WeBER 2.0: Citizens First

Second Regional Conference on Civil Society and Public Administration Reform organised by WeBER (Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform). 

The WeBER Team led by Milena Lazarevic from the Centre for European Policy presented the PAR Monitor:  a comparative report evaluating public administration reform in the Western Balkans from the perspective of civil society organisations. 

It was a great pleasure to speak at the closing panel of the conference. Together with Florian Hauser (Team Leader, Centre of Thematic Expertise on Public Administration Reform, DG NEAR, European Commission) and Annika Uudelepp (Senior Adviser at OECD-SIGMA) we discussed ‘how to create citizen demand for better administration in the Western Balkans’. 

Civil society organisations in the region have a key role to play in disseminating information and raising awareness about the performance of public administration among citizens, in mobilising citizens and in bringing citizen needs and preferences to the attention of policy makers and politicians.

One of the instruments we discussed in more detail are town-hall meetings that would be organised by civil society organisations at the local level to help inform citizens and provide a forum for deliberation of public administration performance.