Call for Expression of Interest to civil society organisations to participate in the establishment and functioning of a regional mechanism for monitoring the public administration reform in the Western Balkans
Think for Europe Network (TEN) invites all interested civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage in the establishment and subsequent work of the regional consultative platform for monitoring public administration reform in the Western Balkans (WeBER Platform). CSO participation will be determined through a selective process which is outlined below. The WeBER Platform will be established with the support of the Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform – WeBER, funded by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The main objectives of the WeBER Platform are: 1) to create enabling conditions for the participation of CSOs in monitoring public administration reform (PAR); and 2) the establishment and perpetuation of evidence-based dialogue between civil society, Western Balkan government representatives, and international and regional organisations and institutions, such as the European Commission, the SIGMA programme of the OECD (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management[1]), the Regional School for Public Administration (ReSPA) and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC).
Members of the WeBER Platform will have the opportunity to improve their participation in the PAR process through collaboration and to strengthen their advocacy efforts through interfacing with national authorities and international organisations dealing with the PAR. The PAR Monitor Methodology developed through the WeBER project will be available to member organisations of the Platform, which will facilitate the future preparation of both national and regional PAR monitoring reports. Ultimately, application of the PAR Monitor methodology will not only monitor the progress in PAR in each Western Balkan country, but will allow for regional benchmarking and comparison of countries through a regional PAR Scoreboard.
Participating CSOs will be chosen from each involved country through a selection process which will determine up to five CSOs from each country that are deemed to have the most relevant experience in public administration reform. These selected CSOs will be involved in the work of the WeBER Platform. Given that the selection process for overall membership will be carried out in parallel in Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Macedonia it is expected that the WeBER Platform will comprise up to 25 CSOs from the Western Balkan region. The WeBER Platform will be formally established on the margins of the Annual ReSPA Conference on November 16, 2016, in Danilovgrad and Podgorica, Montenegro.
If you wish to become a member and contribute to the activities of the WeBER Platform, please send an Expression of Interest (EoI) in the form of a letter. The EoI should include a statement detailing the organization’s motivation to become a member of the Platform, cite organisational references in PAR and should be accompanied by the CVs of two members of staff working on PAR who would be directly involved in the work of the Platform. All the necessary documents should be submitted in English to ten@europeanpolicy.org by October 5, 2016. Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact:
- Serbia – Jovana Knezevic (CEP Belgrade) at jovana.knezevic@cep.org.rs or at +381 11 408 22 65
- Albania – Gjergji Vurmo (IDM Albania) at gevurmo@idmalbania.org or at +355 4 240 0241
- Bosnia and Herzegovina – Belma Cemalovic (FPI BH) at belma@vpi.ba or at +387 33 568 860
- Kosovo – Njomza Arifi (GLPS) at njomza.arifi@legalpoliticalstudies.org or at +381 38 227 944
- Montenegro – Ana Djurnic (IA) at ana@institut-alternativa.org or at +382 20 268 686
- Macedonia – Vaska Ristovska (EPI-Skopje) at vaska.ristovska@epi.org.mk or at +389 23 280 110
* The Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform (WeBER), funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is dedicated to increasing the relevance, participation and capacity of civil society organisations and media in the Western Balkans to advocate for and influence the design and implementation of public administration reform. WeBER is implemented by six policy oriented think tanks from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia gathered within the Think for Europe Network (TEN), with the support and mentorship of the European Policy Centre (EPC) from Brussels. By partnering up with the EPC WeBER will ensure EU level visibility.
[1] a joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union
