AZERBAIJAN TEAM ROPED IN TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY

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. 

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: