A capacity building seminar
28-29 March 2012, Trento, Italy

Organisers

>> The OECD LEED Trento Centre

MENA-OECD Governance Programme

in collaboration with the Palestinian Authority and
funded by the Government of Italy

 

 Context / Theme / Seminar / Participants' profile / Agenda and Materials / Contact

 

Context

This capacity building seminar was co-organised by the MENA-OECD Governance Programme, within the context of the MENA-OECD Initiative to Support the Palestinian Authority, and the OECD LEED Trento Centre for Local Development.

 

Theme

Public sectors face challenges linked to new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the knowledge-intensive society, leading governments to rethink traditional administrative structures and functions. To remain competitive, public organisations need to focus on ideas, processes and skills renewal. Governments need to adapt their technology, structures and procedures to respond to multiple demands. This has consequences far beyond governments' increasing use of ICT to deliver public services: it affects the very role of government, the management of knowledge and the delivery of services by public sector institutions. These changes require a fundamental paradigm shift in administrative culture which surpasses simple technological change. It indeed affects the underlying governance arrangements that define and informs state's relationship with the citizens and business.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is in a crucial moment of its e-government history. After having updated its policies and strategies, it is now aligning the ongoing e-government projects to them, while it is using these newly defined frameworks to shape future implementation. The seminar focused on E-government Policies and Implementation in the Palestinian Authority with a selection of themes directly informing the ongoing work between the OECD and the PA and drawing from the priority areas jointly identified during assessment missions and technical consultations. The experiences presented were based on MENA and OECD good practices with particular emphasis on those of Italy and of the Region of Trentino.

The seminar hence provided a practical understanding of e-government policy tools and instruments and addressed the following themes:

a. E-government policies and practices

b. Current challenges of E-government implementation

c. Future policies

 

Seminar

The seminar was structured around a mix of presentations by invited experts and OECD staff followed by roundtable discussions and group work using case studies and concrete experiences.

More than a traditional and conventional vertical capacity building event, the seminar was conceived as aimed at establishing a common platform through which to discuss and exchange concrete experiences among the participants. New and fresh knowledge was expected to be generated through such exchanges and thanks to the rich and diverse combination of professional backgrounds that all the participants (speakers, case study presentations, attendees, etc.) brought.

The outcomes of the seminar were:

	Greater dissemination of the updated E-government Policy Document and the new Implementation Road Map.
	Shared awareness of the horizontal challenges of e-government implementation and of the ways to address them.
	Increased knowledge of Italian good practices in the field of e-government and how to transfer them in the PA.
	Consensus on the next steps to implements an electronic one stop shop in the PA.
	Prioritisation of the most important areas for e-government implementation in medium and long term.

 

Participants' Profile

The capacity building seminar was addressed to participants committed to the topic of innovation and e-government and willing to contribute to build a highly interactive environment by sharing their experiences and learning from each other. Participants included Palestinian and Italian senior policy-makers and practitioners and high level representatives from the academia, civil society and the private sector.

Working language: English.

 

Agenda and Materials

Download the agenda

Presentations Developing a local innovation system: the challenge of Trentino. An historical perspective by Alessandra Proto, Policy Analyst, OECD LEED Trento Centre for Local Development A local approach: the experience of the Autonomous Province of Trento by Sergio Bettotti, Director, Department for ICT & Innovation and Roberto Pizzicannella, I-Gov Unit, Department for ICT & Innovation A wide innovation network by Alessandro Zorer, Chief Executive Officer, Trentino Network, Italy The living lab model: examples and experiences by Aaron Ciaghi, Researcher, FBK Foundation, Trento, Italy The social and economic value of public information by Carlo Batini, Professor, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy Open data in Trentino: opportunities and challenges by Maurizio Napolitano, Researcher, FBK Foundation, Trento, Italy Social networks and digital media: enhancing local participation by Stefano De Paoli, Researcher, Ahref Foundation, Trento, Italy

The group

©OECD LEED

 

Contact

For further information, please contact Alessandra Proto at the OECD LEED Trento Centre or Alessandro Bellantoni at the MENA-OECD Governance Programme.