Europe & CIS

In 2002, the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, UNDP, Sweden and other supporters launched the Electronic Southeastern Europe Agenda Initiative (eSEE, www.eseeinitiative.org), with the aim of improving cooperation within the Western Balkans and bringing the region closer to the EU. UNDP has provided multifaceted support to eSEE, regionally and nationally in close cooperation with other supporters such as the Stability Pact, European Commission, as well as bilateral and other donors. Specifically, UNDP has been supporting the eSEE Secretariat hosted by the UNDP country office in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the executive and coordinating arm of the eSEE Initiative.

UNDP has led the development of the eSEE Common Guidelines aimed at assisting the eSEE countries in the formulation of their Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration (NISP). By now, all eSEE participating countries have formulated and adopted (except for Serbia and Montenegro) their NISP. The recent external evaluation of the progress made has been positive. Now there is an urgent need to help expand the capacity of institutions and organizations to design and implement e-governance initiatives by developing local competence as the key to successful policy implementation across all governance levels and sectors.

·         Developed and localized e-governance educational programmes for public administration schools to nurture e-leaders among civil/municipal servants (e-governance curriculum);

·         Developed and delivered training and advisory services for end-user groups, including women, in specific e-governance areas to expand e-leadership beyond central government;

·         Awareness raised among policy-makers and e-governance practitioners about e-Transparency, e-Accountability, e-Participation, and e-Inclusion instruments to promote democratic governance practices (workshops, Design and Implementation Guide for e-Participation and e-Inclusion initiatives);

The first set of activities will be to create new locally available training opportunities for central government and municipal officials in e-governance at public administration and management schools. The second set of activities will focus on improving people’s understanding of e-Democracy. It will be done by raising awareness of the use of ICTs in the area of government transparency, participatory democracy, and social and economic inclusion. A third set of activities will focus on the use of the Internet-supported Best Practice exchange and transfer mechanisms in order to ensure a constant update and sharing of e-governance innovations. A dedicated webpage will be created to facilitate Best Practice replication, which will also host a platform for virtual networking among e-governance educators, ICT professionals and other e-leaders.

UNDP COs, eSEE Agenda Working Group, E-Governance Academy