ReSPA and PARCO organized the Closing Conference within the In-Country project to present the key preconditions for improving the digital public services in BiH as they are defined in the Action Plan of the Strategic Framework for Reform of Public Administration 2018-2022.
The event gathered more than 50 senior officials from the institutions at BiH Council of Ministers level, equally important representatives from both entities, and Brcko District BiH, who were informed about In-Country project and the Roadmap for creating needed preconditions for digitized public services that all administrative levels in BiH can benefit from. This key document is directly linked with Measure 4.2. (Activity 4.2.4.1) in the Action Plan of the Strategic Framework for Reform of Public Administration 2018-2022.
The Roadmap is the result of the implemented In-Country support from ReSPA to PARCO provided through technical expertise for developing Situation Analysis, Comparative Analysis and the Roadmap as the plan with actions and timelines as they were proposed within wide consultations with a variety of stakeholders at all levels.
The Roadmap presentation aimed to inform the relevant stakeholders who will be included in creating and upgrading the preconditions so that the preliminary commitment for practical actions in the Roadmap implementation is obtained.
Findings and recommendations will be used as the framework to make the preconditions for developing service catalogue, for having a model of strengthening the Shared Service Center at each administrative level in BiH, as well as for the creation of IT services such as e-paying, Certification Bodies, GSB governmental services “bus” (included upgrade with Meta Register), e Mailbox, Cloud government (classification of data).
Situation Analysis provides the review of existing and also “to be” legal, institutional, organizational and infrastructural frameworks that are needed for the realization of the key IT preconditions. Comparative Analysis consists of two case studies from the Western Balkans and good practices for reference, while in the Roadmap, there are defined actions and timelines for factual implementation of the needed preconditions.
“This means it is necessary to develop or to continue developing in a coherent way technical building blocks for e-services to be shared across governments, in particular standardization, interoperability, base registries, eSignature, e Authentication, e-Payment and data protection. Modern e-Government and advanced e-services require cooperation and data exchange within the government itself, with citizens and businesses. This was emphasized in both analyses done. The Roadmap presented today reviews the most relevant actions related to the further development of elements directly connected to technology and of elements supporting the technology. It provides a picture of steps to be undertaken in parallel, though in a different order, but all within one comprehensive process in which organizational and regulatory issues are addressed in addition to technology.
We in ReSPA believe that the results of this project, Situational analysis, Comparative Analysis and the Roadmap can be used by PARCO and by institutions at each and all administrative levels in BiH as guiding map, as check-up list as well as the solid basis for formulations of workable strategies and projects aimed at enhancing e-governance that own capacities could realize but that could also attract the relevant international organizations in BiH and in the region, including ReSPA, to assist where the capacities and fundings are insufficient,” emphasized Ms Olivera Damjanović, ReSPA Prgramme Manager.
At the one-panel discussion, the representatives of the key institutions were discussed to bring forward the process of developing and upgrading the quality of digitized governmental public services.
The final event of the In-Country support provided by ReSPA to PARCO was planned and is held to present not only key findings from the two analyses done, but even more important to present the way forward for improving the overall environment for better creation and delivery of digitized public services in BiH in the broadest sense.
As recognized in the Action Plan of PAR Strategy, a country that wants to build solid e-governance needs to bring the required prerequisites to at least an appropriate minimum level.