Education of public and civil sector representatives are the key to developing eGovernment on the local level

In order to further improve the provision of electronic services to citizens and local businesses, trainings were organized in Kragujevac, Čačak, Novi Sad, Niš and Šabac for heads of city and municipal administrations and officers in charge of implementing procedures within the framework of eGovernment and electronic office operations, in the period from October to December 2022. The trainings were carried out as part of the project "Establishment of the Local eGovernment Index (LEI) for local government units in the Republic of Serbia", which is implemented by NALED and financed by the European Union.

The focus was on topics such as familiarization with the prerequisites for the development of eGovernment, the necessary infrastructure, the electronic portal, the use of electronic signatures, seals and the unique eMailbox. Special attention is paid to information security and data protection in order to avoid the potential danger of hacker attacks, and to keep citizens' data safe. More than 100 officials from 47 cities and municipalities in Serbia passed a total of 5 trainings for local governments.

Along with local governments, trainings were also organized for civil society organizations in order to establish an open dialogue with citizens' representatives, to look at potential challenges when it comes to monitoring the development of eGovernment at the local level and possible ways to increase the degree of civil sector participation in the improvement of various electronic services they provide to cities and municipalities. So far, 4 trainings have been organized throughout Serbia, with more than 20 participating organizations from different cities.

As a reminder, the LEI index will be presented in the form of an interactive map of Serbia on the website www.lei.rs and this innovative tool will enable citizens to monitor the level of eGovernment development in their town, at any time with a few clicks, and decision makers to gain insight into areas that need to be further improved. It is also planned to publish a Guide to best practices in the field of eGovernment development at the local level.

The LEI index has so far been recognized as an important tool with the potential to regularly monitor the state of eGovernment development at the local level in the Republic of Serbia, and it was proposed that it becomes part of the Action Plan of the eGovernment Development Program for the period 2023-2025, which is expected to be adopted. This means that the LEI methodology will be used as an official indicator of the level of development of electronic services in cities and municipalities.