International conference “Digital Transformation for Citizens” organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation. Panel discussion: “From the citizens for the citizens – Overcoming the digital gap”; Photo: Meta.mk

The involvement of the civil society in the process of the digital transformation of the countries, but above all the training of the citizens, is particularly important, because with a greater participation of the organizations, the digital gap can be overcome more easily. This was emphasized by representatives of civil society organizations from the Republic of North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro at the panel discussion on the topic “From the citizens for the citizens – Overcoming the digital gap” that was held within the international conference “Digital Transformation for Citizens” organized by the “Metamorphosis” Foundation, writes Portalb.mk.

Speaking about the challenges of e-government support centres in the Western Balkans for providing support and empowering different categories of citizens to efficiently use the available public electronic services and increase their digital education, the participants from the civil society organizations from the Western Balkans highlighted their efforts to overcome the digital gap in their communities and promote online use of available public mechanisms.

Mila Josifovska Danilovska from the “Metamorphosis” Foundation explained that the project “Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Agenda – ICEDA” helped civil society organizations from the Western Balkan countries in the digital agenda and the digital transformation of the societies of these countries, but also in increasing their digital skills.

Liljana Jonoski, Executive Director of “Rural Coalition” from North Macedonia emphasized that “ICEDA” enabled them to continue their activities towards digitalization. As she pointed out, the pandemic forced them to start and provide support in this field.

“It was time to open these processes. With the opening of this centre, it became clear that civil society organizations are here and support the institutions we are talking about. We can say that in the last two years we have made great progress”, said Jonoski.

Among other things, she pointed out that one of the main lessons they learned from field experiences is that the farmers themselves, as well as the residents in rural areas, realized that the digitalization of services is good for them and how important it is to make this digital transformation.

International conference “Digital Transformation for Citizens” organized by the “Metamorphosis” Foundation. Panel discussion: “From the citizens for the citizens – Overcoming the digital gap”; Photo: Meta.mk

Deborah Peci, Project Manager at “Demokraci Plus” from Kosovo, emphasized that they believe that digitalization can help promote democracy and democratic values.

“Since the release of the platform, numerous changes have been made. With the support of “ICEDA”, we continued to work with the municipalities and offer help to the municipalities, but also to the citizens… We have seen great progress in regard to this issue… The central institutions have taken activities”, said Peci.

Megi Tafaruci from Albania, project developer from the “European Youth Association” explained that their approach to the digital agenda was aimed at target groups such as the elderly, minorities, etc.

“We developed the project in Durrës and Elbasan and for us the difficulties were also opportunities, such as the Covid-19 pandemic which caused the closure of our entire country. This made citizens become more aware to understand the importance of digitalization”, said Tafaruci.

She added that in this regard the citizens were still not quite sure if their accounts in e-Albania were safe, if someone else could take them over and they had similar doubts of this nature. But as she explained, these doubts were eliminated with the assistance provided by the volunteers and employees, while confidence in digital services was also strengthened.

International conference “Digital Transformation for Citizens” organized by the “Metamorphosis” Foundation. Panel discussion: “From the citizens for the citizens – Overcoming the digital gap”; Photo: Meta.mk

Natasa Lendzel, Executive Director of “Synchro Hub” in Serbia emphasized that as far as digitalization is concerned, they were curious about the future.

“What we’ve done is to put people in focus. What we wanted was to look back one day, and see how we did it. After that we also conducted workshops…We wanted to reach people who could not come to us, but we could go to them. We wanted to go to rural places not just urban ones. We informed these people about the digital opportunities they have… We also created a handbook in order to inspire other organizations to deal with the issue of digital transformation in their communities”, explained Lendzel.

As for Montenegro, Ivana Srećkovic, General Director of “Nest”, said that through “ICEDA” they managed to open a digitalization centre.

“We had activities that were carried out not only in Podgorica, but in other cities as well. Since young people were our target group, we wanted to give them a space to see what digitalization is. We gave them the opportunity to choose”, said Srećkovic.

International conference “Digital Transformation for Citizens” organized by the “Metamorphosis” Foundation. Panel discussion: “From the citizens for the citizens – Overcoming the digital gap”; Photo: Meta.mk

The interest of the participants was significant and they asked the speakers questions regarding the digital transformation in the Western Balkan countries.

The international conference “Digital Transformation for Citizens ” organized by the “Metamorphosis” Foundation started today and will end tomorrow afternoon. The conference is organized in a hybrid format and is being held at the “Marriot” hotel in Skopje. Some of the participants physically attend the event, and the rest follow the sessions online, through the Zoom platform and Facebook Live on the Facebook page of the “Metamorphosis” Foundation. You can see the agenda on the following link.

The conference is organized within the project “Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Agenda – ICEDA”, co-financed by the European Union and implemented by the “Metamorphosis” Foundation (North Macedonia), the e-Government Academy (Estonia), the Mjaft Movement (Albania), Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (Serbia), NGO 35 mm (Montenegro) and “Open Data Kosovo” (Kosovo).

Link to the original post: The digital gap in Western Balkans can be overcome by the citizens for the citizens | Meta.mk

Share: