Support to Public Administration Reform Visibility and Communication in Serbia

The purpose of this project was to support the Government of Serbia in ensuring visibility and communication actions related to the overall Public Administration Reform (PAR) and Public Financial Management (PFM) reform agendas, and the Sector Reform Contract in particular.

The project had three interlinked components:

1. Awareness and visibility of the PAR and PFM process;
2. Awareness of the EU support to the PAR process and benefits for the citizens which the Public Administration Reform brings within the EU integration process;
3. Improved communications capacities of the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Ministry of Finance and public administration bodies.

Approach

The Public Administration Reform is a very complex process, which makes it hard to understand, accept and support. Visibility through media is mostly to procedures in public administration reforms and rarely focused on the personal perspective and feelings of citizens. Therefore, the project focused on having citizens’ emotions present in communication about reforms so as to achieve affective dimension of public attitudes. In addition, the project fostered sustainability by developing communication tools and mechanisms and training a core group of staff to use them, and by developing lasting training modules and integrating them in the National Academy’s training programme.

Results

In the close to five year implementation period, the following results have been achieved:

• Situation analysis completed;
• Long-term awareness raising and communication strategy drafted, including a media strategy (PAR Communication Strategy);
• Organization and design of communication events, promotional tools, and communication manuals;
• Increased understanding, visibility and awareness of EU support to the public administration reform within the overall EU integration process;
• Promotion of the benefits of the EU public administration principles and standards to the citizens;
• Design and Delivery of Capacity Building Programme for Relevant National Counterparts in communication and visibility techniques;
• Improved internal communication of institutions involved in PAR/ PFM design and implementation;
• Assistance to the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Ministry of Finance and public administration bodies in developing and using modern communications tools.