The Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a state-owned human capital management agency responsible, among others, for training of civil servants. To promote and build capacities for utilization of ICT in BiH Public Administration, CSA develop and organize awareness programs for BH public administration top management, courses for professional IT personnel and computer literacy trainings for civil servants and other employees.

Policy Context

In 2006, Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the National Strategy of Public Administration Reform and Action Plan 1 with measures for its implementation. The objective is to develop capacities for efficient coordination, as well as for the coherent creation and adoption of policies for the purpose of building, strengthening/consolidation and harmonization of general systems in the area of public finances, human resources, administrative procedure, information technologies and institutional communication. ICT utilization in public administration is one of the pillars in public administration reform, and these documents introduce measures to be taken in that matter.

Description of target users and groups

Public Administration employees.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

Under the Strategy and Action Plan, Civil Service Agency is responsible for overall training of civil servants throughout the following initiatives: - High-level seminars on eGovernment will be organized to ensure a common understanding of the ICT potential in the reform of the administration, and to secure the active commitment of senior management to support the introduction of IT. - In order to have professional and capable IT staff, an adequate budget for continued professional education of IT staff is secured. An analysis of training needs is introduced, so training offers are based on actual needs. - Increased levels of computer literacy of civil servants reduce the need for IT help-desk support; indeed, computer literate civil servants are a precondition toward the overall goal of introducing e-Government. CSA is responsible for continuous work on IT literacy: organizing a standardized training program (according to ECDL – European Computer Driving License program); introducing e-Learning; performing IT literacy benchmarking; and raising awareness of the importance of self training.

Main results, benefits and impacts

- Decreased support costs through improved service. - Increased productivity and greater technical self-sufficiency of IT specialists.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - The top management's awareness of the role that eGovernment systems are to play, and how they are to provide support to government agency's decision-making, policy development, and administration and management, is crucial to successful eGovernment development. Commitment to eGovernment development must begin with the top management. Lesson 2 - In order to have professional IT staff capable of running and supporting eGovernment projects it is necessary to provide additional training in needed skills like project management, IT security management, and some specific technical training. Lesson 3 - Civil servants need to have basic computer literacy to operate information systems in public administration. Scope: National