In this episode, recorded within WeBER2.0, our guest is Mr Gregor Virant, Head of SIGMA, an initiative of the OECD and the EU.

The Principles of Public Administration were developed by SIGMA in order to define requirements for a well-functioning public administration in each of the core areas. Now, SIGMA principles are being reformed themselves. Why and how? Milena Lazarević, European Policy Centre – CEP Programme Director and WeBER2.0 initiative Team Leader, talks about that in conversation with Gregor and discusses the lessons learned after many years of experience in the region.

Find out more about WeBER2.0 here: par-monitor.org.

In this episode, recorded on the margins of the Third WeBER Regional “Citizens First” Conference, our guest is Admirim Aliti, Minister of Information Society and Administration of North Macedonia. In a conversation with Milena Lazarević, European Policy Centre – CEP Programme Director and WeBER2.0 initiative Team Leader, he reflects on North Macedonia’s Public Administration Reform Strategy’s achievements. While talking about them, he highlighted that countries should not perform reforms solely for the sake of the EU integration process but primarily for the citizens. Cyber-security issues of digitalized services and the necessity of utilizing the CSO’s potential for better policymaking were also discussed.

The countries of the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe have been facing several different crises in recent years, which lead to, in some countries, the phenomenon of shrinking space for civil society, populist policies and authoritarian leaders. All this is interconnected with the raising the level of corruption, which is further related to the weakening of democracies, and as a consequence, we have reduced trust of citizens, non-functional and non-transparent public administrations and captured states. Setting the principle of citizens’ trust and the supreme value of democracy as the best path that humanity has discovered for building a successful society that has citizens in the focus, and which never reaches the goal but is constantly improving, Mr Ruslan Stefanov, Director of the Economics Program of the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) and manager of the CSD’s SELDI network reminds civil society that it is necessary to have responsible leaders at the top, independent institutions that control them, and governments willing to cooperate with civil society and experts.

For insightful discussion on the importance of QM tools such as CAF, advantages of its application, and experience of WB countries who are using it, we have the pleasure of welcoming Mr Thomas Prorok, Managing Director at the KDZ – Centre of Public Administration Research, and Head of the CAF Centre at the KDZ, who has hands-on experience in supporting the administration in the region in the CAF implementation. Mr Prorok is also WeBER Advisory Council member. He spoke with Milos Djindjic, WeBER Lead Researcher.