Skopje, 19 June 2024 (MIA) - The Metamorphosis Foundation organized on Wednesday a presentation and discussion on the results of the Assessment of Good Governance of the Executive Power in North Macedonia through the Openness Index of the Executive Branch, under the title "Commitment to Openness for Long-term Success".  

"The monitoring is conducted for the eight year in a row, regionally, in North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The summarized regional results will be published in September, while the focus of today's meeting were the national results," the Metamorphosis Foundation said in a press release.

Foundation director Danche Danilovska-Bajdevska presented the results, noting that the country is the only in the region with a Government Transparency Strategy, but that implementing the strategy is still slow.

According to her, the main conclusions from this year's monitoring show that progress in increasing transparency and openness of the executive branch (ministries and constituent bodies) is stagnating, improved past results stopped at a certain level, and there has been no significant progress as of recent years. That is why she recommends strengthening the implementation of existing policies that promote openness from ministries and executive bodies in order to achieve progress.

As Danilovksa-Bajdevska pointed out, all of these processes or activities to promote openness, have essentially helped North Macedonia in continuity in the last five years to become a country whose Government has achieved the highest level of openness in the region.

"This year's monitoring of the Openness Index (2023), shows that North Macedonia's Government meets 78.33 percent of the required criteria for openness, once again achieving the best result on a regional level. During the first monitoring in 2016 North Macedonia was last in the region having met only 36 percent of the indicators. However, it should be noted that compared to last year, the Government has a slight decline in meeting the requirement for openness," the press release reads.

The event also presented the work and significance of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), as well as the commitments of the sixth National Action Plan, presented by OGP coordinator and member of the Ministry of Information Society and Administration, Gordana Gapikj-Dimitriovska.

OGP, the press release adds, is an important process unique in its governance structure - there is an equal number of representatives from civil society organizations through the OGP Council, elected through the OGP Network and state institutions.

The Metamorphosis Foundation coordinates the Civil Organizations Network of OGP. Its role is to mobilize and coordinate the advocacy of civil society organizations on OGP issues, i.e. it is a network of active civil organizations that are dedicated to encouraging institutions to act more responsibly, increase transparency, participation, and accountability. The network is also an organized civil initiative that will monitor and promote the process and lobby for improvement. ssh/nn/

Photo: Metamorphosis Foundation