QUALITY OF WEBSITES OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INCLUSIVE DIGITAL GOVERNANCE

<p>This paper explores the digital maturity of public institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels of government (state, entity, Brčko District, cantonal and municipal) through a comparative assessment of the technical quality, functionality and quality of the content of their official websites. The research covers five sets of criteria: technical quality, functionality, content quality, accessibility (compliance with WCAG 2.2) and user interaction.</p> <p>The research methodology combines quantitative tools - Google Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, SEMrush, Alexa ranking and the WAVE Accessibility Tool - with a qualitative review of the structure and usability of a website. The sample includes 15 state-level institutions, 25 entity ministries, the Brčko District Government, 10 cantons and 20 municipalities/cities.</p> <p>This study examines the prevalence and level of development of technical, functional and content quality of official portals at all levels of government, and identifies the prerequisites that must be met for the further successful progress of digital government.</p> <p>The research was conducted with the aim of determining the extent to which the websites of public institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are adapted to the digital age: whether they use advanced functionalities such as online forms, chatbots, notification systems and how they communicate with citizens. All analyses were carried out electronically. The contribution of this paper stems from the fact that the research covers a developing country, where budgets and digital capacities are lower than in developed countries, which affects the results in terms of accessibility and advanced functionalities.</p>