The EU-funded ICEDA project was implemented by Metamorphosis Foundation (North Macedonia) as the lead of the project, together with the e-Governance Academy (Estonia), Levizja Mjaft! (Albania), CRTA – Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability and Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (Serbia), NGO 35mm (Montenegro), ODK – Open Data Kosovo (Kosovo), with the Ministry for Information Society and Administration (North Macedonia) as an associated partner.
Through the Small grants scheme, ICEDA awarded sub-grants to 29 CSOs, 15 of which established the 16 e-government support centers for citizens; while the remaining 14 worked on advocacy activities in improving policies connected to DA related issues and advancing the e-service design and delivery. Below are only part of the success stories and their testimonies.
LOT 1: E-government support centers
At the end of the sub-grant support and project, a total of 16 e-government support centers were established and operated in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Up until July 2022, these centers have assisted a total of 31.770 citizens in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
In Albania, the European Youth Association (EYA) in strong partnership with the Albanian Post Office, operated with their mobile center for citizen support in the post office premises in Elbasan and Durres. In their work they have encountered many cases of citizens not owning or not knowing how to use digital tools, and were assisted by them in opening personal accounts for e-services and using e-services to obtain certificates, authorizations form institutions, health cards, copies of property cards, etc. Until the end of their grant support, they have supported around 17.100 people and trained over a 100 young people who were volunteering in the mobile center. Their media campaign for promotion of e-services is also an asset and is helping them in obtaining their goal.
What are the things that never would have happened if you did not do them through the ICEDA grant?
“We are happy to share with you a few moments of our work.
- The Elbasan Postal Office had the opportunity to give to much more citizens help in using digital services because of our volunteers’ team helping citizens and assisting them to all steps in the procedure. We had many cases of citizens not having capabilities to use Smartphone or not having a Smartphone at all, that were assisted by our team in opening personal accounts for electronic services and using e-services to obtain certificates and authorizations form institutions. At the postal office you can meet different people and groups from kids to 80+ and their needs sometimes can be easily solved with a few clicks from our tablets.
- Another thing that would never happen without ICEDA grant is the increase of capacities of young citizens through training and volunteering for the community at the postal offices.
- Our volunteers stand at Durres Postal Office had been very useful during post pandemic in late summer and autumn helping the citizens to fulfill all request form Smartphone or tablets. We had a case of a diverse ability citizen at our stand asking for his health card, our team assisted him to have it in his Smartphone every time he needs through the electronic service “Health Card”. All Albanian citizens can generate a health card with electronic stamp with full legal validity, after having previously applied for a Health Card on the e-albania portal.
- We had many cases of citizens that were helped for copies of Property card consultation because up to 31.12.2021 the government allowed a Real Estate property re-evaluation and many citizens were informed through this service they can check the actual value of their property .” – European Youth Association
In Kosovo, Democracy plus is working on fostering a culture of citizen engagement and using technology to bridge the communication gap between citizens and local authorities. Through ICEDA, they supported citizens in using their platform ndreqe / popravi, available for use in all 38 municipalities in Kosovo which allow citizens to report seven categories of problems in four short steps. In short, it is a quick, efficient and attractive way to document a public service complaint and build a culture of active citizenry. Until the end of their grant, they have managed to train and support over a 100 people from Kosovo on how to use the platform to report municipal problems. Since the existence of the platform, so far the citizens have submitted over 000 complaints, while over 1.800 have been resolved.
What are the things that never would have happened if you did not do them through the ICEDA grant?
“The greatest success related to the ICEDA grant is the opportunity given to advocate for e-government centers in the local level, which are yet to be formally established in Kosovo. Given our organization’s mission to implement democratic practices through information technology, the ICEDA grant has given us the opportunity to advocate for something that would improve citizens livelihood even after the project is finished. We were able to present this request even during electoral campaign of local elections in 2021, ensuring that even the new mayors prioritize digitalization of services to their constituents.
Additionally, with the support of the ICEDA grant we have been able to maintain, update and improve our longstanding platform – ndreqe.com/popravi.org, which continues to give citizens a medium to report their complaints and requests to local authorities.” – Democracy Plus
In Montenegro, Roma youth organization “Walk with us-Phiren Amenca” operated with their center called Digital classroom for Roma pupils in the primary school “Božidar Vukovic Podgoričanin” which has the highest percentage of Roma pupils in Montenegro. This center serves as a space for assisting Roma pupils in following online classes, learning how to use digital tools, e-enrolling in high-school education, doing extracurricular (these activities are done through the Digital club which operates within the e-center digital classroom), but also for training teachers on using e-services (e-diary and e-health) for which the CSO has developed a platform with digital lessons for teachers which is currently in the phase of updating with resources. Until the end of their grant, they reached at least 950 people and directly supported around 180 people and pupils for using different e-services. Moreover, Phiren Amenca became the Winner of the EU Award for Roma Integration for their e-government support centre opened through the ICEDA project.
What are the things that never would have happened if you did not do them through the ICEDA grant?
“In Phiren Amenca’s project ,,E-centar Digital Classroom” three things would never happen without ICEDA grant:
- First one is that our organization would not have the chance to work extensively with teaching staff from all three regions of Montenegro simultaneously.
- Second one is that the platform with digital lessons wouldn’t exist in Montenegro as unified platform dedicated to teachers.
- Third one is that the Digital club wouldn’t be open without the equipment purchased within this grant.
Phiren Amenca is happy to be a part of this grant and to contribute to Digital Agenda.” – Phiren Amenca
In North Macedonia, the Association for Citizen’s Tolerance and Cooperation (ACTAC) operated a physical center in Prilep, one online and one mobile info-center (covering 20 locations) to support citizens in using e- services. Until the end of their grant, they managed to assist over 1070 people from Prilep and the local villages. In their experience, the majority of the citizens are seeking assistance in issuing online vaccination certificates, e-services available through the agency for real-estate cadastre, Central register, State archive, etc. They also actively worked on a promotional and advocacy campaign by conducting advocacy meetings and creation of educational multimedia products, and sharing them on their social media channels. Furthermore, due to the advocacy efforts towards the representatives from the Municipality Prilep, the municipality reinstated and improved the e-service for reporting a problem.
What are the things that never would have happened if you did not do them through the ICEDA grant?
“First, we met a team from Metamorphosis, dedicated and excellent for cooperation, with whom, through the trainings we had with representatives and educators from Estonia (we saw excellent examples and achievements in the area of e-services in Estonia, and this motivates us even more to dedicate ourselves and stimulate our municipalities and institutions with which we cooperate to improve and introduce e-services.
During the meetings and conversations we had with the representatives of the municipality of Prilep, we managed to place a service on their website – Report a problem, which had not been there for a long time. We managed to “persuade” some of the representatives of the municipalities from the Pelagonia region to place a link from uslugi.gov.mk on their websites, in this way we believe that we have even increased the number of citizens who will use e-services.
We visited many villages and settlements, where we reached different target groups, presented them with e-services and their benefits. As a team and our acquaintances, who previously did not use electronic services, we began to replace many counter services with electronic ones. With the preparation and posting of vaccination leaflets on social networks, we began to be recognized as an organization that works with e-services, and citizens began to contact us for help and advice on electronic certificates.
As an organization, through the project and the trainings from ICEDA, we have mastered new topics that are quite useful both for the project work and for the organization.” – Association for Citizen’s Tolerance and Cooperation
In North Macedonia, Rural Coalition are the pioneers in the country when it comes to promoting digitalization in the rural areas. They were managing a physical center in Kicevo to support framers and agricultural family in using e-services for agricultural holdings. Until the end of their grant, they have supported at least 870 citizens (rural population, mostly farmers) on how to obtain their movement permits electronically or using the e-services system. They have also committedly worked on building the capacities of the over 220 citizens from the rural population through over 10 field trainings in 10 rural areas in 5 regions. Through their advocacy efforts, they have also managed to get adopted several recommendations as part of the National Action Plan for OGP (2021-2023) and participate in their monitoring and implementation.
What are the things that never would have happened if you did not do them through the ICEDA grant?
“If there was not the ICEDA project, we in the Rural Coalition believe that digitalization in the agriculture and rural development sector would still remain on the sidelines as a topic that is usually avoided and on which very little real work is being done in the field. Namely, agriculture is considered as one of the sectors that has the most difficulty accepting changes, especially when it comes to digitalization of processes and electronic communication both with institutions and within the sector itself. But, this in no way means that we should not work on this topic, so Rural Coalition through the project is one of the first civil society organizations that speak and practically work in the field with farmers in order to increase trust of this category of citizens in the electronic communication with the institutions and the electronic issuance of documents. This is possible because of the ICEDA grant.
If there wasn’t ICEDA project, we would not have had the opportunity 2 commitments that are directly related to increasing the volume and quality of local e-services to enter the National Action Plan for Open Government Partnership for the period 2021-2023 where together with the institutions in the sector we will work on fulfilling the commitments and bringing the e-services closer to the rural population, including categorization of the electronic services of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy and their placement on the national portal for e-services – https://uslugi.gov.mk/ .
If there wasn’t ICEDA project, there would still not be detailed instructions for the electronic application for subsidies and receiving e-services through the national portal uslugi.gov.mk. Thanks to the ICEDA project Rural Coalition has the first 5 local field coordinators who act as direct logistical and technical support to farmers when applying for and receiving electronic services.
If there was not ICEDA project, we would not have had over 70 trained representatives of over 30 local associations who are fully trained to support the processes of providing e-services on field, but also we would not have over 260 farmers from 5 different planning regions (Southwest, Southeast, Polog, Pelagonia and Northeast) that can independently communicate electronically with institutions and receive electronic information and services
Finally, the best part comes to the end of our story, and that is, if it was not ICEDA project, there would not be open the first local e-center for support of local and rural population, the center which support and facilitate the processes of implementation of the Digital Agenda, but also the center which brings Digital Agenda closer to the local and rural population through direct technical and logistical support for electronic communication with institutions and municipalities. ” – Rural Coalition
LOT 2: Advocacy Initiatives for the Digital Agenda
At the end of the sub-grant support, a total of 14 advocacy initiatives were implemented in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, marking many successes but also challenges encountered on the way.
In Serbia, the Center for democratic development Europolis supported the Municipality of Opovo to design and enact e-Government Local Acton Plan (LAP) which comprises of priorities for the introduction of new e-services and improvement of existing ones based on the needs assessment conducted with the support of ICEDA project. The LAP also contains a timeline for accompanying activities, responsibilities within the municipal team and budgetary requirements. Based on this plan and assessment as well as the available project funds, 2 local e-services were introduced, namely Ask your councillor and eInbox.
In North Macedonia, the Center for social innovation Blink 42-21, additional to the municipalities that already implemented the mCommunity digital tool, ensured its implementation in the Municipality Aerodrom and Municipality Kriva Palanka which resulted in the registration of 2387 citizens from these municipalities who could use their local e-services. At the same time, within the framework of the ICEDA sub-grant, Blink 42-21 ensured 1200 more users registered for the remaining municipalities that use the tool. This tool provides the citizens of the municipalities that use it to electronically communicate with their local administrations, to issue complaints and follow the progress of their complaints, as well as to use certain local e-services. Within this sub-grant, Blink 42-21 also introduced 13 new e-services on the platform (reporting a problem, submission of proposals to the municipalities, e-subsidies) ensuring a transparent and uncorrupted way of distribution of the resources and fixing local issues. Their efforts also resulted in six policy recommendations related to the provision of local e-services that were communicated with national and local stakeholders. After the end of the project, these recommendations resulted in one more municipality providing mCommunity to their citizens, namely the Municipality Bitola.
In North Macedonia, the Youth Educational Forum organised a three-day student hackathon for the creation of digital tools for the needs of the students, which resulted with the development of the digital tool “Students2Students” purposed to be incorporated within the iKnow system of the University St. Cyril and Methodious. This tool provides students with an easier, transparent and more efficient way to facilitate their communication with the professors and report complaints to the student ombudsman which as a body should reinforce the professors’ responsiveness. This tool also promotes the credibility of the student ombudsman and enables a more serious approach to these types of incidents of unresponsive professors which in the past have made students miss deadlines for job applications or graduate studies as they lacked a complete transcript of records. The sub-grantee advocated for the adoption of this tool as well as specific recommendations for the improvement of the digital aspects of the Higher education strategy created by the National Council for higher education through personal meetings and a panel discussion, however their adoption is still to be seen.
In Montenegro, Parents’ initiative titled ‘Parents on the Agenda’ advocated for better local e-services for parents. They did this through organizing an Open Day during which representatives of institutions answered citizens’ questions, and among other activities, launched a podcast Parental Lexicon where they discussed several different topics related to e-services for the families in Montenegro. In addition, surveys were organized to assess the needs of parents for specific services to be digitalized, but also to select the current best service provided electronically by the institutions for the benefit of parents. Their initiative for a change in practice regarding the issuance of certificates for enrolment in kindergarten was adopted after the conclusion of their project, meaning that both parents and legal guardians could obtain certificates of children’s health needed for kindergarten enrolment, electronically.
