Even though circumstances may diff er on national level, the activities leading to establishment of inclusive eGovernment services in the Western Balkans countries follow a similar pattern. They are based on the need of overcoming the legacies of the past totalitarian systems and the ills of transition, and the desire and commitment of the peoples of the region to improve their daily lives based on the development of
democratic societies and integration within the European Union.
Phase 1
Assessment of existing national eGovernment related policies and strategies, using them as baseline.
• If the documents do not incorporate commitments for building and maintaining inclusive e-services, then this dimension should be added to them appropriately.
• If the documents do incorporate such commitments, both decision makers and the general public should be made aware of these accepted obligations.
Phase 2
Alignment with the internationally accepted framework for development.
• Signing and ratifi cation of all the relevant international documents, esp. the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disability by the national governments and national parliaments, respectively.
• Harmonizing the legislation with the relevant EU directives, or enacting such legislation where it does not exists. Note that the EU directives are not blueprints for laws, and that laws which were based on just translating the directives have proven totally non-consequential in the region and elsewhere. The directives provide guidelines for the national laws, which need to be enacted through a regular legislative process based on the local context.
Phase 3
Updating the national legal frameworks, through a transparent, inclusive and participatory public process:
• Incorporating the stipulations from the international documents on UN and EU level.
Phase 4
Legislative changes should also include adopting sets of standards for eGovernment development on national level. As in the case of Recommendations for ICT standards in the civil service of Republic of Macedonia, these standards must be based on the European Interoperability Framework for Pan-European eGovernment Services, following the general principles of: accessibility, multilingualism, security, privacy, subsidiarity and use of open standards.
Applicable standards include:
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative -
WAI Guidelines
• ISO/IEC TR 19766:2007 Information technology -- Guidelines for the design of icons and symbols accessible to all users, including the elderly and persons with disabilities.
• ISO/IEC TR 19765:2007 Information technology -- Survey of icons and symbols that provide access to functions and facilities to improve the use of information technology products by the elderly and persons with disabilities.
• ISO/IEC 17799:2005 Information technology -- Security techniques -- Code of practice for information security management
• ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Information technology -- Security techniques -- Information security management systems – Requirements
Phase 5
Establishing mechanism to provide continuous monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of inclusive eGovernment principles based on criteria and indicators used on EU level.
Phase 6
Allocating resources—funds (based on national budget, local sources and international funds, including public private partnership initiatives) and human
capacities—for implementing inclusive eGovernment projects.
Realization of inclusive eGovernment projects, through transparent and participative process, accompanied with precise measurement of the expenses and the impact.
