Guidelines for enhancing engagement of Moldovan citizens in decision making process


e-Governance Academy’s and Moldovan experts compiled two guidelines for enhancing engagement of Moldovan citizens in decision making process. The quidelines were main final outcomes of the project “The implementation of principles of Open Government in engaging citizens in decision making processes in Moldova”.

The main goal of the project was to support and train the Government of Republic of Moldova and civil society to create more open and transparent policy-making and decision-making processes and this way guarantee the better engagement of civic organizations and individual citizens.

The ABC Guide on Citizen Engagement is directed to general public with the aim to increase the general awareness of open governance and transparent decision making process. The other is detailed online-Guide on Citizen Engagement which will offer concrete help to state officials, providing them with knowledge on how to implement the principles of open government in everyday work processes and gives practical tips for the implementation of already existing legislative acts (laws on access to information, law on transparency in the decision-making processes, etc.).

The ABC Guide on Citizen Engagement is available here and online-Guide on Citizen Engagement here.

To prepare the Guides e-Governance Academy organized a study and planning tour for open governance experts from Moldova and designed and implemented a study in Moldova to map the situation with open governance. The study revealed the need to increase the general awareness of state officials about the main principles of open governance and engagement. Based on the results of the study, general knowledge and Estonian experiences, e-Governance Academy organized two training seminars for more than 90 public servants and civil society representatives in the Moldovan capital Chişinău on 7 & 8 April 2015.

Besides introducing the general principles of open governance the participants gained practical skills for engagement via playing different interactive role games on engagement etc. Also, the training seminars gave a feedback and input to the draft document “Guide on Citizen Engagement”, one of the main final outcomes of the project.

As to guarantee the sharing of the recommendations published in both Guides, the main local partner Open Government Institute is organizing several follow-up activities for ministries and other state institutions in Moldova (round-tables, training-curricula etc.).

The project was carried out in cooperation with the Moldovan Open Governance Institute and e-Governance Centre and it was financed by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the framework of development cooperation.

For further information see https://www.ega.ee/project/open-government-in-moldova/ or e-mail to Kristina Reinsalu