SKOPJE – The Third WeBER Platform meeting was held on 1st and 2nd of November 2017, in Skopje, Macedonia. The event was organised and hosted by the European Policy Institute (EPI).
The event gathered CSOs members of the WeBER Platform from all six WeBER partner countries, as well as representatives of national level institutions, media, international and regional organisations dealing with public administration reform (PAR): SIGMA/OECD, Regional School of Public Administration – ReSPA, Regional Cooperation Council – RCC.
The meeting served to showcase good practice examples and most recent achievements in the field of PAR, whereas Milena Lazarević, CEP Programme Director, informed about the progress of the WeBER project concerning the PAR monitoring, grant scheme implementation, and next steps planned for the upcoming project year.
“It is vital that our monitoring results are comparable across the six countries, to ensure their credibility,” Lazarević stated.
The discussion focused on the methods to improve cooperation between CSOs and national level institutions, and proposals for creating more systemic consultation mechanism which would result in more inclusive and effective public policies.
Another important aspect of the discussion was how to make the WeBER Platform useful and go-to place for the institutions and interested public, but also on ways of achieveing sustainability of the PAR Monitor in the long run. In the later course of the event, special emphasis was placed on raising awareness and visibility of the PAR process in the public eye.
Additionaly, panel discussion with media representatives helped in shaping new ideas and approaches, such as greater accent on real life stories from the local communities, dismissing the technocratic jargon in favour of simple and easy to understand messages for the public, including more graphics and visuals.