“Our study shows that many Hungarian municipalities publish only some of the public documents that they are required by law to make available to their citizens. We wanted to help local governments to be more transparent,” said Csaba Madarász from the eDemocracy Workshop Society.
As a result of the project, a network has been established of more than ten municipalities and local stakeholders that are committed to improve transparency.
In addition to organising training courses for 75 NGOs and citizens across the country enabling them to put pressure on local municipalities to increase their transparency, the project has also worked with the local government in Pázmánd. A portal for facilitating the publication and accessibility of public documents has been developed. This provides an example of how to improve transparency for other municipalities.The mayor of Pázmánd, Mónika Reichenbach, is convinced that the project has contributed to boosting a higher level of transparency and generating a greater degree of trust from citizens.
The project has also drawn on experiences from two Norwegian partners - Buskerud and Vestfold University College and the company Tingtun - on how e-transparency is built up in Norway.
The project is one of close to 450 projects funded under our NGO programme in Hungary. The programme contributes to developing and strengthening civil society in Hungary, and improving the capability of NGOs in addressing citizen’s needs and democratic concerns.
Project link: http://bit.ly/2aJBei4