Stephanie Dheur and Sarah De Cock, respectively project manager and communication manager at easy.brussels – the agency responsible for administrative simplification in the Brussels Capital Region– aim to implement a philosophy of simplification within regional institutions in order to reduce the administrative burden on citizens and businesses.
The agency joined the UserCentriCities project in early 2022, so we talked to them to get to know their work and expectations for the future.
Could you give an example of your work that illustrates user-centricity?
Stephanie Dheur, Project Manager at easy.brussels
A project that we have recently carried out is the Local Registration Authority (LRA). It’s an application that the different Brussels municipalities can use to quickly and easily assign a secure and unique code to citizens so that they can connect to the online services of the administration.
Sarah De Cock, Communication Manager at easy.brussels
In Belgium, all citizens with an electronic identification card (e-ID) can access all online public services. Still, a whole cohort of users cannot benefit from it. They may have lost their card or they do not have immediate access to one, as for example in the case of expatriates. But they need to access most services too. For instance, during the pandemic, people needed their e-ID to be able to download the Covid Safety Ticket.
The LRA is a solution developed at the federal level and can be used by other authorities; for example, individual municipalities can directly assign the LRA code to the citizens, facilitating their relationship with the administration.
Stephanie Dheur
Until June 2021, only one of the 19 Brussels municipalities was proposing this alternative to their constituency. Therefore, our job was to convince more local governments within the Brussels Region to integrate it among the solutions they already offered.
Why was only one municipality offering the LRA option?
Stephanie Dheur
The LRA doesn’t need the administration to adapt to new technology or spend money to implement it. The municipality needs to teach officers how to create and assign the code; that’s it. We realised that the communication with administrations had not been effective enough, as we encountered obstacles related to change and fear of an additional workload. There was a misunderstanding about the time and resources they needed to invest to make it happen.
Sarah De Cock
During our projects, in some cases, administrations resist online services for fear of having to let people go. However, that’s not the case. On the contrary, digitalisation gives officers more time to care for people who can’t follow procedures online, need more help, or for more complex processes that can’t be completely digitalised. It’s a win-win situation.
Stephanie Dheur
Therefore, we concentrated our efforts on explaining to civil servants in local administrations what the technology entailed and convincing them of the benefits to use it.
Has it worked?
Stephanie Dheur
Only four municipalities out of 19 in the Brussels Region have not yet adopted the LRA. We are also proud to observe that some local administrations now provide this solution for all citizens - the service is not limited to the residents of their municipality.
Why is user-centricity important?
Sarah De Cock
We want to simplify the interactions between users and administrations. That’s at the heart of our mission, our philosophy, so it’s essential for us. It drives all our actions.
When we were working on the LRA, what we wanted to achieve was to really include the user in the process and reflect on their roles, not just telling the municipality: “here’s a new service you can offer.”
So, to propose a new service means to bring arguments in favour – and support local administration – to reach out to users. For this, we have been helped by our partners like SPF BOSA and Brulocalis.
How does that look in practice?
Sarah De Cock
We produce communication materials for the administrations, and we train clerks. Our overall strategy is driven by digital inclusion, a subject on which we also collaborate with the Brussels Regional Informatics Centre. It helps us with direct communication and training for users.
In a project like this, it’s crucial to work with local partners. easy.brussels is the initiator, but cities really put things into place. And we are grateful for all our partners. Everyone, at their level, works at simplifying the administration.
Why did you join UserCentriCities?
Sarah De Cock
We have a common objective: putting the users’ needs at the centre of our projects and improving their everyday life.
What did you learn thanks to the project?
Sarah De Cock
We regularly benchmark before each project and analyse what happens elsewhere. UserCentriCities allows us to do that on an even bigger scale. The Dashboard shows us how to position ourselves compared to the rest of the European Union. It shows us where we can improve, what indicators we weren’t considering, which projects are worth considering and how to develop them.
The UserCentriCities project is an entry point to identify contacts that can help us advance in our initiatives. We get inspired by what others have done, saving us time. Because things tend to move slowly in the public sector, seeing that something has worked elsewhere allows us to push our administration to be more ambitious.
Stephanie Dheur
We also work directly with the Minister to simplify the administration, and we can bring new project ideas to him based on the inspiration we also get from UserCentriCities.
Is there anything that struck you during your exchanges with other UserCentriCities partners?
Sarah De Cock
All states, regions and cities are subject to European obligations, so it is interesting to see how others implement these. Not everyone is at the same stage of development. Some are way more advanced in their digitalisation, but as European users, we would like to have the same access to public services throughout the Member States.
That’s a challenge for the project. We must all get to the same stage or propose the same services using a similar procedure. For example, the project of a Single Digital Gateway – the European platform that would allow citizens, businesses and NGOs to access different administrative processes – is a long-term project. But initiatives such as UserCentriCities can be the stepping stone towards it.
What does the future hold?
Sarah De Cock
We want to have digital solutions included as the default in legal texts. For example, regulations today ask for registered mail, but there are digital solutions, like sending e-mails via a secure e-mail box used by public administrations (eBox), that could replace it. This solution is offered to users who wish to do so, but it is not well known nor widely employed yet.
We want digital to become the default and paper the exception. This would allow simplifying processes for most cases and still cater to those who won’t be able to access online procedures. Because there will always be a group of people who will struggle with digital options and prefer in-person interactions, we cannot neglect them.