E-GOVERNMENT DEFINITION
Ø
• E-government is the use of ICT to:
promote more efficient and effective
government
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facilitate the accessibility of government
services
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allow greater public access to information
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make governments more accountable to
citizens
I. Introduction
The advent of the information age and its acceleration effect on
globalization are leading the world to a new economic order driven by
information and knowledge based economies. In an increasingly globalized world,
where information technology has become one of the key determinants of growth,
many African countries are facing new challenges as a result of the emerging
information age.
The enabling role that Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) can play in facilitating and accelerating socio-economic development
(ICT4D) is now being recognized by most African governments. A growing number
of national and local governments are setting up national ICT policies, putting
critical information online, automating administrative processes and interacting
with their citizens through online services, yet the great opportunities
offered by these new technologies remains largely unexploited.
Simply defined, E-Government is the use of ICT to promote more
efficient and
effective government, facilitate the accessibility of government
services, allow greater public access to information, and make governments more
accountable to citizens.
On a continent where high illiteracy is prevailing,
telecommunication infrastructure underdeveloped, most governments undemocratic
and perceived as corrupt, is E-Government a myth or an opportunity?
The second phase of the World Summit of the Information Society
held in Tunis in 2005 affirmed its commitment in developing and implementing
e-government applications based on open standards in order to enhance the
growth and interoperability of e-government systems, at all levels, thereby
furthering access to government information and services. Moreover, the Doha
Action Plan (DAP) adopted by the World Telecommunication Development Conference
(WTDC) in March 2006 has resolved to conduct detailed studies on various ICT
applications giving priority to e-government, without however neglecting the
other applications.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities offered
by E-Government to Africa by documenting few initiatives on the continent that
have developed innovative models that contribute to governments’ efficiency,
accessibility, transparency and accountability through the implementation of
ICT based services.
It consists of a documentation of three case studies that would
serve as a basis for a publication of the E-Strategies Division of the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and support for the teaching
materials of the Masters in e-Governance program at the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). It is also intended to inform government
officials of e-government initiatives on the continent and allow them to assess
the possibility of replicating similar projects in their respective countries.
The paper will further attempt to outline few suggestions for the
International
Telecommunication Union to
effectively respond to and address the pressing demands from its membership on
e-government applications in developing nations.
Understanding E-Government
Government
The word government has its origins in the Greek (kybernan),
which means
"to steer". In its broadest sense, it refers to a body
that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws within a civil,
corporate, religious, academic and other organization.
At a nation level, government commonly refers to the
administration of
a state, in general to the executive function or branch of the
body of the exercising authority. The level of government responsible for
running a district, province or city is also referred as local government in
contrast with bodies at nation-state level.
The advent of new ICTs such as the Internet offers a potential to
induce a
transformational pattern in the way government functions are
conducted and services delivered to citizens.
E-Government
Prefixing the word government with an “e” broadly implies the use
of Information and Communications Technologies such as the Internet, Wide Area
Networks or Mobile
computing to exercise its functions in an efficient and effective manner, hence
transform its relations with citizens, businesses and other government
entities.
Similar to e-commerce or e-banking, e-government (sometimes
referred as e-gov, digital government or online government) may be applied to
legislature, judiciary or administration
with the objective of improving internal efficiency through the use of ICTs.
The primary delivery models are Government-to-Citizen (G2C),
Government-to-
Business (G2B) and Government-to-Government (G2G). The most
important
expected benefits of E-Government include improved efficiency,
better accessibility of public services and better processes for democratic
governance.
E-commerce and E-banking created a new paradigm of conducting the
functions of banks and businesses through the use of ICT. Private enterprises
have embraced the opportunities offered by the Internet much earlier in the
dot-com era than governments. They have adopted these new avenues that enabled
them to leverage their businesses particularly through the use of e-commerce. Similar
to e-commerce, which allows businesses to transact with each other more efficiently
(B2B) and brings customers closer to businesses (B2C), E-Government aims to
make the interaction between government and citizens (G2C), government and
business enterprises (G2B), and inter-agency collaboration (G2G) more convenient,
transparent, and cost-effective. A similar comparison can also be made with
e-banking, which essentially referred to the electronic handling through the
use of ICTs (primarily the Internet) of the banking business.
While E-Government is often perceived as "Internet-based
government", many non-IP based technologies can be used in this context
including telephone, fax, PDA, SMS, MMS, GPRS and WiFi. Other technologies can
include RFID, biometric
identification and smart (identity) cards.
Another example is the e-voting process widely used in large
democracies such as India
which is entirely conducted offline through polling station technologies. There
are also other technology-specific delivery of e-government, such as
m-government (mobile government) and g-government (GIS/GPS applications for
e-government).
From E-Government to E-Governance
The concept of "governance" is as old as human
civilization. In essence, the term "governance" refers to the process
of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not
implemented)1. The word “governance” can be used in several contexts such as
corporate governance, international governance, national governance and local
governance.
If we define governance as a process of decision-making involving
multiple entities, study on governance would refer to a thorough analysis of
the actors and structures involved in this decision and implementation process.
The World Bank defines governance as the exercise of political
authority and the use of institutional resources to manage society's problems
and affairs.
An alternate definition suggests that governance is the use of
institutions, structures of authority and even collaboration to allocate
resources and coordinate or control activity in society or the economy.
Simply defined, governance is the use of structures of authority
to a decision-making process for the management of society’s affairs.
E-Governance goes beyond E-Government. It means employing modern
ICTs to
address the issues of governance i.e. the participation in the
decision processes of
citizens and other actors. This inter-alia implies
deploying efforts in the participation
of all citizens, the access-divide and promotes opportunities for
social empowerment.
Prospects in the African context
E-Government: myth or opportunity for Africa?
On the African continent, where 40 % of the adult population is
illiterate, where PC penetration is the lowest in the world with 2,2 computers
per 100 inhabitant, where the Internet tariffs are the highest in the world,
where there are only 2,7 telephones per 100 inhabitant, where political
instability is widespread, where most governments are autocratic and perceived
as corrupt, where the culture of democracy is not fully embraced, where
millions of citizens are not empowered in the decision making processes of
their government, one could arguably question the relevancy of a discourse on
the prospects of E-Government in Africa.
Good governance as defined
by United Nations Economic and Social for Asia and Pacific Are all E-Government
initiatives in Africa bound to fail? Are
E-Government applications a luxury that the continent can not afford when their
direct socioeconomic impact is uneasy to quantify? Do E-Government initiatives
deliver the promised efficiency and transparency to African governments? Can
they be an enabler in empowering the citizens and lead to better governance?
How E-Government ready
is Africa?
E-Government Readiness in Africa
The Global E-Government Readiness Report 2005, a study conducted
by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, has developed
an E-Government index that reflects the countries’ official on-line presence,
assesses their telecommunication infrastructure and human development capacity.
The E-Government Readiness Index is a composite comprising the Web Measure
Index, the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index and the Human Capital Index. In
essence, the index measures a state’s adoption of the Internet and the World
Wide Web to deliver critical information and services and combines it with
indicators on Telecommunication Infrastructure and Human Development Capacity.
As such, the measurement gives a mere indication of the diffusion of
E-Government in a given country.
The index reflects three conditions that constitute an enabling
environment for E-Government to mature i.e. literate and educated citizens with
access to a developed telecommunication infrastructure and the capacity/willingness
of a government to adopt ICT enabled governance.
In other words, a state is “e-government ready” when it is ready
in terms of
telecommunication infrastructure, accessibility of ICT to the
population at large and commitment from the state on the use of ICT in a
regulated framework associated with a willingness to empower its citizens.
Challenges
African countries face numerous challenges to fully adopt and
adapt E-Government applications and seize the opportunities presented by ICT
applications in general. Key challenges for E-Government applications are:
a) the improvement of overall literacy rate b) the development of
telecommunication infrastructure c) the commitment of governments to genuine
transformation towards a more transparent and citizen-centered governance. Other
important challenges include the formulation of new regulations and policies,
Literacy
Literacy remains a major barrier to the development of
e-governance in African countries. Despite the progress achieved since 1990,
the absolute number of African adults who cannot read or write is increased
from 131.4 million in 1990 to 136 million in 2000.
According the UNESCO’s Global Monitoring report, Sub-Saharan
Africa has one of the world’s lowest adult literacy rates, with only 60% of the
population of 15 and over able to read and to write in 2000, well below the
world average of 80%. The figure was below 40% in Benin,
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gambia,
Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger
and Senegal.
Women account for nearly two-thirds of the illiterates in Africa,
a figure not expected to increase much by 2015.
In 2000, the average literacy rate in Sub-Saharan Africa was 52
per cent for women and 68.9 per cent for men, with gender disparities
prevailing in 75 per cent of the countries in the region. These figures often
hide complex social, cultural and economical realities. There are also strong
regional differences in literacy levels, Southern Africa being much more
literate than Western Africa.
There are diverse literacy policies in Africa,
but they commonly suffer from a lack of financial, material and human resources.
However, there are positive trends and hopes with growing involvement of NGOs,
civil society organizations promoting literacy, but also the opportunities
offered by ICTs through e-learning programs. An illustrating example is the
School Net program in Ethiopia
introduced in collaboration with the private sector and development agencies to
connect 500 Schools in rural areas and deliver primary education through
distance learning.
On top of literacy, a well-trained human capital is fundamental
for the adoption of E-Government and its scarcity is another challenge in Africa. Education needs to be structured as to include
ICTs in early stages and also produce ICT specialists through graduate schools
of telecommunications and Information Technology.
Telecommunication Infrastructure
Underdeveloped Telecommunication Infrastructure is the “Achilles
heel” of Africa had
declared the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA),
Mr K.Y. Amoako in his speech at the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) Africa Regional Preparatory Conference in February 2005.
Infrastructure is indeed a pre-requisite for the E-Inclusion of
Africans at large and the development of ICT applications including
E-Government.
With 13% of the world population, the continent has only 2% of
world’s telephone mainlines, 1,5% of the total number of PCs, 1% of the
Internet users2. Stories of power outages disrupting the availability of the
Internet and email are numerous.
World Telecommunication Development Report – Access indicators for
the Information Society
(2006) ICT infrastructure is a key determinant of development in
the knowledge era. Africa has lagged behind in
the past century in that regard. This trend needs to be reversed by intensifying
heavy investments on infrastructure in this crucial period where Africans need
to catch and capitalize on the opportunities offered by ICTs.
The continent can not afford further marginalization and the
digital inclusion,
especially for the young and future workforce requires significant
attention on the development of telecommunication infrastructure.
Source: Adapted from ICT Indicators (ITU) The above chart
illustrates the alarming gap between a whole continent (Africa) and two
developed nations (Japan and
Switzerland).
Underdeveloped infrastructure is one
of the many factors hindering E-Government progress in Africa.
Other barriers
There are also several ‘non-connectivity’ and “non political”
barriers to accessibility and delivery of E-Government services including
cultural background, language and level of technology experience. Particular
attention should be drawn to the linguistic and cultural insight to bear on the
conception, design and deployment of E-Government applications notably for
rural, non-elite communities in Africa.
For instance, Africa’s oldest alphabet, the Ge’ez, used for
written communication since 100 BC in Ethiopia, has been facing the challenge
of the digitalization. The local script’s inclusion in ICT standards on
multilingualism has been a major technical endeavour and still presents
additional challenges with respect to Ethiopian’s adoption of E-Government
applications as most ICT products and standards do not fully support the
Ethiopic character sets.
Another consideration not to omit is the fact that voice based
technologies such as radio, TV, Mobile are much more easily adoptable for
communities where high illiteracy prevails and where forms of expression are
traditionally rather oral than text based.
PROSPECTS
The fourth African Development Forum (held in Addis in October
2004) produced a Consensus Statement declaring that E-Government is an
important innovation for enhancing good governance and strengthening the
democratic process.
It further acknowledged
that E-Government can facilitate access to information, freedom of expression,
greater equity, efficiency, productivity growth and social inclusion. Quality
of public services in Africa is generally
poor. Dzidonu describing government services in Ethiopia notes that they are
“characterized by cumbersome procedures, long delays in service delivery to
clients, and consequently high costs to citizens, discourteous behavior of
civil servants to citizens, a demand for compliance by citizens with the
bureaucracy’s archaic methods of doing things with a take it or leave
it attitude”.
(ICT4D – Ethiopia,
C. Dzidonu, 2006). Introduction of ICT-based
services creates an opportunity to identify flawed processes and
re-engineer them, consequently improve not only the efficiency but also the
quality of service to citizens. Successful E-Government initiatives offer
tangible opportunities which include:
transformation of cumbersome public administration and service
delivery
processes thereby increase efficiency of governments empowerment
and participation of citizens, thereby contribute to strengthening
democratic processes greater transparency and
accountability, thereby lead to better governance and reduce opportunities for
corruption Stimulation of the usage of ICT applications in other development
sectors (E-Health, E-Education), thereby opens opportunities to transform
agriculture based
economies.
E-Government Application Models
The above illustration briefly summarizes the various E-Government
delivery models and their expected benefits for government, citizens, businesses
and other players.
Cybersecurity issues
E-Government applications represent a security challenge as they
highly depend on critical ICT systems (both infrastructure and services) that
create vulnerabilities in government institutions, businesses and potentially
harm citizens. It is imperative for governments to understand and address
security concerns in order to leverage the potentials of ICTs in delivering
E-Government applications. In the deployment of E-Government application,
attention should be drawn to the prevention of cybercrime (i.e. the use of ICTs
by individuals to commit fraud and other crimes against companies and citizens)
with the objective of protecting government institutions, businesses and
citizens and without hampering democratic progresses and protection of human
rights.
Cybersecurity is a global problem that requires global and
multi-dimensional response with respect to policy, socio-economic, legal and
technological aspects. The ITU’s publication4 on Cybersecurity offers an excellent
reference for understanding these serious concerns and formulating adequate
policies and legal frameworks to effectively address security issues involved
in the information era.
Conclusions and Recommendations to ITU
There are important nuances among African countries. Whilst there
is a certain risk of generalization, it would be erroneous to consider the
continent as a homogenous bloc when evaluating the prospects of E-Government.
The E-Government readiness of the continent as a whole.
Low literacy rate is a serious impediment for the adoption of
E-Government in Africa as it hinders the
accessibility of G2C services. For citizens to fully enjoy the benefits of
E-Government, they should not only know how to read and write but also possess basic
ICT literacy.
The collateral effect of E-Government in catalysing development of
other ICT applications such as E-Education for the young can help in improving literacy
rates and overall access to education. Besides literacy, developed telecommunication
infrastructure and commitment of governments towards a citizen centred governance
are key determinants for full-fledged deployment of E-Government applications
in Africa.
E-Government is an enabler not a solution. It does present avenues
of opportunities for African countries. Driven and adapted by Africans
themselves, it should figure high among the key areas of action in national
e-strategies not because development partners have recommended it for “good
governance”, but because it inherently contributes to the socio-economic
dynamism and the overall livelihood of African societies.
E-Government has the ability to stimulate the emergence of an Africa adapted
cyber-culture and hasten ICT literacy, hence encourage the
development of
ICT4D applications with high socio-economical benefits such as
E-Agriculture,
E-Commerce, E-Education, E-Health. It also directly impacts on
cost effectiveness and efficiency of governments, empowers citizens and
improves government-citizens relationships especially with those in remote and
underserved rural areas. However, the expected benefits on efficiency are only
possible if and when profound transformations in administrative processes occur
with the adoption of ICTs rather than attempting to automate flawed and
cumbersome processes without re-engineering them. As such, E-Government can just
facilitate change towards new efficient processes, but will not remedy all inefficiencies
and corruption related problems.
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