International studies suggest that capacity development trainings in the overall context of human resources management in the civil service are important as they help keep up the pace of recent innovations and will ensure effective staff performance in public sector. According to the 2010 United Nations e-Government Survey, leveraging various roles for e-government can increase public trust through transparency, underpin regulatory reform and add agility to public service delivery even despite the decrease of revenues at a time of economic and financial crisis.

In Uzbekistan, the capacity development of the civil servants can also be seen in the context of decentralization process, when a decade ago it has started to delegate the functions of central government to local governance bodies. This in its turn required from civil servants of local governments to adapt to changing condition and continuously update their professional knowledge and skills they will need to perform their new tasks and responsibilities efficiently.

The capacity assessment research conducted by UNDP “Local Governance Support Project: Participation and Partnership” (LGSP) in pilot Jizzakh and Namangan regions in late 2010 has revealed imbalance between the higher level of educational background for khokimiyat employees and the relatively low level of IT skills. In particular, the training needs of the significant number of employees were related to enhancing their professional skills to use easily the sophisticated office software and Internet technologies in a daily routine.

Based on the results of the training needs assessment, the LGSP team, in close collaboration with khokimiyats of Jizzakh and Namangan regions, initiated conduct a series of professional trainings for local government officials on such topics as using modern Information and communication technologies (ICT) in public administration, public relations, performance management, strategic planning, organizational development, human resources management and etc.

In particular, the first two-days training on topic “Basic ICT skills in public administration” for civil servants of Jizzakh regional, city and district khokimiyats kicked-off on 23rd of August, 2011. The training covers such themes as basic trends of ICT sector in Uzbekistan, legal framework of ICT in public administration, advancing technical skills to use office applications in daily work, Local Area Network (LAN) and other types of electronic networks for exchanging information, manage e-mail accounts, as well as benefit from the national legal database like www.lex.uz and other e-resources, which are available in Internet.

It should be noted that the training module was specialliy designed based on the findings of above mentioned capacity assessment and it covered about 25 middle and junior level staff of Jizzakh regional, city and district khokimiyats, as this group of civil servants usually was not provided with existing training programmes.

In the future, the trainings on similar and many other topics will be conducted for employees of Namangan khokimiyats too. The LGSP team believes that such trainings will allow civil servants in khokimiyats of Jizzakh and Namangan regions to acquire the skills they need to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively, take on new responsibilities, and quickly adapt to changing conditions.