Good governance practice is a condition sine qua non in establishing democratic values, developing human rights and improving the well-being and economic development in a society. There are good and bad examples of many policies trying to accomplish those goals in almost every angle of the human and societal activities. IT technology and its application helped in promoting good policies by increasing the scope of information, level of transparency and public accountability. The principal research objective of the paper is: analyzing the impact that IT application in public sector institutions helps the business oriented people and business community in promoting economic development on local level in Macedonian municipalities; The scope of the research in this paper is covering explanation of the abovementioned objective and will depends on the knowledge and available data that exists in the literature and practice about the role of IT in sustaining local economic development in Macedonia. In correlation with the main objective and scope of the analysis in the paper, the research will concentrate in answering the following research questions: What IT policies exist at local level? Are they successfully applied? How they help the business community in promoting the local economic development? The research design in the paper will follow the following research steps: Introduction; Research questions; Literature review of the past and present same or similar research in Macedonian and international context; Presenting and analyzing the impact of local IT policies on economic development in Macedonia; Research results; Conclusions; and Future recommendations. For the purpose of writing the paper, we employed a combination of different methodology aspects that are based on: content analysis of various governmental documents and research papers that are dealing with good governance, IT policies and local economic development in Macedonia; using administrative databases and numerical data for the purpose of explaining the research issues; interviews with managers/employees from local enterprises and local community; and deduction approach will be applied through the content analysis.
The system analysis is the necessary activity in designing information systems (IS), especially in creating complex IS which have to satisfy a wide pallet of users' demands. Installing the IS without expert's planning and leading can lead to the huge users' dissatisfaction, and maybe non - usage of system which often the consequent system do not work. This is especially emphasized when we talk about update procedures. In this paper is made a system analysis and design of IS for local economic development (LED). The problem of LED itself is very important because of the decentralization process that happens in R.of Macedonia in recent year as well as the global crises and the necessity of employment increasing. As an important factor we mention a need of increasing the usage of IS, especially when is concern of the issues that help for the young people's position. Analysis of the need of IS for LED's support is made on the couple of present local governments' (LG) web sites in R.of Macedonia as well as the interviews and a questionnaire of the LER's responsible in the LG and potential users of this kind of information. The results of this survey are decanting in analysis of the information needs as well as the LED's support System's proposition. We are using the structural analysis and logical design of IS as the working' methodology. For this purpose, a series of systematic undertaken processes were used. These processes, we think, that will enhance the information and usage of computer's IS in function of business climate and business community's better information. The proposed model for LED's support IS which have to cover the users' demands will be made with creating a redundant databases, loaded whit trigger procedures and intelligent agents.
Urban planning and building is a very important task for the Department for communal arrangement in the Local Municipality. Many of these sectors possess transactional information system where the data of all one-stop-shop systems in the local Municipalities systems are saved. This data is an excellent base for Data Warehouse creation which is necessary for support of Decision making processes for managers and analytical staff of government institution that make decisions. But, the data must be prepare data for effective visualization. It is obvious, "One picture is worth a thousand words".
In: Patoska, Aleksandra and Savoska, Snezana and Dimeski, Branko (2015) Local Government Capacities and Civil Organizations in Macedonia: Current States and Implications. In: Forms and Determinants of Development of Civil Dialogue. Centre for Local Development Publisher, Lublin, Poland, pp. 75-85. ISBN 978-83-932261-3-9 print, 978-83-932261-4-6 online
The purpose of the paper is to analyze the capacities of the local governments in Macedonia when dealing with NGOs in the country. The main research methods that are applied in the paper are literature reviews, national survey results and modeling of IT support in the process of cooperation between municipalities and NGOs. Local governments still do not have well organized units dedicated to civil organizations. Most have adopted an official document and apply all the legal forms of cooperation, but not all of them financially support civil organizations. In practice, local governments must strengthen the cooperation with civil organizations, especially by improving the application of IT technology. The social implications strongly depend on further strengthening of the collaboration by applying IT knowledge during the process of civil dialogue. Key words: Macedonia, local governments, civil organizations, IT support
Data Warehouses are one of the most complex IT issues whose implementation demands much organizational preparation. In fact, its successful implementation demands specified levels of organizational culture and management's full support. Nevertheless, when data warehouses are owned by the government, a very professional approach in the creation of data warehouses, as well as usage of procedures for creating specifically prepared information for dissemination in the public sector, are imperative. Our research on the application of data warehouses in the Republic of Macedonia was focused on the biggest business companies, some governmental institutions and higher education institutions. We found out that there is an increasing usage of data warehouses especially in the business sector. However, the most complex data warehouse in Macedonia is the one with the State Office of Statistics (SOS). This is the backbone of the Macedonian public administration which aims at gathering, analyzing and dissemination of relevant information for entities which are living and working in the Republic of Macedonia. This implies that it is a very important state institution accountable for collecting and storing official information with a very serious approach towards data warehousing information for statistical data analysis. The serious role which has been attributed to this state institution requires a professional software tool and that is why SAS Data integration services tool has been selected.
In: Valantin, G. and Abildtrup, J. and Accastello, C. and Savoska, Snezana (2017) PESFOR-W: Improving the design and environmental effectiveness of woodlands for water Payments for Ecosystem Services. Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), 3 (13828).
The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe's water bodies to "good ecological status" by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions – including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forests-carbon policy nexus.
Access to information and communication for people with disabilities through modern technology is an important requirement for their social inclusion in the institutions of every country, European Union and other international organizations. Learning management systems (LMSs) have to be accessible in order to enable people with disabilities to take part in the educational and learning processes. Although the accessibility of the learning management systems is improving, they still possess significant challenges for users with disabilities. This paper analyzes the accessibility of the latest public version of the respective LMSs such as Moodle, Eliademy, Docebo, Sakai and ATutor for people with disabilities. The considered criteria are with different levels of compliance in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The goal of this analysis is not to rate or rank these LMSs for accessibility, but to highlight some points about how the presence or absence of certain key usability/accessibility features can significantly impact users' experience. The analysis covered the following types of impairments: visual, hearing and motor impairments. Recommendations derived from the practical use of these systems will be used to support decision-making in the project activities of CROSS4ALL IPA2 for selecting a suitable e-learning platform to increase the digital literacy for e-health of the population of the border area for whom this project is intended.
Access to the information and communication technology for people with disabilities as well as elderly people is an important prerequisite for their social inclusion. With the advance of the e-learning platforms and recent regulations of the European Union, which impose conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for web applications of public institutions, Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have to be accessible to enable people with disabilities to participate in the learning and educational processes. This article compares the accessibility of the following LMSs Moodle and АTutor for people with disabilities, according to the WCAG 2.1 standard criteria of different levels of compliance. The visual, hearing and motor impairments are included in this comparative analysis. The concluding purpose is to дevelop an e-leaning project that will increase e-health and medical digital literacy among population with particular emphasis on the people with disabilities, elderly people and children. The proposed project will be used as a reference for healthcare and educational institutions to identify the essential adjustments needed to integrate accessibility into their e-learning courses.
The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe's water bodies to "good ecological status" by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions – including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forests-carbon policy nexus.
In: Valatin , G , Abildtrup , J , Accastello , C , Said Al-Tawaha , A R M , Andreucci , M-B , Atanasova , S , Avdibegović , M , Baksic , N , Banasik , K , Barquin , J , Barstad , J , Bastakova , V , Becirovic , D , Begueria , S , Bethers , U , Bihunova , M , Blagojevic , B , Bösch , M , Bournaris , T , Cao , Y , Carvalho-Santos , C , Chikalanov , A , A. Cunha e Sá , M , Czyżyk , K , Daly , H , Davies , H , Del Campo , A , de Groot , R , De Vreese , R , Dostál , T , El Mokaddem , A , Finér , L , Evans , R , Fiquepron , J , Frac , M , Futter , M , Garcia , S , Gatto , P , Geneletti , D , Gezik , V , Giupponi , C , González-Sanchís , M , Gordillo , F , Gorriz , E , Grigorova , Y , Heinsoo , K , Hochbichler , E , Högbom , L , Image , M , Jacobsen , J B , Japelj , A , Jelic , S , Junk , J , Juhasz , C , Kagalou , I , Kelly-Quinn , M , Klamerus-Iwan , A , Kluvankova , T , Koeck , R , Konovska , I , Krajter Ostoic , S , Krc , J , Lavnyy , V , Leonardi , A , Libiete , Z , Little , D , Lo Porto , A , Loukas , A , Lyubenova , M I , Maric , B , Martínez-López , J , Martinez , I , Maxim , A , Metslaid , M , Melvin , A , Costică , M , Mincev , I , Morkvenas , Z , Nevenic , R , Nisbet , T , O'hUallachain , D , Olschewski , R , Östberg , J , Oszust , K , Ovando , P , Paletto , A , Parpan , T , Pettenella , D , Pezdevšek Malovrh , Š , Planinšek , Š , Podlipná , R , Posavec , S , Potočki , K , Prokofieva , I , Quinteiro , P , Radocz , L , Ristic , R , Robert , N , Rugani , B , Sabanovic , J , Sarvasova , Z , Savoska , S , Schleppi , P , Schueler , G , Shannon , M , Silgram , M , Srdjevic , B , Stefan , G , Stijovic , A , Strange , N , Tattari , S , Teofilovski , A , Termansen , M , Thorsen , B J , Toth , A , Trebs , I , Tmušić , N , Vasiliades , L , Vedel , S E , Ventrubová , K , Vuletic , D , Winkel , G , Yao , R , Young , S , Yousefpour , R , Zahvoyska , L , Zhang , D , Zhou , J & Žižková , E 2017 , ' PESFOR-W : improving the design and environmental effectiveness of woodlands for water payments for ecosystem services ' , Research Ideas and Outcomes , vol. 3 , e13828 . https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e13828
The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe's water bodies to "good ecological status" by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions – including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forests-carbon policy nexus. ; The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe's water bodies to "good ecological status" by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions – including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forests-carbon policy nexus.