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The world is rapidly changing with increasing pressures on resources, more complex service delivery needs, demands for transparency and inclusion, and increased global fragility and migration flows. The ability of governments to respond to these challenges is stretched while citizen expectations continue to rise, resulting in an increasing deficit in trust.

During June 11-12, 2019, the World Bank joined forces with development partners, including the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFiD), the European Commission, SIGMA ¨C Support for Improvement in Governance and Management ¨C a joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union, UN Women, and the Asian Development Bank, in organizing the 1st Regional Governance Conference for Europe and Central Asia countries.

The Governance Conference brought together over 500 delegates from local governments, international development partners, academics, private sector, and civil society groups taking stock of reforms to improve governance in Europe and Central Asia, and discussing the ways to inspire next generation changes in improving governance practices in the region.

The conference showcased twenty-five case-study presentations featuring best practices from around the region, exploring the central aspects surrounding accountable, effective and inclusive institutions, including topics such as the role of the private sector in moving reforms forward, generating political will, and building alliances with civil society for more inclusive institutions that deliver better public services for all people. The following messages were highlighted:

• Effectiveness and accountability should become central to the way both state owned enterprises and public private partnerships are managed since both involve significant amounts of public money. This will require working closely with sectors and establishing a regional peer platform to share good practices.
• Citizen engagement needs to be scaled up through creation of the feedback mechanism loops for citizens to express their concerns and acknowledge what works and what does not.
• Making public services inclusive by reaching out to all citizens, particularly to the poorest, in a sustainable way. This can only be done with a careful balance of the fiscal cost and the quality of public services.
• GovTech weaves across many thematic reform discussions: technology can be a problem-solving tool but needs to be purpose driven. Inherent risks should be acknowledged and carefully addressed (accessibility, capacity, cybersecurity).
• Call for more regional dialogue and exchange ¨C thematic deep dives, rich conversations and lessons shared generated significant interest among delegates to turn the event into a regular governance conference, with several countries offering to host next year.  

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For further information or questions, please contact:

Natalie Manuilova: nmanuilova@worldbank.org

Seda Aroymak: aaroymak@worldbank.org