An IT application will lead to public services modernization

IT specialists joined in a boot camp to develop an application that will collect users’ feedback on public services quality. At the same time, public institutions will use this innovative tool to evaluate how their operational procedures meet people real needs. Public servants will adjust the delivering of the services to the recommendations and suggestions collected from beneficiaries, therefore the services will be human-centered designed.

The bootcamp is organized by the Moldova Social Innovation Laboratory (MiLab) – a joint project of UNDP Moldova and State Chancellery – in partnership with the Moldovan Association of ICT Companies and National Chamber of Social Insurance and will last for two weeks. The initiative is also supported by the Slovak Government.  

“The application that we started to develop today will contribute to the identification of the challenges needed to be addressed for quality service improvement, as well as to the evaluation of the steps to be undertaken by public institutions for modernizing the services they provide”, said Valentin Guznac, the Deputy General Secretary of the Moldovan Government. 

For developing an efficient tool for both users and service providers, MiLab experts conducted a series of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews within seven branches of National Chamber of Social Insurance situated in Chisinau, Ialoveni, Cahul, Balti and Comrat. The research team used different methodologies to achieve deep and nuanced understandings on various aspects of user experience, and focused on respondents’ attitudes, behaviours, and challenges with regards to providing feedback (for target users) and integrating it into public policies and programs (for government respondents).

“The ethnographic research allowed us to understand the citizens’ expectations on the way this tool should look like, on what communication channels should we use, on how this evaluation will be integrated within internal business processes. We’ve worked with the elderly, who are among the more marginalized and harder-to-reach populations in terms of access to information, access to Internet and electronic services. The idea is that if we meet the specific needs of this category, we’ll be able to satisfy other’s categories needs as well”, mentioned Laura Grecu, president of the National Chamber of Social Insurance.

Based on the research results, the developer teams need to propose various IT solutions. The participants at the boot camp will be guided by mentors. At the end a professional jury will assess the solutions presented. The best IT solution will be awarded with 10,000 USD offered by UNDP Moldova. The prize will be offered for the development and implementation of the proposed solution.

One of the key activities of the Moldova Social Innovation Lab, founded three years ago, is to support the Government in the process of reform of the public services, especially by promoting design-thinking methodologies based on users’ needs and expectations.

”Finding, developing and testing solutions together with citizens are at the core of our approach and, in our opinion, is the key of success for an efficient government process”, said Valeriu Prohnitchi, policy specialist at UNDP Moldova.

The prototype of the tool will be developed in two weeks, but the final application will be launched in November 2017.