Elbasan 17 October 2018: Municipality of Elbasan is the first pilot municipality to test the functioning of the One –Stop Shop Information System (OSSIS) developed by STAR2 project. This is a direct response to the demand for quality public services for citizens reducing time, bureaucracy and distance.

The establishment of One Stop Shops is one of the components of Support to the Consolidation of the Administrative and Territorial Reform project (STAR2).

Elbasan is one of the three pilot municipalities (Elbasan, Polican, Pogradec) which advanced the development of One Stop Shop software design. During this process, more than 70 administrative services are catalogued, tested and validated. The OSSIS will be integrated and access direct information from the existing systems such as local tax administration, civil registry, businesses and licenses registries, and the municipal portals.

UNDP Country Director Limya Eltayeb underlined: “The adoption of such an innovative system and the operation of a good IT program alone cannot give the full solution. The new system represents a change in the work culture that requires both citizens' awareness to use it and commitment by municipal employees to learn and use the system in perfection. The modernization of service delivery through technology use is not a goal per se, it is about better meeting citizens’ expectations, reducing bureaucracy and procedures, increasing the accountability and transparency of local administration work, and raising further citizens’ trust and satisfaction towards public administration”.

By the end of 2019, 49 municipalities across Albania will utilize One Stop Shop Information System and add to the remaining 12 municipalities which have already similar systems in place. The establishment of the system will benefit the municipalities and citizens alike and more specifically it will; ensure easily accessible and standardized services including reduction of service delivery distance and time, key data and performance indicators for staff and sectors will be available; paperwork will be reduced due to internal electronic communication and bureaucratic layers will be reduced.

The establishment of the system and demonstration included consultations with benefitting municipal system-users for co-designing and fine tuning the OSSI system. It also involved consultations with key central institutions including the National Agency for Information Society- which hosts the system. This aims to ensure linkages of the system with various national databases so that services delivered at local level are integrated and multiplied.

Following the demonstration, the system will go live in about one month.

STAR 2 project is working to strengthen institutional and administrative capacities of local administrations across the 61 municipalities of Albania; increase the efficiency of local service delivery, enhance local democracy through fostering citizen-oriented governance and participatory decision-making, leveraging the role of women as actors of change.

STAR 2 enjoys support by many international development partners through a pooled funding mechanism. International partners include: the European Union, the Government of Sweden through Swedish International Development Agency, the Government of Italy through Italian Development Cooperation, Swiss Government through Swiss Development Cooperation, the United States through the United States Agency for International Development and UNDP and the Government of Albania. The project is implemented by the Ministry of Interior in partnership with UNDP.