Opennes Index: The ninth wave of openness measures for the executive and legislative branches has begun

The ninth wave of measuring the openness of the executive and legislative branches of power in four countries of the Western Balkan region, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, through the Openness Index, has begun. The measurement is carried out by the network “Accountability, Technology and Institutional Openness Network in South East Europe – ACTION SEE” with support of the National Endowment for Democracy – NED “Leveraging technology to promote institutional accountability and transparency.”

The Openness Index is a composite indicator that measures, over the course of eight consecutive years, the degree of openness of state institutions in the Western Balkans to citizens and society. It was developed to assess the extent to which citizens in the region receive relevant and understandable information from these institutions.

To measure the degree of institutional openness, the partners of the ACTION SEE network, in line with international standards, recommendations, and best practices, monitor institutions using specific quantitative and qualitative indicators. These include access to information on official institutional websites, the quality of the legal framework for various issues, alternative public information sources, published data on the operations of institutions, public procurement data, and information on public spending, among others.

Based on the eighth wave of measurements carried out during 2024, the publications Assessment of Good Governance of the Executive Branch in North Macedonia and the Region through the Openness Index according to the Measurement for the Year 2023 and Assessment of Good Governance of the Legislative Branch in North Macedonia and the Region through the Openness Index according to the Measurement for the Year 2023 provide a detailed picture of the openness of individual institutions and include concrete recommendations and steps to improve their transparency.

The project “Leveraging technology to promote institutional accountability and transparency” is implemented by the Center for Democratic Transition (Montenegro) in partnership with the Metamorphosis Foundation for Internet and Society, the Citizens Association Why Not?, and Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (Serbia), with financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy – NED.

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