On 26 March 2026, representatives of the Economic Research Institute took part in a webina.organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), entitled as “OECD Public Services Webinar: Putting the User at the Centre with Life Events.” The event was dedicated to discussing approaches to building more convenient, integrated, and human-centred public administrative services.
The
webinar was moderated by Arnaud Prête, Head of Public Service
Leadership at the OECD. Opening remarks were delivered by Valérie
Frey, Head of the OECD Division on Indicators and Governance
Performance. The main session featured contributions from Emily
Balbirnie, OECD analyst and project lead, Bruno Monteiro, Senior
Adviser on Service Delivery and Digitalisation at the SIGMA Programme
of the OECD, and Marten Jakobson, Adviser at the Ministry of Justice
and Digital Affairs of Estonia. The event concluded with an
interactive discussion on the key conditions for implementing the
life events approach, followed by a summary of the main takeaways and
the next steps.
The
main objective of the webinar was to present and practically
operationalize the life events approach as one of the key instruments
for implementing the OECD Recommendation on Human-centred Public
Administrative Services. This approach implie.organizing public
services not around institutional mandates and fragmented procedures,
but around specific life situations faced by citizens, such as
marriage registration, the birth of a child, or the loss of a loved
one.
During
the webinar, it was emphasized that public administrative services
play a central role in the everyday interaction between citizens,
businesses, and the state, and directly affect the level of trust in
public institutions. At the same time, in many countries users still
face procedures that are complex and time-consuming, involve
duplication of information, and reflect a lack of coordination across
public services. In this context, the life events approach is
regarded as a tool for reducing administrative burdens, improving
access to services, enhancing the user experience, and ensuring
better interagency coordination.
The
experts from OECD also presented the conceptual and practical
foundations of the Life Event Blueprint. This approach consists of
six consecutive stages. These include identifying life events,
diagnosing priority areas, designing solutions, experimentation,
implementation, and the continuous evaluation of results. Estonia’s
experience in the digitalization of public services was presented as
an example of the successful implementation of the life events
approach. The Estonian side shared practical insights into the
development of service capabilities, the testing of solution
applicability, and the establishment of monitoring mechanisms in the
process of introducing new service delivery models.
At
the conclusion of the webinar, participants confirmed that the
transition to human-centred public administrative services requires
not only digitalization, but also deeper institutional
transformation. This implies moving away from a model built around
the functions and procedures of public authorities toward an approach
centred on the real needs of citizens and businesses. Such an
approach can improve the quality of public services, reduce
administrative barriers, and strengthen trust in public institutions.
