International Municipal Forum of the BRICS Countries

Evgeny Styrin, Head of the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration at the HSE University, spoke at the session "World's Best Practices of interaction between municipal employees with citizens and business: implementing a human-centered approach in municipal management" within the framework of the International Municipal Forum of the BRICS Countries.

The session participants discussed issues related to the role and place of human-centricity in municipal government, its connection with digitalization and requirements for the behavior and competencies of civil servants. Digital technologies not only simplify interaction, but also impose much more complex requirements for the organization of interaction among the teams responsible for municipal management. In his report, Evgeny Styrin proposed to consider a multicomponent model of civil servants' competencies, involving a combination of flexible management skills, ownership of digital technologies and solutions, using the concept of "digital readiness" of civil servants as an inclusive framework, including approaches to ensuring human-centricity in results and processes aimed at simplifying interaction between municipal authorities and citizens. The tasks and challenges expressed at the session by the heads of the Shatura and Dolgoprudny municipal districts were in common with the presented model of competencies for civil servants and found a lively response.  

The problem of staffing, especially at the municipal level, remains extremely urgent and complex in the era of digital transformation. The heads of municipalities should strive for continuous learning, willingness to accept changes, build a system of trusting relationships with interested groups and make rational use of their limited resources: human, financial and technological.