Local e-Government

eGA possesses unique competence in offering consultancy and trainings for local government officials in ICT policy and organization-implementation of ICT in local governance. E -democracy on local level is also one of our key themes.
We have also long experience in consulting other countries in building ICT establishment and policy for local governments. As an example, eGA has produced the ICT organization model for Macedonia and also carried out corresponding trainings for local governments of Macedonia. Similar project is now in progress in Serbia.

Why are local governments so important for us?
The main reason is that local governments are closer to the citizens than any other state institution - most services are offered by local governments and also e-Participation take-up is much more actual and important.

One of our activities is also research. In 2006 we carried out a thoroughgoing research for mapping the situation, problems and unused resources regarding the use of ICTs in Estonian local governments.
Our research and previous experience says that one of the main problems in local governments is awareness of top officials about the possibilities of information society. They also lack the overall view of information policy of their country and development plan (vision) for developing Information Society.

Our topics for local government officials are:

General topics:
· Local e-government
· Local  e-democracy (e-participation)

Concrete topics:
· Security and privacy of data and databases
· Record management
· General principles of legal regulation in the field of ICT
· Freedom of Information
· Databases regulation
· ICT strategic planning
· ICT policy
· Principles of Launching, Managing and Auditing Public Sector IT Projects
Our training also contains a field visit to experiment actual e- and m-services being implemented in Estonia.

The general aim of our trainings is to deepen the knowledge, awareness and skills of local governments’ top managers and thereby broaden the ICT-related possibilities, capabilities, efficiency and competitiveness of local governments.

The main target groups of our trainings are top managers (mayors, vice mayors, heads and vice heads of parishes, IT managers) of local governments, because the development of ICT-related activities of all structures depends on their skills and competencies.

Additional information: Kristina Reinsalu, Programme Director on LG programmes, kristina.reinsalu@ega.ee