Public opinion research on perception regarding Ohrid Framework Agreement

Public perception can play a critical role in political development and research in this area highlights the complex collection of opinions that impact the perception on what is the Ohrid Framework Agreement, has the community read it, do they feel the benefit from it in the local or central level, if so can they name few elements where they see the improvement and do they know the pillars which consist the document.
The importance of these activities is closely connected with the relevance of public opinion in institutional building and policy creation for communities. As OFA has entered the second decade of the policy making and policy implementation, it is important to reflect especially on citizen’s opinion. This process should initiate and practically implement a bottom up approach that hasn’t been fully considered while implementing OFA since the beginning. The quality research of public opinion is to involve all stakeholders in hunting of perception from the communities they represent on how to face and address the challenges of OFA implementation from a local and personal perspective and prepare a report for SIOFA with the aim to improve and impact their policy implementation and create a mechanism of OFA implementation monitoring. The questionnaire will reflect the input of all above mentioned stakeholders and their proposals.
The policy impact directly contributes to the implementation of OFA by enhancing the work scope of the inter-ethnic councils through use of findings from the public opinion surveys, to empower, promote and strengthen their work and role in local government. Representatives from SIOFA and other central and local stakeholders are important for transferring the best practices learned during the action and formulating local policies to ensure OFA implementation. Our form of work will try to decentralize more the policies deriving from OFA and get a local prospective from the citizens. The citizens should also have the possibility to learn more about the benefits and the policies promoted by OFA but also SIOFA will have the opportunity to hear the citizens’ viewpoints on certain local issues which are centrally formulated.