Improvement of the Local Level Communal Services (MK0115)

Status quo or problem addressed by the commitment: There are not any sufficient tools to provide two-way communication between the local self-government and citizens. The citizens need efficient communication, particularly when it is about communal service delivery issues. Also, there is a need for the local self-government and local public corporations to adjust their operation based on the citizens’ needs, as a result to their reaction to a certain problem. Main objective: Improved quality of services in competence of the local self-government through involving citizens in issues solution. Brief description of commitment: Establishment of a two-way communication mechanism between citizens and local administration in resolution of issues in competence of the local self-government. As a tool to provide mutual communication, citizen use their smart phones to photograph the problem and forward it through an application directly to the municipality. Citizens also can follow what the competent bodies have done in respect of the issue solution. Once the application has been installed in their smart phones, citizens can have an insight in all reported problems of their interest in the municipality, and can send their reactions to institutions. The system should not only be understood as a way for sending complaints and their solution or not, but also as a possibility for the citizens to be active factors in the area they live and work. Through the smart system for issue reporting, information on the municipal services delivery will be also submitted to consumer organizations which can address municipalities with requests and recommendations in compliance with their legal competences. OPG challenge addressed by the commitment: Application of innovative tools provides a two-way communication between the local self-government and citizens to the benefit of providing efficient public services. Reference to the global objectives of sustainable development: Reference to the Objective 6 “Ensuring accessible and sustainable water and sanitary services management for all”, Target 6.1: By 2030, universal and fair access to be provided to safe and available drinking water and Target 6.2: By 2030, access to adequate and fair hygiene and sanitary services to be provided for all with a special point to the women’s and girls’ needs in those vulnerable situations. The measures of this commitments will contribute for improvement of the communal services quality through active citizens’ involvement in identification of the needs for sustainable water and communal service use. Relevance: Improvement of the public services quality through a direct involvement of citizens. Ambition: Increased transparency and accountability at the local level, encouraging citizens’ involvement and better quality of local public services.

For Commitment details, please see the IRM reports: Macedonia Mid-Term Report 2016-2018 and Macedonia End-of-Term Report 2016-2018