National Initiative “Open Local Governance through Innovation” launched by INFOÇIP

“Open Local Governance through Innovation” is the most recent initiative of the Centre for Public Information Issues, INFOÇIP. Accountability, Transparency, Lawfulness and Innovation in  Local Government are the four main pillars on which this Initiative was based. Its inspiration comes from the “12 Principles of good and democratic governance at local level” of the Council of Europe and the Initiative for Open Governance of the US President, Barak Obama.

“Local Open Governance through Innovation” has in its focus the decision making processes of the Albanian municipalities. The slogan of this national program is: “Citizens must know  what decisions are being taken on their behalf”.  Through innovation and state-of-the-art technologies the initiative aims to address for sustainable solution the inconsistencies (serious issues) with regard to citizens’ and other central institutions’ access to local legislation. INFOÇIP has already begun the digitalization of the municipal council decisions at all main Albanian municipalities, making them accessible at:  www.vendime.al to all concerned parties, at any time and free of charge.

What is VENDIME.AL

VENDIME.AL  is a powerful online database,  “archiving ” the municipal council decisions.  VENDIME.AL is the short acronym (slug) for National Archive of Decisions of the Municipal Councils in the Republic of Albania. It is conceived and established by the Centre for Public Information Issues, INFOÇIP. Finally, vendime.al is a “Made in Albania” piece of technology, tailored-made to the Albanian legislation corpus of legislation on the local government and to all other specificities regarding municipal councils decisions’ attributions.

Who are the potential users of VENDIME.AL

VENDIME.AL firstly serves the Albanian municipalities for publication of the respective municipal council decisions.  This is a direct obligation deriving  from the organic law No. 8652 “On local governance in the Republic of Albania”, as amended (article 35).  Once digitalised and uploaded online, the respective databases are further donated to each municipality for independent use and administration.

VENDIME.AL also serves all local representatives, in particular the secretaries of the Municipal Councils, to easily consult online the best decision making practises of each Municipality in Albania, to adopt the highest standards in formulating their own decisions hereafter, in full compliance with the provisions of Law No. 8652, as amended and in the best interest of their own citizens.

VENDIME.AL serves all citizens, persons and legal entities, who exercise their activities in the territories under each municipality administration, providing them effective and free information about the local legislation. A citizen informed on the local government legislation is certainly a better citizen.  VENDIME.AL also serves the Albanian Government to better evaluate the quality and legal consistency of the local government decisions.

VENDIME.AL finally serves all other interested stakeholders who work to promote accountable and transparent decision making in local level through making use of new information technologies and innovation.

Who supports VENDIME.AL

The digitalization of decision database for the period 2007-2013 for the municipalities of Fier, Vlora, Berat and Lushnja is made possible due to the financial support of the US Embassy in Tirana, in the framework of the Democracy Commission Small Grants Program.

The digitalization of Durrës Municipal Council decisions, 2007-2013, has been integral part of the support provided by National Endowment for Democracy, NED, (Washington D.C.) while for Korça, a part of the process was funded by Open Society Foundation (Tirana).

All Municipal Council decisions of other municipalities, including Tirana, are digitalized and uploaded in the database directly from the Centre for Public Information Issues, INFOÇIP, as part of its contributions to this national program  for the promotion of decision making transparency at local level.