The training seminar for participants from EaP countries focused on the practical use of e-solutions for local and regional public administration reform.

Lesya Shevchenko presented the example of the platform openenvironment.org.ua which provides public eco-monitoring. Continuing, she explained how Ukrainian citizens usually experience exclusion from such public monitoring services. The reasons for that exclusion are obsolete equipment, lacking data preparation before dissemination, missing qualified personnel, and complicated coordination processes between data providers.

Accordingly, public administrators should aim to negotiate with data providers, collect and organize information that is already available, convert unstructured formats to machine readable formats, and evaluate citizens needs through public consultations. In the future, Shevchenko and her team want to develop API Access Opening, and improve monitoring sources with automatic data transmission.

Naira Arakelyan’s presentation focused on the question of PAR impact in Armenia: Which tangible result does public administration, and especially the concept of Open Government Partership, reform yield in the country? The Republic of Armenia increasingly hires providers of social services through competitive public tendering. Furthermore, the age of employees no longer poses a juridicial barrier for employment in public administration. Building on the Estonian model of e-Governance, Armenia aims to establish an Open Government Partnership.

e-Governance directly involves the citizens both at the national and at the local level of governance. This reform approach rests on the four key concepts transparency, reporting, innovation, and participation. A government that performs highly in these categories can spend its resources more effectively. This leads to more accountability, and consequentially in high public trust. Examples of funtioning e-Governance institutions of the Republic of Armenia are the Electronic Register and the Unified Portal for Online Requests.