Conference overview 2010

Background

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 addressed from both the policy and technical perspectives, how the use of ICT can help improve democracy, transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the public institutions.

The conference took place from September 12th-14th at the hotel Inex Gorica in Ohrid, Macedonia. The event was co-organized by Nextsense and Centre for e-Governance Development for South East Europe (CeGD).

At the conference, members of public institutions: parliament, government, and Official Journal, experts from international organizations and academics who work with information and communication technologies in the legislative process had the opportunity to exchange ideas and views about the ICT in public institutions, analyze good practices and learn from each other’s experiences.

Structure and topics of the Conference

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 lasted two days, starting on Sunday, 12th September with an opening cocktail and ending on Tuesday, 14th September 2010 with the Final remarks and conclusions session.

The program of the conference was structured around three core work-streams:

• ICT in legislative knowledge management
• How ICT can transform the work of parliament and government
• Parliament and Democracy in the Twenty-first century

The conference included three case study presentations about e-government solutions implemented in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, The Government of Albania and the Official Journal of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as two side panels: panel 1 - Parliaments and Governments and panel 2 - Official Journals.

Participants

100 participants from 15 countries in the SEE region attended the e-Democracy Conference 2010, representing public institutions, businesses, academia and international organizations. The public institutions were represented by Parliament delegations led by Parliament Secretary General, Chairs of parliamentary committees with responsibility for ICT, Members of Parliament and Head of ICT department; Government delegations led by Secretary General and Head of ICT department, Official Journal (Publication office) delegations led by General Director and Head of ICT department.

Conclusions

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 will serve as a platform to identify the goals for the further enhancement of the e-Democracy in the region. The insights received from the conference will be incorporated in the e-Democracy Conference Report which will serve as a guideline for the public institutions to be more transparent, accountable and effective in their work.