme supporting youth development in a participatory manner; [75] the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to work on the National Forestry Program for the period 2021–2030; [76] the Ministry of Interior to draft the Act on Volunteering (an unfulfilled commitment from previous action plans); [77] and the Ministry of Environment to create a Water Policy Concept for the period 2021–2027. [78] The Office of the Plenipotentiary mapped participatory processes for each of these policies and confirmed that to a varied extent, these four ministries created public policies participatively. [79] The IRM understands, however, the processes did not go beyond previous attempts by ministries to implement participatory policy implementation.

No information about a new grant scheme to support youth development is available on the Ministry of Education’s website. However, a CSO representative argued that participatory processes could have started earlier and with more regular engagement. [80] That said, he highlighted the work of Iuventa (the youth council governed by the ministry) that engaged relevant actors in all stages of the grant scheme creation and responded to feedback.

The National Forestry Program for 2021–2030 has a dedicated website. [81] However, information concerning the participatory processes is limited.

IRM researcher was unable to identify any publicly available information on the participatory nature of creating the Act on Volunteering.

Of the four selected public policies, only the Water Policy Concept has been adopted. Its creation was preceded by a wide range of participatory processes which were thoroughly documented. The dedicated working group consisted of representatives of relevant government departments, academia, and civil society. [82] A CSO representative confirmed that the key stakeholders were well identified and had plenty of opportunities for engagement. [83] The working group met regularly (3–5 times a year) and published its meeting minutes on a dedicated website. [84] The working group was led by a professional facilitator and operated openly, e.g., it welcomed suggestions for new members. In addition, eight expert groups were created, which dealt with specific topics, such as drinking water supplies, wastewater disposal and treatment, landscape management, adaptation for climate change (floods, droughts), and fishing. [85] All in all, almost 300 people participated in creating the Water Policy Concept. [86] A CSO representative stated that except for short timeframes for commenting on the documents, the participatory processes were well organised and thorough. There was enough room for discussion, and comments and proposals were considered. [87]

The Office of the Plenipotentiary completed the second milestone (implementing an educational program for public servants on participatory policymaking) as a part of its ‘Participation’ project. [88] In 2019, the Office created a syllabus for the program [89] and piloted it with three groups of public servants working for the central government, regional government, and municipalities; [90] the goal was to train them to lead participatory processes. [91] At the central government level, public servants from seven ministries and two other central government bodies expressed their interest in participating. [92] However, the Office of the Plenipotentiary couldn’t provide information on which central government bodies actually took part or the final numbers of public servants who participated in the training. The main aim of the training program was to equip public servants to oversee the creation of public policy using quality participative processes. [93] Professional guarantors of the programme were public policy scholars. [94] The four-day training was held in person from September 2019 until February 2020.

Gradually, the Office of the Plenipotentiary published other activities, such as collaborations with universities [95] and a series of webinars about participation, on its website [96] and its YouTube channel. [97] One hundred and forty-two attendees followed live the introductory discussion [98] and about 70–80 people attended each webinar.