Multi Stakeholder Forum

In September 2023, the Ministry for Justice (now Ministry for Justice and Reform of the Construction Sector) as lead Ministry coordinating the Open Government process for the development of Malta’s 4th National Action Plan, issued a call inviting Civil Society Organisations and other non-Governmental Organisations to join a Multi-Stakeholder Forum, to engage with Government on the development of action plans on matters of national importance related to Malta’s present and future vision. Participants were also invited to register their interest on 5 thematic areas that Government was putting forward for discussion. The themes on which discussions would take place were the following:

  • Justice Initiatives
  • Victims’ Rights
  • Online Support to
  • Victims
  • Access to Justice for Minors
  • Youth Proofing

A positive response for this invite was received from twelve Civil Society Organisations who all chose their area of interest in which they could contribute their expertise.

The Multi-Stakeholder Forum composed from Government reformers and representatives from Civil Society Organisations and other non-Governmental Organisations will be tasked to provide ideas and feedback, identify priorities, and propose commitments to be developed into action plans to be included in Malta’s 4th National Action Plan. The Terms of Reference of the Multistakeholder Forum is accessible here.

The First meeting of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum was held on 30th November 2023. During this meeting the co-chair representing Government gave an overview on the Open Government initiatives to be undertaken by Malta to meet its commitment to develop the 4th National Action Plan on Open Government Initiatives. The members of the Multistakeholder Forum were also informed of the proceedings to be taken with regards to the co-creation process to develop the action plan and were also briefed on the Terms of Reference of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum. The CSO members were asked to elect a co-chair from amongst the organisations, party in the forum, to represent Civil Society. The Co-Chair was elected amongst the CSO’s and communicated to the Forum. 

Minutes of meeting held on 30th November 2023.

Co-Creation Process

The co-creation process was triggered by the establishment of the Multi Stakeholder Forum. A series of workshops were held on 30th November 2023 wherein members of the Forum were split up according to the chosen themes in which they wished to participate. Workshop 1 and 4 discussed justice initiatives and access to justice. Workshop 2 and 3 discussed issues related to Victims’ Rights and Victims Support. Workshop 5 discussed issues related to Youths.

From these workshops 5 commitments were established which later were deducted to 4 following the suggestion of CSO’s members to tackle the Victims’ Rights and Support as one commitment. 

Following the workshops 5 possible commitments were identified for inclusion in the Action Plan. A round of emails containing the 5 commitments were circulated after the meeting to all MSF members to gather feedback. The feedback received was evaluated and a reasoned response was given to all stakeholders. The finalized commitment templates were later circulated to all MSF Members before inclusion in the National Action Plan Document. CSOs complained that they were not given enough time to evaluate the proposed commitments but given the tight deadline in which to submit the action plan, a commitment was made by Government to continue the discussion after the submission of the Action Plan.