Times Of Swaziland: AZERBAIJAN TEAM ROPED IN TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY

AZERBAIJAN TEAM ROPED IN TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY
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Mthunzi Mdluli on 03/11/2022 08:51:00


MBABANE – The Ministry of ICT is keen to have an Azerbaijan team assist
Eswatini in promoting public service delivery.
This was said by Under Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communication
and Technology (ICT), Macanjana Motsa, yesterday at Royal Villas, during a
workshop on advancing public service delivery. She said the delegates had come
to identify areas where they could assist the ministry to improve its service
delivery mechanism. Motsa indicated that Azerbaijan was recognised as one of the
leading countries in the world in public service delivery. She said because of
that, Eswatini could learn from their experience. She said the ministry’s
mandate was to create an enabling environment for electronic service delivery,
through infrastructure development, systems development, policy and legislative
frameworks.
Motsa further said the project of improving service delivery started in 2019
after the Minister of ICT, Princess Sikhanyiso’s visit to Azerbaijan. “I
wish to point out that today’s event is a result of the great leadership of
our Minister, Her Royal Highness. This journey began in 2019 after she paid a
visit to Azerbaijan and had the opportunity to see some of the Azerbaijan
Service Assessment and Network (ASAN) service centres operating in
Azerbaijan,” she stated. She said upon the minister’s return from
Azerbaijan, she presented the idea to the ministry and later started running
with it by engaging Azerbaijan counterparts and some of the local stakeholders
within government. “These discussions resulted in the development of a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was approved by Cabinet. The agreement
is now only awaiting to be signed by both countries. After all these
developments, the ministry then extended an invitation to Azerbaijan to come to
Eswatini for this assessment,” she narrated.
The US however, stated that the ministry took so long to get to such a stage
because of many reasons such as the COVID-19 pandemic. She said it delayed a lot
of meaningful progress for many countries. She said as a ministry, they were
positive that they could still fast-track the pace in the implementation of the
noble idea since COVID-19 had now normalised. Motsa stated that Eswatini had
different ministries, departments and agencies that played a significant role in
service delivery. She also stated that they had some external partners such as
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and others who assist the ministry
and country at large with such development programmes.
“I will therefore encourage our presenters who will be representing the
different institutions to clearly clarify their roles and mandates during their
presentations so that our visiting team will understand the Eswatini model. This
will help them as they assist us in shaping our model to become a more effective
one,” said Motsa. Nonhlanhla Tsabedze, Programme Officer on service delivery
in the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development, said it was
mandated to create an enabling environment in terms of service delivery for all
of emaSwati.
Decentralisation
Tsabedze said since the decentralisation of services was constitutional; the
ministry was working tirelessly in ensuring that each inkhundla had a centre of
service delivery in the future. She further it was important for government
services to be decentralised at all levels. She further said the ministry was
planning to have a new additional inkhundla service centre at Kwaluseni. She
said the reason was due to the congestion in Manzini, where people got public
services. Bongani Ndlangamandla, the Head of e-Government Service, said their
ultimate goal was to ensure that e-services were closer to tinkhundla centres
and easily accessed by emaSwati. He further said to play an oversight role,
ministries and departments should utilise ICT to improve service delivery.
He said they were also working hard to promote the use of e-government in public
and enable access to such services 24/7. Mahammadali Bayram Oglu Mahammadali,
who is the Head of Division International Relation Department encouraged
Eswatini on the use of social media. He said it helped various ministries in
getting feedback from the citizens and realising where they can improve their
service delivery. He also said the use of social media  promoted digital
literacy.