The 3rd WeBER Platform meeting was held on 1st and 2nd of November 2017, in Skopje, Macedonia. The event was organised and hosted by the European Policy Institute (EPI).
The event gathered CSOs from 6 WeBER partner countries (European Policy Centre – CEP, European Policy Institute – EPI, Group for Legal and Political Studies – GLPS, Institut Alternative – IA, Foreign Policy Initiative – FPI, Institute for Democracy and Mediation – IDM), as well as representatives of national level institutions, media and international and regional organizations dealing with PAR, SIGMA/OECD, and Regional School of Public Administration – ReSPA, Regional Cooperation Council – RCC.
The event served to showcase good practice examples and most recent achievements in the field of PAR, whereas Milena Lazarević, CEP Programme Director informed about the progress of the WeBER project concerning the monitoring tool and grant scheme, and next steps planned for the upcoming year. “It is vital that our monitoring systems are equal throughout the 6 countries for their effectiveness,” Milena stated.
The discussion focused on the methods to improve cooperation between CSOs and national level institutions and proposals for creating more systemic consultation mechanism which would result in more inclusive and effective public policies. Another important aspect of the discussion was how to make the WeBER platform useful and go-to place for the institutions and interested public and to achieve the sustainability of the monitoring tool on the long run. In the later course of the conference, special emphasis was placed on raising awareness and visibility of the PAR process in the public eye, and the discussion with media representatives helped in shaping new ideas and approaches, such as greater accent on real life stories from the local communities, and dismissing the technocratic jargon in favour of a simple and easy to understand messages for the public, including more graphics and visuals.