Call for a research assignment on political party transparency North Macedonia - TERMS OF REFERENCE

Call for a research assignment on political
             party transparency
              North Macedonia

            TERMS OF REFERENCE
                November 2019

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Introduction and context
Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is a non-departmental public body
sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). With over 25 years’
experience of supporting democracy around the world, WFD’s has extensive
expertise in supporting political parties, parliaments, civil society and electoral
processes.
WFD is currently implementing a three-year CSSF funded programme in the Western
Balkans titled Western Balkans Democracy Initiative www.wfd.org/wbdi. WFD field
offices and staff in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro,
Kosovo and Serbia are implementing a regional programme aimed to :
       -   Encourage political parties to be more policy-focused and orientated
           towards voters’ needs and desires;
       -   Develop more effective parliamentary practice which leads to better quality
           legislation, closer scrutiny of the executive and a greater focus on service
           delivery in line with voters’ interests;
       -   Enhance democratic culture with greater interaction between state and non-
           state actors on challenges effecting citizen’s lives.
Western Balkans countries Albania, BiH, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and
Kosovo share a very similar recent political history between them. Following a period
of communist rule after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former Socialist Federative
Republic of Yugoslavia collapsed followed by a bloody civil war. The legacy of the
conflict still obstructs progress and regional cooperation between most countries.
Albania although it has not experienced a conflict, had a difficult transition from an
isolated communist regime to democratic system of governance often marred by
periods of civil unrest, corruption and lawlessness particularly evident in the 90ties.
Most countries have completed their statehood in the beginning and the mid 90eis,
while the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) continued with its disintegration in the
2000s. In 2003, the FRY was replaced by the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
After the Montenegrin Independence referendum in 2006, two new independent
countries were formed – Republic of Serbia and Republic of Montenegro. Kosovo and
Metohija a former autonomous province in Yugoslavia and Serbia declared unilateral
independence in 2008, forming the seventh country that came out of Yugoslavia –
Republic of Kosovo.
After civil wars, civil unrests and unstable governance in the 90ties and early 2000s
the larger part of Western Balkans countries, entered processes of relative
democratisation, increased civic participation and improvement of some of the main
governance issues in the mid 2000ns and early 2010s. The promise and prospect of
European integration have pushed some of these processes.
Although progress has been evident in several governance areas such as improving
electoral frameworks, decentralization and local governance, dealing with corruption,
government transparency, media freedoms and accountability remain major problem
areas in all countries. Demands from parliaments, political parties and elected officials

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for accountability on issues related to corruption have often fell on deaf ears. Although
all countries have introduced Freedom of Information Acts executive institutions and
political parties in situations remain rather closed and non-transparent for citizens.
However, the level of democracy, openness and civic participation are still
considerably low and there is a tendency for further disengagement of citizens and
voters and there has been and levels of trust in political parties have been at a historic
low. The reports of Freedom House1 on the Western Balkans mark all countries as
partly free. A specific trait for all countries of the Western Balkans is a distinct
domination of the executive branch over others with a strong political party influence
over state institutions and social processes. The process of democratisation has not
gone further than reaching elementary conditions for elective democracy, while often
having reversible tendencies towards illiberal democracies or even further towards
authoritarianism.
Part of this problem lies in the multiple-decade-old subject political culture and isolation
of the citizens from decision-making from one party systems. In addition, all countries
in the Western Balkans have shifted its electoral systems from first past the post,
majoritarian models to fully proportional closed party lists which have provided party
leaders and influential business groups and elites in political parties with the exclusivity
in placing MPs and elected representatives on electoral lists.
Links between constituents and elected representatives have been severed and
political party leaders have been disproportionally empowered to represent citizen
interests, often to citizens disadvantage. Transparency of political parties especially
with regards to party financing and party decision making has been low and has
contributed decrease of trust in political parties. Political parties have been
experiencing low levels of trust and there has been an increasing perception that
political parties are less open for the citizens. Viewed as distinctively undemocratic
and patronage – clientelist, political parties are often seen as occupying the public
sector once they win elections and using the state resources for party/personal
interests.
Levels of trust in political parties across the Western Balkans countries have been
decreasing. Political parties are the least trusted institutions by citizens. In comparison
to voter turnouts in the 90ties when the democratic transition has accrued, voter
turnouts have been consistently decreasing, mainly being between 50 and 60%
turnouts but based on voter lists which have not been fully updated.
For illustration purposes ppolitical parties are the least trusted institutions in Bosnia
and Herzegovina: in the last public opinion poll, 80 percent of respondents said that
they have no trust at all in political parties. (Analitika, 2015). The most recent national
survey of citizen’s perception from 2017 also echoed the distrust towards the political
parties: three out of four BiH citizens (77 percent) believe political parties are working
for their own interests. The deteriorating link between the parties and citizens has

1   https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2018

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been also reflected in voter turnout that had constantly fallen during last two
decades and so: over 80% in 1996, 63% in 2000, 48% in 2004, 53% in 2010 and 2018.
The nondemocratic practices and partocratic systems which have been built along
with corruption represent a major problem in all Western Balkan countries. More
transparency and accountability from political parties could positively influence citizen
engagement and increase in trust political institutions and actors in the Western
Balkans.
For improved representation to take place political parties should improve
responsiveness, accountability, communications and transparency practices.
Operating in a non-transparent and unaccountable manner has created a negative
perception of political parties and contributed to higher levels of distrust in political
parties. As a result, engagement and membership in political parties has continuously
been decreasing and citizens have become sceptical and distrustful toward political
parties. Political parties as institutions of representative democracy have not been able
to represent citizens interests and demands in a responsive and accountable manner.
There is a serious gap in communications from political parties towards citizens on the
manner parties operate. This contributes to the problem of representation and in turn
leads to poor accountability towards citizens and constituents.
Most political parties in the Western Balkans rarely provide organisational, financial or
operational information on their work to citizens. They are not easily accessible and
open through their party websites and in their communications. Most party websites
have very little information on party finances, they are not regularly updated with
information on decision making and party representatives, they are not interactive, in
many cases fail to communicate in all local languages, they are not accessible for
disabled citizens (blind or deaf persons) and communicate only in one direction – party
to public.
The non-transparent behaviour of political parties is driven by a culture of non-
accountability in many political parties, an inadequate or inadequately enforced legal
framework, and lack of pressure from society to improve transparency.
The WFD research on political party transparency will look to provide answers on
improving transparency standards as its point of departure to create more incentive
for political parties to address these issues.

2. Objectives

In order to better understand political party transparency issues and potential
implications for WFDs work in the Western Balkans, WFD is testing a research
methodology on political party transparency which could be the basis for a political
party transparency index for the Western Balkans.
The objectives of the research assignment are:
   1. To test WFD research methodology on political party transparency with at
        least 4 political parties.
   2. Refine research questions, indicators and the methodology.

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3. Present findings to political parties which have participated in the research.
   4. Extract findings and learning from the research for internal WFD purposes.

3. Definitions

For the purpose of this research assignment a political party transparency index is an
index that can measure the level of transparency of a political party based on relevant
indicators. The methodology for measuring transparency is developed by WFD and
includes questions and indicators on communications transparency, financial
transparency or transparency of operations and decision making.

4. Research questions to be covered in the study?

   •   All research questions are developed and drafted by WFD and will be
       provided to the selected consultants/organization’s for this research
       assignment.

5. Timelines
Applications should be submitted by COB on November 7 th. Deadlines listed in the
table below assume contracting is completed by November 11th 2019. Work should
commence on November 15th 2019. If contracting with the organisation/consultant(s)
is concluded after this date, the deadlines will be adjusted accordingly but the final
research products still should to be delivered and presented by March 31st 2020.
 Deliverable     Description                             Deadline
 Draft           The draft research report with                February 15th 2020
 research        answers all the relevant questions             (English version of
 reports         from the research questionnaire in       document to be provided
 for 4 selected  English language prepared by                                    to
                 February 15th and delivered to WFD. emil.atanasovski@wfd.org
 political parties
                                                         by COB on Feb 15th 2020)
 WFD responds WFD will respond and provide                     February 25th 2020
 to comments comments to the draft research within
 and provides 10 days.
 feedback     on
 draft research
 Final report    Final draft of the research report with          March 15th 2020
                 answers to all the relevant questions
                 addressing comments and feedback
                 from WFD and political parties
                 participating    in    the   research,
                 prepared and delivered to WFD by
                 March 15th 2020

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6. Key Deliverables
      -   The consultant(s)-organisation is expected to test the draft research
          methodology by completing the research assignment, using the agreed
          questionnaire and analyse the work of at least four political parties in North
          Macedonia.
      -   The consultant(s) – organisation is expected to conduct consultations with
          the political parties at every stage of the research (pre-during-post).
      -   The consultant/s organisation is expected to prepare a report with key
          findings from the research for each political party and present the research
          findings to the political parties which were selected for the research for their
          feedback.
      -   The consultant/s organisation is expected to participate in regional
          workshops organised by WFD to develop the research action plans, present
          findings on the research methodology and refine and adapt research
          questions and indicators for future use.

7. Budget
      •   The budget for preparing the research assignment in North Macedonia, is a
          maximum of 7000 GBP (inclusive of taxes) and this budget is to be used for
          analysing the work of 4 selected political parties in North Macedonia.
      •   Additionally, the consultant(s)/organisation will be provided with a budget
          for organising a presentation of research findings for the selected political
          parties (4). Maximum budget per presentation is 500GBP and the total
          budget awarded for this activity cannot exceed 2000GBP
      •   The consultant(s)/organisation should propose an activity-based budget for
          conducting this assignment as part of its expression of interest.

8. Application details
Interested consultants/organisations should express their interest for this proposal by
providing a one-page proposal along with the CV of the consultant(s) which will are
proposed to conduct the research assignment. For organisations a one-page
document listing the experience of the organisation relevant for this work should be
prepared.
Consultants/organisations which have relevant experience and have published work
on topics such as money in politics, political party transparency, political party
financing and transparency indexes will be considered. Track record of previous work
with WFD and quick turnaround in delivering the task will be an additional asset.
Consultants/Organisations background and previous experience in political party
work, party financing and political party operations are highly desirable from for this
assignment.

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An email with your expression of interest and relevant documents should be sent to
the Western Balkans Regional office at emil.atanasovski@wfd.org by November 5th
2019.
Only consultant(s)/organisations which will be able to complete the research and
within the proposed timeline March 31st 2020 will be considered for this assignment.
Only consultant(s)organisations which are willing to sign non-disclosure
agreement/confidentiality agreement with WFD will be considered for this assignment.

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