Enhancing People Participation in the Decision-Making Process (TN0010)

This commitment consists in preparing the legal framework of participation and development of an e-participation portal.
Consultations will be considered before all major public decision-making and before legal drafting. This framework is expected to determine the different stages to adopt legislation (laws, decrees,...) and to identify the intervening parties and the role of each of them in the process, according to a predefined calendar.
Develop an e-participation portal
This platform will facilitate communication and interaction with the various administration users. Multiple channels of communication will be adopted in order to enable them to express their opinions and make suggestions and share their ideas about public policies and programs formulation and to follow up their implementation. The portal development will be made according to a participatory approach that involves civil society representatives.

10: Citizen participation in decisionmaking

Commitment Text: This commitment consists in preparing the legal framework for public consultation and development of an e-participation portal.

•       Preparing a legal framework for public consultation:

Consultations will be considered before all major public decision-making and before legal drafting. This framework is expected to determine the different stages to adopt legislation (laws, decrees,…) and to identify the intervening parties and the role of each of them in the process, according to a predefined calendar.

Responsible Institution(s): The Presidency of the Government (The General Directorate for Reforms and Prospective Studies, the Legal Advisor Services)

•       Develop an e-participation portal:

This platform will facilitate communication and interaction with the various administration users. Multiple channels of communication will be adopted in order to enable them to express their opinions and make suggestions and share their ideas about public policies and programs formulation and to follow up their implementation. The portal development will be made according to a participatory approach that involves civil society representatives.

Responsible Institution(s): The Secretariat of State in Charge of Governance and Civil Service (e-Gov Unit)

Supporting Institution(s): All concerned public structures

Start Date: July 2014 EndDate: February 2016

Commitment aim

This commitment was designed to draft a law to allow for online public consultations, and to build the first e-participation portal to improve civic engagement in key decision making. 

Status

Midterm: Limited

A first version of the e-participation portal was put in place in 2012 (http://www.consultations-publiques.tn). Although it did not allow citizens to view what others were saying, and lacked follow-up mechanisms on the implementation of the proposed reforms, it was used to conduct several public consultations. For example, it was used for the reforms related to social security and the judiciary. In interviews, several CSOs complained about the government’s limited efforts to publicise ongoing consultations and to raise awareness of the initiative.^{[Note 35: Stakeholder Forum held by the IRM researcher, September 2015.]} Some criticised the fact that citizens with certain physical disabilities were unable to access the consultation portal, as well as the lack of publicity concerning the portal for expatriates. For more information, please see the 2014-2015 IRM Midterm Progress Report.^{[Note 36: OGP, Tunisia IRM Midterm Progress Report 2014-15, http://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Tunisia2014-15_IRM%20Progress%20Report_Eng.pdf.]}

End of term: Limited

Due to the government’s self-assessment report, an online public consultation was organised in early 2016^{[Note 37: For the public consultation, see http://www.consultations-publiques.tn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=212:2016-04-18-05-57-35&catid=78:consultation2016.]} to discuss the legal framework for conducting online public consultations. The results of the consultations were not made public. According to Mrs. Imen Tazarki, Director of the General Administration of Reform and Prospective Administrative Studies, a decree on public consultation containing 16 articles was developed during the second semester of 2016.^{[Note 38: See the Tunisia OGP webpage, http://www.ogptunisie.gov.tn/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=37&Itemid=242]} This occurred outside the assessment period for this report. The decree was supposed to be published in the official Journal of the Tunisian Republic (JORT) in November 2016. However, as of April 2017, the decree was still under review by the administrative court.

By July 2016, the e-participation portal, which was the second part of this commitment, was not yet fully operational. The government’s self-assessment reported that a technical committee was testing and evaluating the portal.^{[Note 39: For the 2016-2018 Action Plan see the Tunisia OGP country page: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/tunisia/assessment.}

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Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

Civic participation: Did not change

The development of a legal framework and the creation of an e-participation portal could have a major impact on civic participation in decision making, as well as improve access to information vis-a-vis the legislative drafting process. Neither the legislative framework, nor the participation e-portal has been completely developed, and as a result, the status quo has not changed. Civil society members who participate in National Steering Committee meetings are following up on the development of the decree on public consultation. However, they remain skeptical about the 2017 launch date.

Carried forward?

This commitment was not included in the second action plan. Nevertheless, given the importance of citizen participation tools in post-revolutionary Tunisia, the IRM researcher believes the government should complete the portal and publicise it so that citizens and CSOs can use it to follow and consult on laws.