Project ‘Strengthening of the Cooperation between Government and NGO Sector in the Public Policy Decision-Making Process’ seeks to encourage the cooperation and partnership between government and NGO sector, regarded as an institutional expression of civil society, in the public policy decision-making process.

The project aims to implement its goals in the following ways. On the one hand, it seeks, based on researches, to improve the existing and create new mechanisms of the involvement of NGOs in the public policy decision-making process. On the other hand, it seeks to actively and comprehensively spread the information about the opportunities and means of cooperation between government and NGOs in the public policy decision-making process. Not only the information is spread across the regions of Lithuania, but also various skills necessary for cooperation are developed among the staff of local government institutions and leaders of local NGOs.

Idea of the Project

Lithuanian and international researches show that our society is civically passive and rarely use the rights and opportunities to participate in the political decision making process. Poor citizens’ capacity to use the information provided by the government sector and successfully participate in the public decision making process is regarded as an important problem by the responsible government institutions (such as our project partner the Registry of the Seimas) as well. Such passiveness of the society does not ensure the quality of the public policy-making and implementation of feedback; it does not encourage the openness of government and does not help develop the cooperation between citizens and government, which is essential to a free political community.

Project ‘Strengthening of the Cooperation between Government and NGO Sector in the Public Policy Decision-Making Process’ seeks to encourage the cooperation and partnership between government and NGO sector, regarded as an institutional expression of civil society, in the public policy decision-making process (by this we mean legislation and supervision of legislation above all). The project aims to implement its goals in the following ways. On the one hand, it seeks, based on researches, to improve the existing and create new mechanisms of the involvement of NGOs in the public policy decision-making process. On the other hand, it seeks to actively and comprehensively spread the information about the opportunities and means of cooperation between government and NGOs in the public policy decision-making process. Not only the information is spread across the regions of Lithuania, but also various skills necessary for cooperation are developed among the staff of local government institutions and leaders of local NGOs. Constructive participation of the leaders of NGOs will empower a successful dialogue, cooperation and partnership between government and NGOs. This, in turn, will improve the quality of the public policy-making.

Project activities

• A team of experts will investigate and evaluate the current practise of cooperation between government and NGO sectors in the public decision making process. Representative population surveys and a qualitative study of the opinions of leaders of local NGOs and government representatives will be used in order to investigate the demand for participation in the public policy, any existing obstacles, awareness about the opportunities to involve in the public decision making process and other relevant aspects of the object that is being studied.
• A feasibility study of the application of the best foreign practises in Lithuania will be carried out and recommendations for the implementation of a pilot model of cooperation between government and NGO sectors will be prepared. Project partner NGO Law Institute is responsible for the implementation of these activities.
• Based on the implemented studies, recommendations will be prepared for the improvement of legislations regarding the existing methods of involvement of NGOs in the public policy decision making process as well as the creation of some new methods.
• During the events, best practises will be shared with the targets groups (i.e. staff of government institutions and representative of NGOs). They will include the existing mechanisms of the cooperation between government and NGOs in the public policy decision making process as well as the ones that are being pursued.
• Based on the prepared methodological-informational material, the team of project experts will spread the best practises of the cooperation between government and NGOs among the staff of local government institutions and leaders of local NGOs in five regions in Lithuania.
• A pilot model aimed at improving public policy with regards to legislation will be developed and tested; conclusions will then be drawn by the experts.

Project results

• During the project a research was carried out, the aim of which was to identify the gaps in the current cooperation between government and NGO sectors in the public decision-making process. It also aimed to suggest what should be changed and how in order to improve the quality of the process. Research report was published as a separate publication (find the publication here – in Lithuanian);
• Recommendations to municipalities on how to intensify the cooperation with NGOs and citizens were also prepared;
• During the project, 10 training sessions on the cooperation between government and NGOs were organised in five Lithuanian municipalities as well as five forums and 4 conferences.

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Project implementer: the Civil Society Institute. Project partners: public establishment NGO Law Institute, Registry of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania. The project is financially supported by the European Social Fund and the budget of the Republic of Lithuania.

• Title: Strengthening of the Cooperation between Government and NGO Sector in the Public Policy Decision-Making Process

• Date: 2013 September - 2015 July

• Category: Projects