A 2024 agreement between Azerbaijan and the United Nations will promote the country’s ASAN public-service model across four continents, President Ilham Aliyev said Thursday.
Aliyev made the statement in a message to the UN Governance Innovation Summit, held in Baku on Nov. 5-6. The message was read by Ulvi Mehdiyev, chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations.
The summit, organized jointly by the agency and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, focuses on innovation in public administration, public-sector transformation and integrated government services. The event has brought together ministers, senior officials, representatives of international organizations, development partners, businesses and academics.
ASAN Experience Shared With More Than 50 Countries
Aliyev said accessible public services, transparency and digitalization are essential to sustainable development. Azerbaijan established ASAN Khidmet in 2012 to provide public services through an integrated system designed to reduce bureaucracy and improve access for citizens.
The ASAN model has since been shared with more than 50 countries and implemented in several of them, Aliyev said. He described it as both a national governance practice and an Azerbaijani institutional brand that has attracted international interest.
The president said the program’s international expansion is supported by the Contribution Agreement that Azerbaijan and the United Nations signed in 2024. The agreement provides for promotion of the ASAN model across four continents and for international events and training programs on public-service delivery.
According to an ASAN agency announcement, the project includes training for civil servants from least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states.
Events promoting the model have already been held at UN headquarters in New York, at the African Union headquarters and in the Dominican Republic for Caribbean countries, the agency said.
Two UN Awards
Aliyev noted that ASAN received the United Nations Public Service Award in 2015 and a special UN award for promoting digital transformation in the public sector in 2019.
He said Azerbaijan would continue supporting the Sustainable Development Goals and international initiatives intended to improve the quality of public services.
The Baku summit is also examining South-South, North-South and triangular cooperation, as well as ways to adapt public-service innovations to different national systems.
The summit and Aliyev’s message were first reported by Vesti Baku.