Why e-government; discussion of United nations e-government index; E-government readiness South Asia

1. eWorld Forum 2011
United Nations Program in E-government:
Assessing national e-readiness
SEEMA HAFEEZ
Senior Economic Affairs Officer
Division for Public Administration and Development Management
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
New Delhi, India
2August 2011

2. 22
What this presentation will outline
 Issues in global e-government
 Overview of some results from the UN E-
government Survey in light of the
framework of eWorld Forum discussions

3. Why e-government ?
Governments today are looking to reform processes to:
 Implement more transparency and accountability, so
that citizens can understand how the public sector
operates, who is making the decisions, how input can be
provided, and whether or not this input is being used.
 Improves access to basic services and ensures equal
access to the population.
 Provide faster response times and improve the quality of
service.
 Allow greater participation and suggestions from more
people, at all stages of the policy process.
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4. 4
E-government can:
1. Provide better information and services from :
 government to citizen (as policy maker and
implementer )
 government to citizen (as provider of services)
 citizen to government (by participating in public policy
decision making)
2. E-government can improve transparency, integrity and
productivity (efficiency per unit of time)
Measurements of e-government therefore provide
some insights on the performance of the
governments

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The UN E-government Survey presents a
comparative ranking of the 193 UN Member
States according to their state of e-
government readiness
UN DESA Research work : the e-government Survey

6. 6
 UN has published 5 surveys since 2003; these are
considered a global bedrock for e-government
readiness assessment
• Several countries use the UN Methodology to conduct their own
e-government readiness
• European Union and the World Economic Forum use the UN e-
government Index as their key indicator for global e-
government assessment
• Google has around a million links to the Survey
• It is referenced in over 700 journals, academic papers
• Translated into several languages

7. 7
UN E-government Surveys available at:
http://www.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/08report.htm

8. The objective of the UN E-government Development
Surveys is to provide a:
 comparative assessment of the 193 countries in
the use of e-government and ICTs for delivery of
public services;
 benchmarking tool for monitoring the progress of
countries as they progress towards higher levels
of e-government and e-participation service
delivery.
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What is the UN E-government
Development Index
It is a benchmarking tool for monitoring the progress
of countries towards higher levels of e-government
and e-participation service delivery.

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http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
10
E-government is defined as the use of ICT and its
application by the government for the provision of
information and public services to the people.
The E-government Readiness Index is a composite
index comprising the Online service index, the
Telecommunication Infrastructure index and the
Human Capital index.
Methodological Framework

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Stages of e-government in the Survey
 The website
assessments in
the Survey
represent an
ascending
four-stage
model based
on a state’s
online
presence.
Stage
V
Stage IV :
Connected
Stage III :
Transactional
Stage II: Enhanced
Stage I: Emerging

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Results: Progress in establishing national
government online presence, 2010
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
12
Majority of the UN
Member States have
vigorously embraced
electronic service
delivery.
Since 2003, 189 out of
the 192 UN Member
States have set up
government websites for
online information and
services
On 28 June 2006 Montenegro was accepted as a United Nations Member State bringing the total UN Member States to 192.
In July 2011 South Sudan was accepetd pted as a United Nations
Member State bringing the total UN Member States to 193.
2009
Countries with central government
websites
Countries without central
government websites

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UN DESA E-government Development Index 2010
Top 10 countries
0.65
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
France Spain Australia Denmark Norway Netherlands United Kingdom Canada United States Republic of Korea
 Six of the top ten world e-government readiness
leaders are countries from the European Region

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Several developing countries are among the top 35 e-ready
countries and ahead of some developed economies, 2010
Rank Country Rank Country
1 Republic of Korea 19 Finland
2 United States 20 Estonia
3 Canada 21 Ireland
4 United Kingdom 22 Iceland
5 Netherlands 23 Liechtenstein
6 Norway 24 Austria
7 Denmark 25 Luxembourg
8 Australia 26 Israel
9 Spain 27 Hungary
10 France 28 Lithuania
11 Singapore 29 Slovenia
12 Sweden 30 Malta
13 Bahrain 31 Colombia
14 New Zealand 32 Malaysia
15 Germany 33 Czech Republic
16 Belgium 34 Chile
17 Japan 35 Croatia
18 Switzerland

15. E-government Readiness in South Asia
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Email and contact information on websites
2008
2008
2010
2010
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Governmentofficialcontactinformation Emailofpublicofficial
 By 2008, 136
countries (out of the
192 UN Member
States) had e-mail
information available
on their national
website
 Telephone
number/fax number
was available in 159
countries

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National government ministries online 2010
17
0 1-5 6-10
More
than
10
Number of
Countries 52 13 9 118
Percentage
of Total 27% 7% 5% 61%
Efforts at linking up various
government departments are
at an early stage worldwide.
61 % of the countries had
more than 10
ministries/departments
connected to the Home
page.
But around one third had
none or less than 5
departments linked to the
central home page

18. Transactional e-government services,
2008 and 2010
 39 or one-fifth of
all 192 UN
Member States ,
countries offered
online form
submission
 31 countries
offered users the
possibility to make
online payments
with credit or
debit cards.
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19. Of the lessons learnt from 7 years of UN Global e-government
readiness survey the following are of relevance to the discussion
today:
 Approaches to e-government programme offerings differ from
country to country.
 There are a variety of e-government development models
 The “how” of what countries choose to dispense online is a
function of “what” they want to focus on and “why” they want
to focus on the issue(s)
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Lessons learnt

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http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
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Following on the basic framework of
the UN e-government development
survey, one set of issues for national
governments to explore could be the
following:
Th discussions at the eWorld Forum revolve
around what governments can do in ensuring
effective e-government

21. Issues:
1. What is the domain of e-government in the
national government
2. what should be the objectives of e-government in
the service of the citizen
3. is one conceptual model of 'how to' for e-
government and service delivery indeed feasible
or desirable or each country, each village, needs
to tailor it according to its needs and level of
development
4. What are the challenges and barriers to e-
government and e-participation service delivery
from the government perspective
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22. National governments need to:
 Readjust and realign the human, capital and
technological systems to adapt to innovations
 Establish policy frameworks for integrating ICT
and e-government in national planning
processes
 Establish ICT focal points in governments and
develop institutional arrangements
 Form South-South partnerships for ICT led
development
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23. Trends in future e-government
 the real benefit to e-Government lies not in the
use of technology per se, but in its application.
 innovative e-government programs re-shape
the relationship between national, regional and
local actors.
 trends of future world e-government are likely
to contribute to more participatory, and
potentially more democratic, governance
around the world.
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 Finally, I feel confident that discussions at
the eWorld Forum will provide an
opportunity to ‘take away’ such best
practices and lessons learnt which can
form the bedrock of effective e-
government strategies and efforts in India
and indeed for other countries of the
region, and beyond.

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Thank You