Country: Latvia

The Machinery Price Catalogue is an electronic tool designed by the Rural Support Service of Latvia (RSS) to make purchases of machinery and equipment for farmers more simple and convenient. The Catalogue facilitates the beneficiaries' procurement process for the purchase of machinery and equipment. For beneficiaries, there is no procurement procedure required and it is now easy to choose the appropriate machinery for the farm, evaluating its capacity and pricing. The approach also reduces time…

Latvia has developed an Innovation lab for user centric policy making via diverse innovative methodologies. We integrated innovative approaches to policy making at the very center of public administration, aiming to tackle complex horizontal issues via cross sectoral co-creation in development and testing of solution prototypes. InLab has become a national live testbed for new policy planning approaches with a vision of extending its impact to regional level.

The TAP portal is a unique e-government system at the European Union level, which ensures the development of digital government legislation, moving from documents to structured data. The TAP portal ensures the proceedings of the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers and allows every citizen of Latvia to follow the progress of the Government's decision-making and express an opinion on the regulatory acts being developed by the Government.

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia collaborated with the World Bank on a holistic review of the country's tax system, an input to the design of a new, improved tax strategy. The State Revenue Service (SRS), Latvia's tax authority, worked with the Mind, Behavior, and Development (eMBeD) Unit at the World Bank to pilot a field experiment to increase tax compliance. The experiment involved sending preemptive, behaviorally-informed email messages to taxpayers with a share of income…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

The Rural Support Service of Latvia (RSS) is responsible for the implementation of unified state and European Union support policy in the sector of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development. The project was initiated by the need to reduce bureaucratic burden and help customers to receive support easy, quickly, without mistakes. RSS cooperated with different stakeholders, such as private sector organizations, service providers, clients and professionals from agricultural holdings.

The Investment and Development Agency of Latvia has developed a new communication platform with its audience - iNovuss, an open-air innovation festival that brings together multiple target groups and facilitates interaction between them, changing the perception of public service delivery. This festival allows to engage with the audience in a more cost effective way and mainly covers but is not limited to these topics - technology, innovation, tourism, education, research, exports and…

We often hear stories about the interpretations of laws and attitudes of public institutions. This year in Latvia for the first time the initiative “An Official Shadows an Entrepreneur” was launched, allowing for the public servant to broaden his view and “step into entrepreneur's shoes” to evaluate how the regulation is applied in practice and what requires further improvements. The initiative promotes a dialogue between the state and the business to reduce the administrative burden.

Cabinet and Parliament decision-making takes place remotely in Latvia. Cabinet sittings in Latvia take place remotely since 24 March 2020. Instead of gathering in the official meeting room in the Cabinet building, ministers now meet online in Zoom platform. 

Offering assistance of volunteers to anyone who is in the risk group or quarantine in order to purchase basic necessities and groceries or to provide other kinds of essential support in order for you to be able to stay at home. The platform connects those who need help with those who want to help.

The team Shield 48 won the HackForce hackathon that took place 17-19 March with its design and plan to manufacture and supplie face shields to medical professionals during the COVID-19 health crisis. Subsequent to the hackathon, Shield48 has already manufactured 10,000 face shields to Latvian state medics according to the contract with the Latvian National Health Service and delivered to Latvian hospitals. With a new grant, Shield48 plans to use the loan to cover the future costs of raw…