The Scope of the Baseline
Since July 2022, the country has commenced its negotiations with the EU starting with 12-14 months of a screening process. The application of reform overhaul beginning with the Fundamentals Cluster is needed with urgency, requiring a high level of competence in policy analysis and planning, certainly with the application of the capacity to envisage a measurable “theory of change” or the equivalent of it (depending on the terminology). Any analysis of authority, such as the latest SIGMA report as well as the RESPA reports on the region covering a larger temporal range (still relevant as per SIGMA 2021), cited below, even though admitting the general EU and democratic commitment of the policy creators of the state, nonetheless note a grave deficiency of N. Macedonia – below the WB overall average – in policy-centred and democratically conceived reform planning (the only plus is the alignment with the Acquis). Our prior research, as mentioned several times in our CN and elsewhere in this document, indicates that the institutions and the expert civil society capacity ought to undergo: a) needs assessment in terms of understanding the underpinning logic of the sectoral reform as per the new methodology, b) capacity related needs assessment concerning offering insight into the stakeholders’ capacity for grasping the potential and the techniques of transformability of what seems to be elusive categories (such as democratic values) into policy planning and envisaging of implementable change (including its mechanisms), c) most of all the capacity to think and plan cross-sectorally while maintaining a unified vision, derived primarily from the Fundamentals cluster. Thus, the needs and the constraints concern primarily the capacity of the key stakeholders (the target groups of this action, to be more specific) for policy planning and analysis interlinked with the reform methodology. Furthermore, what we propose is to make a more exact and more specific assessment of both the needs and the constraints as part of this Action, primarily through the baseline study but also the recurring input to be received through the Network (Alliance) output. Constraints and needs we have already pointed out are of a rather general character (concerning the very fundament of "democratic institutions” and its status of a prerequisite for the fundamental accession condition that is “free market”) – the absence of alignment in the institutional and monitoring practices with the notion of “sector” and the method of sectoral/structural multi-issue reform process. The needs assessment as part of the proposed action is rendering this preliminary insight precise and bound with measurable indicators and milestones with the goal of preparing both the institutions and the society for the reform path and the next stage of the negotiating process. , The Baseline output proposed as one of the outputs of this Action will enable us to assess the institutions’, the CS’ and informed public’s capacities for such an undertaking, but also the ability of the general public to grasp the essentials of the process and thus act as active citizenry. We are describing the output in the Activities section and mentioning here only to underscore that assessing needs with more precision and fine-tuning will be part of the Action, the Network to be established and finally the sustainable platform which will be dedicated to constant fine-tuning of assessments of needs and priorities. Departing from measurable and indicators bound assessment of needs, that will be established in the baseline but also in the other policy documents, the Action will engage in collaborative capacity building process. It will also proffer a cluster of awareness raising activities (the Outreach cluster presented above) that will seek to bring in the citizens’ view on the reform process and enable its development in line with the values of participatory democracy, but also acquaint the general population with characteristics of the new methodology, made accessible through factoids, visualizations, and other forms of rendering complex policy vision simple and generally understandable.
| The Scope of the Baseline |
Проектот се спроведува со финансиска поддршка преку програмата Цивика мобилитас
Projekti realizohet me mbështetje financiare përmes programit Civica Mobilitas
Projekti realizohet me mbështetje financiare përmes programit Civica Mobilitas
Дисклејмер: Цивика мобилитас е проект на Швајцарската агенција за развој и соработка (СДЦ), кој го спроведуваат НИРАС, МЦМС и ФЦГ. Мислењата кои се изразени овде не нужно ги одразуваат ставовите на Цивика мобилитас, СДЦ или пак спроведувачките организации
Disclaimer: Civika mobilitas është projekt i Agjencisë zvicerane për zhvillim dhe bashkëpunim (SDC), të cilin e zbatojnë NIRAS, MCMS dhe FCG. Mendimet e shprehura këtu jo domosdo i reflektojnë qëndrimet e Cvika mobilitas, SDC ose të organizatave zbatuese.