Participatory Assessment of Sustainable Development Indicators on Good Governance from the Civil Society Perspective (PASSO)

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain and the Netherlands

1. Kick-off meeting organised in Rome to set the action plan, including partners’ roles and responsibilities, and report on administrative procedures partners will be asked to undertake.

2. Design and develop PASSO web-site at the beginning of the project, containing key information on the project planned activities and methodology, expected results and partners involved. It will be constantly updated with the main results progressively achieved.

3. Review existing research on sustainability goals in good governance and related indicators. The starting point will be the list of sustainable development indicators adopted in the context of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. PASSO will then look for all possible new inputs from other available lists of SDIs at international as well as national levels. PASSO will also look at the Good Governance definitions given nationally, internationally and Europe-wide and the links with the Sustainable Development Strategy.

4. Systematization of good governance indicators. Reviewing the research undertaken, PASSO will assess how to better enhance the existing set of SDIs compiled by the EC. PASSO will capture the variety of indicators by using special key-words, and will develop a framework for their assessment and comparison. Some basic requirements will be followed for systematization of indicators: being measurable and quantifiable, meaningful, clear in value, clear in content, relevant, comprehensive. PASSO will develop a protocol for the selection of indicators and provide a list including SDIs plus other indicators meeting the above mentioned criteria.

5. Consolidation of the International Expert Group composed of both selected researchers/ statisticians and representatives of CSOs Europe wide. The aim of the Group will be not only to make an assessment of the list of SDIs, but the combination of experts and CSO representatives will make it possible to have an exchange on the perception researchers and citizens/civil society might have on the indicators, so as to prepare an ad hoc communication strategy to be used for the wider CSOs consultation.

6. 1st meeting of International Expert Group: 1st Delphi workshop (PACT involved), mainly aiming to assess the relevance and efficiency of the set of indicators selected so far. Within the meeting, possible gaps regarding that set of indicators will be identified; additionally, suggestions for amendments of that set will be collected. To facilitate the assessment of the indicators and to improve the quality of the possible amendments, the meeting will be conducted by experienced moderators following the group-Delphi-method.

7. Systematization of the Delphi-meeting outcomes - to be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative analysis will highlight areas of consensus and dissent regarding the complete set of indicators. The qualitative analysis (content-analysis) will reveal the most significant issues that were up for discussion. Both the quantitative and qualitative analysis will generate precious input for the CSO consultation. The output of the systematization of the outcomes will be a new set of indicator in a form which will allow for the CSOs network review.

8. Build a network of CSOs Europe-wide – PACT involved - A European-wide network of CSOs shall be established. All contacts will be included in a database to be used in the further phases of the project.

9. CSO consultation - PACT involved

a.    Online-questionnaire developed on the basis of the output of previous research and the output of the Delphi-meeting. Within this questionnaire, the network of CSOs members will be asked to assess priorities and select the most relevant indicators` improvements from the civil society perspective. The final analysis of the online-questionnaire will produce the feedback regarding the results of the Delphi meeting which will be reported to the experts group for a second assessment meeting.
b.    National consultations will take place within national working groups set up in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain and The Netherlands. The CSOs representatives will choose the most appropriate way to get feedback from the national civil society: it can take the form of face to face interviews of CSO experts or national round tables with different CSO organizations. At the end of the participatory consultation phase in the 7 countries, national reports will be drafted. PASSO shall prepare a synthesis of all these national works and compared analysis of the responses received at European level.
c.    Online forum supporting the feedback phase, allowing a wider and more open consultation. Within the forum especially qualitative aspects of the discussion will find expression. The contributions to the forum will be subject to a content analysis.

10. 2nd meeting of International Expert Group: 2nd Delphi workshop (PACT involved), aiming at assessing the outcome of the CSOs consultation and review the set of indicators which resulted from their first meeting. The result of the meeting will be the drafting of proposals for amendment of existing indicators, setting priorities of development on the basis of a multi-criteria assessment of the feedback from the CSOs networks.

11. Wide Forum (PACT involved) - After completion of the 2nd International Experts Group meeting, the priorities of development of the SDIs on good governance will be finally discussed in a wide forum. On that occasion, the international experts together with the CSOs’ representatives will present their results to a large audience composed of delegates from the CSOs world, national and European politicians, researchers, statisticians and other relevant stakeholders. The aim is to open a discussion on the relevance and efficiency of the pre-existing SDIs (the ones listed in the Eurostat publication) and the new adds-on. The Forum will be moderated by a professional facilitator. The outcome of the Forum will feed the final set of recommendations on the SDS/SDIs. The basic idea behind the Forum organisation is to confront feedbacks and positions of experts and non experts on the issue of SDIs, and to create interactions with the public. Innovative methods of group interactions will be applied.

12. Final recommendations in the form of a publication - The final output of PASSO project will be a set of recommendations resulting from the overall process of SDIs participatory revision on the Theme of Good Governance. The publication will summarise the steps the project undertook and present the final recommendations for an SDS/SDIs improvement. The publication will be disseminated to a wide list of contacts, including national and European CSOs, NGOs, political representatives and other European stakeholders. A summary of the publication will be presented in the form of a leaflet for an easy reading. The leaflet will be translated in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Dutch, Latvian and Romanian.

Project partners are preparing the final event to be held in Brussels on October 6, 2010. The event aims to present the conclusions reached by the working group, based on conclusions of national consultations and expertise of researchers involved in the project. By these means, the project partners hope the event will enable a wider consultation on indicators of good governance from the perspective of sustainable development.

The first Delphi Workshop in the PASSO project was organized in Brussels during October 26th–27th, 2009. From the part of Romania there were two participants who attended the workshop: Madalina Ene – representing PACT Foundation and Claudiu Tufiş, researcher and independent expert. The first day of the workshop aimed at discussing the details of the PASSO project and mainly to comment on the definition, new framework and new set of indicators, all related to the concept of Good Governance, proposed by the project team. The second day of the Workshop was dedicated to the assessment of the EU and new proposed indicators on Good Governance, using the Delphi method. The outcome of the work done during this 2-day Workshop will be used to develop the tools for the national consultations with Civil Society Organizations, to be conducted - starting January 2010 – by partners and other NGOs engaged in the project.

ISIS - Italy – Coordination and communication
European Think Tank Pour la Solidarité - Belgium – Involvement of civil society organizations *
Missions Publiques – France – Organisation and animation of the Delphi workshops
University of Stuttgart – Germany – Analysis of Indicators through the Delphi method 

Madalina Ene - project coordinator