The digitalization report within the BACID III project is an important milestone to show the current developments, best practices but also gaps where the countries in the Western Balkan and Moldova still lack resources, political will, or knowledge. It’s the first report of its kind in South-East Europe and will help local and central governments to gain an overview of the digitalisation efforts in the region and identify good practices.

NALAS and KDZ are working together to provide high-quality data on local government finance in South-East Europe (SEE) to assist policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.

OECD published the report „More resilient public administrations after COVID-19 - Lessons from using the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) 2020“. KDZ contributed the 11 cases studies of European CAF Users which revail how CAF supported the handling of the COVID19 pandemic.

The OECD SIGMA report “Subnational Government in the Western Balkan” is now available. KDZ contributed to the report significantly in the chapters comparing the local government structures, finances and fiscal equalization systems of the six Western Balkan countries. One finding is that a trend towards greater decentralisation and strengthening of local autonomy, as established in the European Charter of Local Self-Government ratified by all Western Balkan economies, can be clearly identified. But the overlap of competences between the state administration and the local government is an important issue.

During the pandemic, the discussion about the resilience of our social system and especially of Austrian cities and municipalities is increasingly becoming the focus of political and social discourse. This working document provides a first overview of the state of scientific discussion on urban resilience, existing literature, research projects and planning tools with a focus on the local level.

The Publication "Decentralisation and Local Public Administration Reform in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: Learning from the past – preparing for the future" and Status Reports on the Progress of Decentralisation Reform in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine aim to consolidate lessons learned over three decades of reform and help the local government associations prepare for the reform next steps in their countries.