Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 30th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview PhD Pre-conference Seminar Author(s) Tanja Paneva University of Ljubljana Sveti Nikole Republic of North Macedonia Title Measuring Digital Literacy in Rural Municipalities in North Macedonia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Tanja Paneva Abstract Measuring digital literacy in rural municipalities in North Macedonia Public services, being the link between the state institutions and the citizens, should be timely, effectively, efficiently and equally delivered to the end-users. Access to public services can be performed in-person through being physically present at the public institution to request the service, or digitally through accessing services online. The emerging digital technologies have replaced the conventional communication channels and have traced the path to the digital transformation of public service delivery. However, automated systems are not suited to cover all citizens equally (Larsson, 2020) and can often create a disparity in access for certain socio-economic groups. Current research data indicates that access to e-services is often conditioned by certain socio-technical pre-requisites that are being not evenly distributed geographically. In the pursuit of creating a digital environment as part of the ongoing public administration reform in 2019, North Macedonia has gradually started with digitalization of public services. In 2019, the National e-services portal was introduced with a Catalogue of services offered by the central and local public institutions. Existing research shows that interaction with the portal is still very low and that digital skills vary within different socio-economic groups. In that regard, this paper aims to systematically present the level of digital literacy in rural municipalities in North Macedonia, as one of the key pre-requisites to access e-services. This paper will employ content analysis of the findings from the European Commission, SIGMA and other relevant institution’s reports and secondary data from the Information Society Indicator of the State Statistical Office of North Macedonia and Eurostat. The paper will consist of introduction with background and relevance of the topic, first part with definitions of concepts and theoretical framework (the socio-technical theory), description of methods used, presentation of empirical results for level of digital literacy in selected rural municipalities in North Macedonia and a discussion with conclusion and anticipated future developments in the field. The findings of this paper will contribute to reflecting the current level of digital literacy in rural municipalities in North Macedonia, relevant for public authorities in assessing the readiness of different communities to adapt to the process of digitalization of services. Governments should take into consideration the diversity of contexts in aim to ensure equal service delivery to end-users irrespective of their geographical location.
