On 31 May 2023, at the request of the Delegation of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Commission, SIGMA and PARCO organized an online workshop on the topic: “Improving the system and practice of policy planning in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
The goals of this workshop were:
- to start a discussion on the current state of alignment of legislation on policy planning with the principles of public administration at all administrative levels (Council of Ministers of BiH, entity governments and Government of Brčko District of BiH) in order to improve the regulatory and methodological framework for policy planning and the institutional framework for system coordination and the policy planning process at all administrative levels (assignment of functions, guidance, quality assurance, control of the policy planning process and the quality of planning documents);
- to enable relevant institutions to exchange experiences, build synergy, expand networks, learn and find solutions for common problems and challenges, as well as to develop feasible priorities and clear actions (recommendations) to improve policy planning at all administrative levels.
The workshop was attended by representatives of the Delegation of the European Union to BiH, the European Commission, SIGMA, UNDP, PARCO and key planning institutions from all administrative levels.
Dragan Ćuzulan, coordinator for public administration reform, emphasized that the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform in BiH and the Action Plan for Public Administration Reform defined measures and activities to improve the system of strategic, mid-term and annual planning at all administrative levels. The report on the implementation of the Action Plan of the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was submitted to the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the governments for consideration and adoption, showed that some progress has been made in establishing and improving the system of strategic planning, monitoring and reporting, and that there is still challenges and activities that need to be worked on in order to make progress and reach the planned target values. He expressed the hope that the recommendations from this report, as well as the recommendations that will be agreed upon at the workshop, will be a good basis for further joint activities to improve the system and planning practices in BiH institutions.
Next steps (recommendations) were agreed upon at the workshop for further improvement of policy planning at all administrative levels.