“The focus on ‘democratic resilience’ is of the most relevance these days. The geopolitical, technological, and other changes constantly demand us to rethink and reinvent how democratic governments are delivering on the promise of good governance,” the Chancellor emphasized in her speech.
According to Ms. Balčytytė, recent events have shown that in this fast-paced world, digitised services, digitisation and use of data, as well as public administration processes need to be continuously rethought. “Detailed, reliable real time data provides us opportunities to better target our social policies and healthcare solutions and thus be more efficient. We learnt it the hard way that, without precise targeting, we are forced to waste funds on services for those who do not vitally need them and constantly lack resources for those who really do,” the Chancellor noted.
The Chancellor outlined Lithuania’s leadership in data-driven solutions. She highlighted the creation of the State Data Agency and the development of the State Data Governance Platform, which increases the efficiency of both public and private sector activities, as key achievements. However, the Chancellor stressed that the current public administration, with its current structures and concepts, cannot yet respond adequately to the fast pace of demands nor fully implement digitization and leverage its fruits.
The Chancellor touched upon the topic of disinformation and stressed Lithuania’s constant fight against this phenomenon in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, illegal migration across the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, and the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.
“It is essential that our countries not only fight disinformation. We must constantly prove to our citizens and ourselves that democracies, despite inclusive and therefore slow processes, are able to manage crises, deliver results, and sustain environment for growing wealth,” said Ms Balčytytė at the event.
The eighth edition of the OECD Public Governance Review was launched on 23 June at the event dedicated to strengthening democratic governance and increasing trust in public institutions. The Review provides the latest internationally comparable data on how governments in OECD member states and some other countries are performing on issues such as trust, representation of women and young people, public finance and budgeting, employment, digitalisation, as well as public service delivery. It also looks at democratic resilience in an era of crisis, highlighting problematic areas of governance in democracies.
The OECD 2023 Review is available here.
