Building Strategic Framework for Government - Civil Society Cooperation

in Legislation Process in Croatia

Vesna Lendić KasaloCroatian Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs

Croatia - four pillars of effective Government - civil society cooperation

1. Structures for State - CSOs cooperation

2. Strategic documents & legal framework

3. Sustainable funding of CSOs’ programmes

4. Standards of consultation in policy making

Structures for supporting State - CSOs cooperation – 15 years of efforts

Government Office for Cooperation with CSOs (1998)

Council for Civil Society Development (2002) National Foundation for Civil Society

Development (2003) Regional support networks of CSOs (since 2006) Regional foundations (since 2006)

Government Office for Cooperation with CSOs

Coordinating Government Policy on Creating Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development:

• implementation of National Strategy• public funding policy coordination• improving standards of public consultation• training of civil servants on CSO cooperation• implementation body for EU funds for CSOs

Council for Civil Society Development

How the Council works?

• Regular and thematic meetings• Own initiative opinions and statements on draft

laws, national programmes and plans regarding civil society development in the widest sense

• President elected among Council members from NGO representatives

• Administrative and expert support provided by the Office for cooperation with NGOs

• Role in programming priorities for EU funding

The National Foundation for Civil Society Development

• Public foundation established by the Parliament• Operational grants, CSO capacity building,

training, research, awareness-raising• Regional foundations – local community

building - decentralization of public funding - ‘’Bringing money where needs already exist”

• Regional CSO support networks - NGOs networks on local level providing capacity building for smaller and newly formed NGOs

Strategic documents & legal framework

Croatian National Strategy for Creating Enabling Environment for CSOs 2012-2016

broad consensus among civil society, government and business representatives about the strategic priorities until 2016

National Strategy 2012-2016

• developed through one year consultation process

• different forms of involvement over 200 CSOs and interested public in the consultation process: working groups public debates online consultation

• common platform that brings together key stakeholders vital for creating conditions for sustainability of an independent and vibrant civil society: http://strategija.uzuvrh.hr/

Sustainable funding of CSOs programmes and projects

main principles:• transparency of funding procedures

• diversification of funding mechanisms

• ensuring operating grants for CSOs

• supporting small grass-roots initiatives

Transparency of procedures of funding of CSOs programmes and projects

• Code of Good Practice of Public Funding of CSOs (adopted by Parliament in 2007)

• Data on all grants accessible on: www.uzuvrh.hr• Coordination meetings (and training seminars) for

public officials at all levels (national and local)• Annual Info days – debates on forthcoming calls for

funding CSOs programmes

Diversification of public funding decentralized system of public funding (20 government bodies funding

CSOs: 70-90 calls annually) State budget 50% of lottery revenues – for financing the programs of the organizations

who:o Promote the development of sports,o Contribute to the fight against narcotics abuse and all other forms of addiction,o Engage in social and humanitarian work,o Engage in problems and the fulfillment of the needs of disabled persons,o Engage in technical education,o Engage in culture,o Engage in non-institutional education of children and youth,o Contribute to the development of a civil society.

regional and local government funding (21 counties, 129 cities, 429 municipalities)

National Foundation – operating grants regional networks and foundations – promoting philanthropy at local level

Coordination of Public Funding

Direct FundingDirect Funding

Indirect FundingIndirect FundingState Budget and Lott

ery RevenuesState Budget and Lott

ery RevenuesLocal BudgetsLocal Budgets

Public consultations – key for effective policy formulation and implementation

• Citizens as Partners - OECD Handbook on Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-making (2001)

• European Commission - General principles and minimum standards for consultation of interested parties by the Commission (2002)

• Council of Europe - Code of Good Practice for Civil Participation in the Decision-Making Process (2009)

Levels and dimensions of public participation

EU practice on consultation

Office for cooperation with NGOs

Office for cooperation with NGOs

Office for cooperation with NGOs

Code of conduct of representatives of interested public

Office for cooperation with NGOs

Multiple benefits of consultations

meet legal obligations collection of data, ideas and opinions free expertise innovation transparency efficiency adoption legitimacy and support policy control over information and messages in the media division of responsibility for decision-making development of a democratic culture prevention of public criticism of the closure and exclusion timely detection of potential problems in the implementation of regulations

Policy framework for public consultations

• National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development 2006-2011 (July 2006)

• Strategy of Reform of State Administration 2008-2011 (March 2008)

• Action plan of the Strategy of Combating Corruption (June 2008)

Introducing new standards of public consultations in policy making

• Code of Practice on Consultation with the Interested Public in Procedures of Adopting Laws, Other Regulations and Acts (November 2009)

• National Strategy for Creating Enabling Environment for CSOs 2012-2016 - measures for strengthening capacities of civil servants for effective involvement of CSOs and interested public in policy formulation and implementation (July 2012)

• Government Rules of Procedures - amended to institutionalize practice of feedback on consultation results in accordance with the Code (October 2012)

• Law on Access to information – proactive transparency and publishing consultation documents (February 2013)

• Constitutional Court decisions

Putting in practice new public consultation standards

• Consultation coordinators appointed in all ministries and government offices

• Training programmes and peer-to-peer support for consultation coordinators - State School for Public Administration

• Coordination meetings of consultation coordinators – peer to peer support and exchange of best practices

• Government Office website – a page on consultation - focal point for interested public searching for information on all open/closed public consultations of state administration bodies

• Annual reports - Monitoring the implementation of the Code

Detailed step-by-step Guidelines on implementing the Code

Detailed Guidelines for implementing the Code of practice on consultation (2010)

the question is not why but rather how to conduct meaningful public consultation

all ministries – standardized public consultation web page

standardized forms for gathering contributions from the interested public

standardized forms for reporting on the results of public consultation

10 steps towards effective consultation process

1. Identify the key issues on which you want to get the answer in the consultation process

2. Determine which stakeholders have high interest or influence in relation to the topic

3. Select the appropriate method of consultation (innovative „open space”, public discussion, working groups, online consultations, social networks etc.)

4. Publish a call to the interested public to participate in consultation

5. Proactively inform key stakeholders about possibilities for participation

10 steps towards effective consultation process

6. Confirm receipt of comments, say thank you and announce the next steps

7. Publish comments received in the public consultation online

8. Analyse comments received in the public consultation

9. Publish a report on the results of the consultation

10.Inform all participants in the consultation on the report released

Annual reports - Monitoring the implementation of the Code

• Substantial progress in 2012 – consultations conducted for 144 acts (compared to 48 in 2011, and 30 in 2010)

• For 27 acts (out of 144) public consultations lasted less than 15 days

• 4773 written contributions from interested public (compared to 173 in 2011)

• reports on consultation results published for 76 acts

Increasing number of structures for civil dialogue

• more than 100 Government advisory bodies (including Council for Civil Society Development) involving more then 800 representatives of CSOs

• 25 Parliament working committees involving more than 100 representatives of CSOs

• Increasing number of local charters of cooperation between CSOs and local governments

Methods of consultation in practice

• Good practice example: – Development of National Strategy for the Creation

of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development 2012-2016

– Consultations during the process of monitoring the implementation of strategic documents http://strategija.uzuvrh.hr/

– Consultations on new Law on Associations

Lessons learned and challenges

• Importance of political will and policy coordination capacities in structural and functional terms

• Diversification of consultation methods (social networks, open internet consultations, public meetings, open space, etc)

• Feedback to the public - essential for confidence building

• Implementation and development of practice of consultation on local levels (method of empty chair)

Contacts:

Office for Cooperation with NGOsGovernment of the Republic of Croatia

Email: info@uzuvrh.hrwww.uzuvrh.hr