Korea Institute for Development Strategy (KDS) team was dispatched to Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, from February 14th to 25th to conduct a primary field research for KOICA’s project named, ‘Project for the implementation of the electronic platform(e-people) for a public participation and fighting corruption in Tunisia.’The aim of the fieldwork was to form a local Task Force Team (TFT) by analysing the key stakeholder and to give an overall introduction on the project and task of each TFT members.To achieve this goal, the workshop and kick-off meeting targeting local officials were held for better understanding of the current environment in Tunisia and strengthening a cooperative system between the Korean experts and the Tunisian government.
At the first week, the team conducted stakeholder interviews. The Korean expert team visited to KOICA office, Tunisian Minister's Office, National Authority for the Fight Against Corruption (NAFC), the Central Bureau of Relationship with Citizens (CBRC), e-Government Bureau (e-gov Unit), National Computer Center (CNI), National Digital Certification Authority (ANCE), UNDP, etc. to explain the outline of the project. We heard of the current status of Tunisia and further discussed the direction and cooperation for the future.
On February 19th, the workshop was held at the National School of Administration (ENA) in Tunisia, aiming at working-level practitioners from relevant agencies. At workshop, we share a brief introduction of the project and the needs and expectations of the project requirements. Tunisian stakeholders actively expressed their opinions and comments on the e-people system. We presented the Project Design Matrix(PDM) for performance management of the project and distributed a questionnaire to the participants to measure the level of influence and interests of potential stakeholders, all of which will be used as source of baseline survey.
In addition, on 23th, MOU between the Tunisian Minister's Office and Korea’s ACRC was held in the Tunisian Minister's Office. On 24th, the kick-off ceremony of this project was held and finished in great success.
At the kick-off meeting, Mr. Kamel Ayari (Minister of the Public service, good governance and anti-corruption), Mr. Khaled Sellami (Head of e-government and anti-corruption Bureau), Mr. Chawki Tabib (Chief of NAFC), Ms. Faiza Limam who is going to build and operate the next e-People system, and many other key stakeholders from the Tunisian government attended.
From Korean side, Mr. Kim jongseok, Korean embassador in Tunisia, Mr. Kim tae-eung (ACRC director), Ms. Yun jihyeon, Representative of KOICA office in Tunisia, and other consultants from KDS and VTW attended this meeting, and celebrated the first step of establishment of the e-people system in Tunisia.
As a part of the KOICA-ACRC cooperation, this project will implement a new national e-People system for the people of Tunisia.It will establish a construction plan during the first half of 2016, and based on the results of construction plan, it will develop the system from the second half until the end of 2017.
To promote this project, we composed the TFT centering the e-government unit, CBRC and NAFC's key personnel. On the Korean side, VTW and KDS and other business group consisting of consultants of professional partners/agencies will proceed the project with consultations and will develope master plan through cooperating with Tunisian civil organizations and relevant international organizations.
Also, within this consulting period, 10 BRC organizations will be selected as pilot organizations and participate in this project.
Korea's e-people system that handles the convergence of public opinions and civil petitions is a symbolic system of democracy and information-oriented Korean society among many e-government systems operated in Korea. It was awarded the Excellence Award of government knowledge management in the UN Public Executive Awards in 2011 (UN Public Service Award). This project aims to provide an e-People system including various applications for civil petitions, policy proposals and other likewise lifestyle-based online services that receive corruption reports and expedite them transparently.
Through the best practices of Korea’s e-government system, Tunisian citizens will be able to see the results and processing status of the complaints and reports they submit online.
Finally, KDS team will further endeavor to raise awareness of Tunisian people to understand the importance of the efficiency and good governance, and increase the public credibility on the Tunisian government through expanding the leverage of the public service. We will do our utmost to meet the enthusiasm and expectation of the Tunisian people for democracy and good governance.
