Gov 2.0 – New Technologies and Development

Milica Begovic – Radojevic, team leader for Economy and Environment at UNDP Montenegro, spoke about new technologies and development during the third session of the Conference.

Milica stressed out that citizens have the knowledge and skills to contribute to Government’s policy and governance. She also pointed out that UNDP is trying to create a safe space in the region for innovation in managing and bringing government close to citizens.

Later on she spoke about a number of projects implemented by UNDP, in the region and beyond.

In Montenegro, UNDP connected with local communities to help gather information about popular tourist sites and entered them into Foursquare. This way, tourists are given easy access to important information that had previously been “scattered” and less available. One of the things that bothered tourists most in Montenegro is noise. This summer, UNDP launches Project Noise Watch, which will alert authorities whenever the noise level rises above permitted. Also, a Crowdsourcing Waste Managements Solutions project was launched in Montenegro. It should enable citizens to inform authorities on locations with unauthorized and unwanted waste and make them work together on solving this problem.

On Cyprus, talking with youth organizations, UNDP came up with the idea to take pictures of graffiti all over the country and learn the meaning of the graffiti. This idea produced a “video game” in which one can see common words (“Shared Words“) between Greek and Turkish communities on Cyprus, through which these communities are coming closer.

3,000 families in Bosnia and Herzegovina have no access to electricity. UNDP is trying to find a solution by launching the “Renewable Energy Challenge,” so people can submit their ideas as possible solutions to this problem.

In the end, Milica noted that the power of government institutions should be combined with the chaotic world of NGOs, activism and all those who are using new technologies and have the knowledge that can contribute to better practices of government. We should be careful not to create a “digitized version of bureaucracy” but to create all IT solutions in a usable way so that those who participate in government can use them easily and for common good.