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Conclusions from the e-Democracy Conference 2010 held in Ohrid, Macedonia

16. November 2010 – 17:49 by Institute for Electronic Participation

This year largest eDemocracy conference in South East Europe took place during 12-14th September, 2010 in Ohrid, Macedonia.

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 welcomed 30 delegations from 15 countries. 100 participants from Parliaments, Governments and Official Journals, as well as representatives from international organizations, business sector and academia were engaged in fruitful and interesting discussions about the role that ICT can play into improving the democracy and transparency of the public institutions. More information about the conference is available at https://www.edemocracy.mk.

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 topics included:

Future and emerging technologies for e-Democracy
Compliance and standards (EU perspective)
How to support “Green IT” initiative in the policy development
ICT in legislative knowledge management
How can information technology transform the way parliaments and governments work
Interoperability in the legislative process
Parliaments and Democracy in the Twenty-first century
State of ICT development in Parliaments
ICT in parliaments current practices
e-Parliaments-The Use of ICT to Improve Parliamentary Processes

The participants at the e-Democracy Conference 2010 agreed that the progress that Macedonia has made in using ICT for improving democracy is an example that all the countries in the region should follow.

The main conclusions that were brought at the e-Democracy Conference 2010:

Macedonia has a very big advantage in implementing ICT in the public institutions compared to the countries in the region. The Macedonian positive experiences regarding the implementation of e-government solutions should be used as a very good example for the other countries in the region. The other countries should follow this example and learn how to apply the Macedonian experience in their countries.
Use of new ICT technologies for empowering citizens to take action in representative democracy especially social networking. Capitalize on the benefits of ICT to function effectively, to interact with the public, and to collaborate with other parliaments around the world.
Regional approach to eDemocracy, permanent regional cooperation and share of vision. SEE region has a unique eParticipation potential in relation to the Western Europe. When we say that the public institutions should collaborate between themselves, we do not only mean collaboration between institutions in the same country, but also regional collaboration that would provide exchange of experiences and good practices. This e-Democracy Conference is an example of how public institutions, politicians, policy makers, experts from international organizations, academia and business can be gathered in order to engage in dialog on the role that ICT can play in improving democracy.
Institutions shall build social trust (transparency, accountability). Transparency and accountability – All public institutions should be transparent and accountable in their work by providing to the citizens not just general information about the institution but also more specific documents and information concerning legislation, budget, activities of members etc.
Transformational government (citizen-centricity, skills). E participation is not a choice: e participation will happen whether you like it or not. A government’s only choice is whether to react defensively to it, or to engage pro actively in ways which create public value.
Planning and management – The public institutions should have a long term vision about their development and based on that vision should develop a strategic plan with included schedules, milestones, resources allocation (human, financial, internal, external etc.)
Political will – Having the necessary political will and commitment is crucial for the successful implementation of e-Democracy. Democracy and ICT themselves are not enough to realize the vision about making public institutions transparent, accountable and accessible unless there is somebody that can carry out that vision and provide the necessary support and leadership for the implementation of that vision.

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 was organized by the The Centre for eGovernance Development for South East Europe (CeGD) and Nextsense with the cooperation of the Assembly of Republic of Macedonia, Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, National Democratic Institute NDI, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the European Commission..

More information about the conference programme, speakers, presentations and media coverage is available at https://www.edemocracy.mk/.

Simon Delakorda, director of the Institute for Electronic Participation, Slovenia and speaker at the e-Democracy Conference 2010. His presentation was entitled “e-Participation – better parliament-to-citizen communication“.

e-Democracy Conference 2010 Ohrid