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WeBER website is up and running – www.par-monitor.org

Starting from today, a brand-new website of our WeBER project (Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform) is launched.

Make sure to check it regularly for gaining insight into latest developments on public administration reform monitoring by the civil society in the Western Balkans. Also, you can familiarise with the WeBER project a little bit better, as well as learn about specific tools and products we plan to develop. Hopefully, it will inspire many civil society organisations to join our WeBER platform.

We hope you will find it useful at this early stage of development, as we continue to work on its content.

Access the website – www.par-monitor.org

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Press release: Public discussion without citizens

This year’s central public discussion on draft budget of the Capital also went by without the presence of the citizens. In the auditorium of KIC “Budo Tomović“ there were some journalists, representatives of parliamentary clubs, institutions and the Capital City’s entreprises, as well as the representatives of the Institute Alternative. This is a clear indicator that the Capital City has not done enough to make the issue of the budget more citizen-friendly and draw the citizens’ interest in its drafting.

Within that context, the so-called “citizens budget“, the goal of which is to represent the annual budget in an understandable and interactive manner to the citizens, would have been an ideal platform that would make the budget more appealing to the citizens and raise the significance of such a discussion. Today’s dispute made it clear that the Secretariat of Finance does not consider such approach a priority. When we asked the question as to why the citizens budget was not developed yet, we have not gotten a specific answer.

Draft Budget and the Justification are still lacking in transparency

During today’s discussion we asked the representatives of the Secretariat of Finance where the savings of around 8 million were made exactly, whether they knew the exact number of employees in the administration, institutions and enterprises at the local level (given that such information was not provided in the Justification), as well as the details regarding the analytical structure of certain budget lines, such as the transfers to individuals.

The answers of the representatives of the Secretariat of Finance were incomplete and unclear, which additionally goes in line with the fact that there is a lot that is omitted from the Draft Budget and Justification.

It is evident that the Secretariat of Finance of the Capital City does not expect and does not desire for a concrete contribution of citizens in the process of budget drafting, thus the public discussion organised in such a manner represent mere box ticking.
Institute Alternative will deliver its comments and recommendation to the Draft Decision on the Budget by the time of expiration of the public discussion, November 30, and we will further advocate for systemic changes of the Law on Financing of the Local Self-Government by which the procedure of holding of the public discussion will be managed in a more precise manner.

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Policy brief: Montenegro – Elections aftermath and the EC 2016 country progress report

Download the publication

Politically, Montenegro finds itself in a paradoxical situation. At one level it is the champion of European integration in the Western Balkans when it comes to progress in the EU accession negotiations, but it is also the only country in the region that has not experienced a change of government since the introduction of the multi-party system in 1990. The same individuals, families and political and business elites have been controlling the country’s politics and economy for more than 25 years. This situation is likely to continue after the recently held 16 October parliamentary elections where the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) managed once again to secure most seats in the parliament although falling short of securing an absolute majority.

Read more about the elections aftermath and the recommendations to the European Commission, European Parliament and the EU Member States.

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Policy brief: Montenegro – Elections aftermath and the EC 2016 country progress report

Politically, Montenegro finds itself in a paradoxical situation. At one level it is the champion of European integration in the Western Balkans when it comes to progress in the EU accession negotiations, but it is also the only country in the region that has not experienced a change of government since the introduction of the multi-party system in 1990. The same individuals, families and political and business elites have been controlling the country’s politics and economy for more than 25 years. This situation is likely to continue after the recently held 16 October parliamentary elections where the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) managed once again to secure most seats in the parliament although falling short of securing an absolute majority.

Read more about the elections aftermath and the recommendations to the European Commission, European Parliament and the EU Member States.

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Competition for 10 interns

Centre for Civic Education (CCE), Institute Alternative (IA) and portal Vijesti, within the project ACTIVE STUDENTS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT! announce a

COMPETITION
for 10 interns

The selected students will go through an intensive training programme and practical education comprised of study visits to organisations and enterprises that are an integral part of the project, workshops on independent media reporting and basics of public policies, with the professional mentorship and practice in the Institute Alternative and portal Vijesti for the duration of one month. Results of practical work will be series of articles, reports and documents related to public policies, which will provide a solid basis for students of Faculty of Political Sciences of University of Montenegro for their future professional improvement and easier adaptation to labour market requirements.

Programme is open for students of third and fourth year of study programmes Political science and Communications (Journalism) from the Faculty of Political Sciences.

Interested candidates can submit their applications with short CV and cover letter no later than 25 November 2016 by 16h on e-mail info@cgo-cce.org with subject “Active students for sustainable development!”. For additional information please call 020/228 479.

Project „Active students for sustainable development“ is financed by the European Union through the Directorate for finance and contracting of the EU assistance funds (CFCU) of Ministry of Finances, within the programme „Transfer of knowledge between the sector of higher education, science and industry”. Specific project objective is the improvement of competencies of students from the departments of Journalism and Political Sciences through the transfer of knowledge within the scientific institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises with the aim of building closer linkages between the aforementioned sectors, for the sake of students who require a practice within their education.

Towards better professional engagement through practice, training and plan!

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Lectures within the Second module of Public Policy School held

Lectures within the Second module of Public Policy School were held on Friday and Saturday, 11 and 12 November 2016. Dr Jovana Marović talked about “Public Policy Analysis“.

During the two-days-lecture, the participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with different forms of public policy analysis, the criteria for research question formulation, the design of research, as well as quantitative and qualitative methods of public policy research. By participating in a set of individual and group exercises, the School participants had the opportunity to get an insight into the basic terms and concepts of public policies.

Namely, within a group exercise, the participants worked on research questions formulation and making hypotheses by using concrete examples. This was followed by determining of the most important indicators, as well as mapping of primary and secondary data sources. The third exercise, also done in groups, comprised identification of the main issues that can occur during the research process. During the fourth exercise which dealt with goal setting, the primary goal that was envisaged as the solution to the main problem of a certain public policy, as well as the advocacy of the defined solution were defined. In this manner, the participants applied the main aspects of public policy analysis to practical examples and thus round-up the theoretical aspect of the lectures that dealt with determining research frameworks, data collection methods, problems and goals analysis, as well as the research plan and monitoring of public policy implementation.

The project Public Policy School – V generation is implemented with the support of the Commission for Allocation of Funds from Games of Chance and Think Tank Fund – Open Society Foundation. The School is licensed as an official program for the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the field of public policy by the National Council for Education of Montenegro.