The website aims to contribute to the development of local services across Estonia. Bringing all Estonian data on one page helps to raise public awareness of the organization of local services and offers opportunities for comparisons, the sharing of good practices and the development of better services.
More than a hundred experts from ministries and local governments, researchers and interest groups, and the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities participated in the development of the methodology for evaluating the services used on the website, led by the Center for Applied Social Sciences of the University of Tartu and Geomedia OÜ. Stakeholders were also consulted on the creation of the website.
Minister of Public Administration Jaak Aab thanked the local governments for participating in the project and for sending their data. "The shoulders of local governments bear many responsibilities to ensure the well-being of the residents, which entails a wide freedom of decision, but also a great responsibility," said Jaak Aab. "I am sure that every city and rural municipality leader together with their team will do their best to create the best possible living environment for their people. At the same time, there are quite different approaches to service delivery and prioritization. In order to make sure that the chosen direction is the best possible for the residents of the city or rural municipality, it is good to get a view through the eyes of a bystander for your activities. That is why we have set up a website to provide comparative feedback and a tool for organizing local life and involving citizens. At the same time, it is also a useful tool for ministries to formulate sectoral decisions.”
The website covers all the main services in the area of responsibility of local governments. These include, for example, education, culture, infrastructure, waste management, security and social affairs through a total of almost 300 criteria. All these services have been evaluated on the basis of a common evaluation methodology. The data necessary for the evaluation have been collected from state registers and databases of state agencies, through surveys sent to local governments and through a population satisfaction survey conducted by Statistics Estonia. The development of the methodology was funded by the European Social Fund.
An important added value of the nationwide satisfaction survey conducted by Statistics Estonia at the request of the Ministry of Finance in January this year is that it mapped the satisfaction of the population with the accuracy of the local government. Residents' satisfaction assessments were asked about various services, governance, involvement and also, for example, the living environment. The data obtained is used to assess service levels. This is also an important basic information for decision-making in various policy areas at both state and local government level. For example, in housing, supporting regional development, in spatial planning. By repeating the nationwide survey periodically, it is possible to assess in the future whether the activities carried out in different areas also increase the satisfaction of the population.
On the new website, each service has an expected minimum level, but from then on, local governments have the freedom to choose the development of services. Therefore, the differences visible on the website are also natural. "It is clear that, like everyone else, local governments must make choices that are currently the most important issues for the local community. Due to the limited budget, it is not possible to develop everything at once, "said Minister of Public Administration Aab. "We do not tell local governments on the website where the emphasis should be placed. Nor is the aim to line up local governments. However, we provide a compact comparison of the choices that different local governments have made in setting their priorities and how their residents are satisfied with it. It helps local governments to assess what to keep in mind when making necessary decisions and drawing up development strategies.”
Tiit Terik, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities, said that this was a necessary tool for local governments to harmonize the levels of public services provided. "It is not possible to fully evaluate all local governments with one yardstick, therefore it is not a strict ranking. Both the size of the municipality and the geographical location have an impact, "said Terik. "It is definitely a good tool for local governments to improve the quality of service, because the level of public services must be uniformly high throughout Estonia," added Tiit Terik.
The data of the portal is updated annually with an annual review. In the current initial phase, the website covers 2016-2018 results. The data of the previous year, 2019, will be updated with the information in the state registers this autumn. Various surveys are conducted every few years. Thus, it must be taken into account that the portal provides a general guide to the levels of municipal services, but these may have changed somewhat due to the annual delay and are therefore not exhaustive information.
According to Andrus Jõgi, one of the project leaders and an advisor to the Ministry of Finance's Local Government Financial Management Department, the portal has been thoroughly prepared, but it is at the beginning of its path and expects users to actively participate in improving the criteria and the evaluation. "Just as we hope to give good and necessary reflection to others with this website, we also expect user feedback to make our portal better. We want this portal to be a really useful and helpful tool that is easy to use and meets the needs of our users.”
Additional information on the results of the population satisfaction survey: https://minuomavalitsus.fin.ee/en/uudised/most-satisfied-people-live-muhu-municipality
