WhatsApp Counselor (ALTRN0001)

Commitment ID

ALTRN0001

Commitment Title

WhatsApp Counselor

Problem

The Municipal Counselors represent the Voice of the Citizens in the Municipal Decision Making. They should undertake initiatives regarding the local public interest of the City of Tirana. The Council cooperates with other local government and central government bodies, to solve common problems for the benefit of the community. The Municipal Council, to perform its own functions, creates permanent and temporary commissions. The commissions perform tasks for the recognition and implementation of legal acts in different fields of activity of the Municipal Council. There are a lot of issues regarding different areas they represent, social issues of social housing, rents, marginalized groups, youth, finance, enterprises, etc. There is a lack of communication between the Council and the citizens, due to the absence of a formalized way of communication. They receive a large number of informal phone calls, emails, or official letters to be addressed, and the feedback cant be monitored also. 

Status quo

There are no statistics on how the problems are tackled, if there are taken any actions to address them. The members of the Municipal Council use their personal means of communication, they can not be monitored in the way they address the problems they face in they every day work. Meanwhile, the "Successful" stories of the impact of the citizens in the decision making of the council have not a space, or a repository to be announced and published, in order to inspire others to take part and raise their voice. Also there is no information on who the counselors are, how can they liaise in taking action and contributing to an open government, to engage diverse stakeholders.

Action

The commitment entails a round of meetings in every area of the city, representing the counselor to the citizens, CSO's, businesses and every other interested actor, in order to promote the platform dedicated to communication "Whats App Counselor". We will identify the key stakeholders to engage before commencing public meetings.

Therefore we have designed a platform, which will be integrated in the OGP Local window, within the official Website of Municipality of Tirana. There will be described the whole structure of the Council, the name surname, a photo of the counselor and the communication window, where everyone can leave a message, request, official requirement or proposal for different programs, policies or decision making.

Each request will be standardized in order to get the name, surname, representing organization, contacts, and the feedback will be emailed back to them, within 3 days if categorized "Urgent", 15 days if its categorizes as "Normal" Request. The Municipal Council should discuss them in dedicated commissions and together with the responsible department within the Municipality of Tirana. Some of the citizens, may be invited in the meetings of the Council as well, in order to ensure transparency and participation in decision makings. After successful implementation of this commitment, in the round 2, we plan to develop an APP "Talk to the counselor" in order to be more accessible and to have prompt responses.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?

Upon joining the platform the Municipal Council representatives will undergo an orientation program, by the Technical Department of the Municipality, that will introduce them to the rules and requirements, get them familiarized with the way the platform works; the platform will send them notifications to their official emails; the deadlines of the responses); required feedback and how they can deliver request to the agencies. During this period, we also will identify how we will showcase the outcomes of this process, in some dedicated windows in the platform to testify the impact of the citizens in the different policy areas.

What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?

The strategic vision that will guide the actions and this commitment relates to, is the inclusive process which ensures the engagement of the key actors both within and outside government. In order to ensure such support, all relevant stakeholders, particularly citizens and CSOs, must participate in the development or improvement of the policies, programs, budgets, and every area of decision making in the city. We will provide statistics and real public participation, which can be measured by some indicators such as how many groups are involved, how many requests are addresses, the level of the satisfaction of the stakeholders, their support. The achievement of this commitment offers a wide range of information to the Council, helps in monitoring the requests, publicizes changes of the regulations due to citizens impact. The values this commitment relates to are as beyond mentioned: • Public participation and inclusion: Counselors seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to more responsive, innovative and effective governance; • Technology and innovation: It embraces the importance of providing citizens with open access to technology, while having a direct impact on the decision making.

Primary Policy Area

Inclusion, Social Accountability

Primary Sector

Cross-sectoral, Legislature

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?