E‐government and developing countries: an overview

Abstract

E‐governance is more than just a government website on the Internet. The strategic objective of e‐governance is to support and simplify governance for all parties; government, citizens and businesses. The use of ICTs can connect all three parties and support processes and activities. In other words, in e‐governance electronic means support and stimulate good governance. Therefore, the objectives of e‐governance are similar to the objectives of good governance. Good governance can be seen as an exercise of economic, political, and administrative authority to better manage affairs of a country at all levels. It is not difficult for people in developed countries to imagine a situation in which all interaction with government can be done through one counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without waiting in lines. However to achieve this same level of efficiency and flexibility for developing countries is going to be difficult. The experience in developed countries shows that this is possible if governments are willing to decentralize responsibilities and processes, and if they start to use electronic means. This paper is going to examine the legal and infrastructure issues related to e‐governance from the perspective of developing countries. Particularly it will examine how far the developing countries have been successful in providing a legal framework.

Notes

Correspondence: Dr Subhajit Basu, Lecturer Information and Technology Law, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast, 29 University Square, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK; E‐mail: [email protected].

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Ibid.

Ibid.

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The Interact Phase of E‐Government: Case Example: Namibian Parliamentary web site—inviting citizens to participate online in their national government. Through its web site, the Parliament of Namibia engages citizens in the democratic process by affording them the opportunity to participate online in political discussions, and the opportunity to stay up‐to‐date with the legislative developments of the Namibian Parliament. In particular, bills up for consideration are posted online and citizens can send comments directly to parliamentary representatives. The site also links to many regional councils, which have similar web sites. Website: http://www.parliament.gov.na.

The Transact Phase of E‐Government Case Example: E‐Procurement System, Chile—Revamping offline rules and regulations in order to establish an efficient online procurement system. Prior to the establishment of portals to conduct government transactions online, the government procurement system in Chile was fragmented and burdened with various, sometimes contradictory regulatory frameworks. In 1998, the government formed the Communications and Information Technology Unit (UTIC) and conferred on it the mandate of coordinating e‐government efforts in an attempt to control costs and bring transparency to the system. The UTIC completely revamped the underlying system of procurement by centralizing all purchasing activities through a central web site. This website automatically sends emails to private companies registered on the system when contracts come up for bid and takes bids online. Not only has the new system streamlined procurement, it has also created new methods of oversight and accountability. For example, the site includes statistics and other information on past performance of government contractors. Website: http://www.compraschile.cl (in Spanish). Case study: http://www1.world bank.org/publicsector/egov/eprocurement_chile.htm.

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FRIENDS (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient, Network for Disbursement of Services) is set up in every district head quarters by the IT department. FRIENDS is a unique project taken up by the government to provide the benefits of IT to the common man. This offers the citizen an integrated point for utility payments for specific services such as electricity charges, water charges, property tax, professional tax, building tax, etc. The server of the FRIENDS centre is being linked to the server of the concerned departments for updating on a real time basis. A friendly ‘Help Desk’ helps the customers to fill up forms and clarify their doubts. The project when completed is expected to benefit 12 million people of the state, i.e. about 40% of the population. With a view to disseminate increased application of IT to the rural people, in association with the library council, the IT department has started a novel project called SEVANA. The project envisages converting about 400 libraries in rural areas into IT dissemination centres by providing free Internet connections so that they can function as rural information centres. A software package named SEVANA provides information on various government schemes, programmes, general information on local bodies, links to important sites, and other important facts relevant to the rural population. The pilot project, which was implemented in Kallara Panchayat in Trivandrum district, has been functioning very well. The centre became a point of convergence for villagers seeking information services and an entry into the world of computers and computer literacy. The people from rural areas are able to get various utility services through the Internet. Training for Internet awareness is also being organized in these centres. The Vijaywada Online Information Center (VOICE) delivers municipal services such as building approvals and birth and death certificates. It also handles the collection of property, water and sewerage taxes. The VOICE system uses five kiosks located close to the citizens. These were linked to the back end processes in the municipal offices through a wide area network. The application has reduced corruption, made access to services more convenient, and has improved the finances of the municipal government (known as ‘municipal corporations’ in India. http://www1.worldbank.org/public‐sector/egov/voice_cs.htm#top

The promise of ‘Leap frog technology’—Navrongo, Ghana, for details visit www.idrc.ca/evaluation/documents/Navrongo/NAVRONO.HTM#information. Wireless Technology in Action—Grameen Telecom (Bangladesh) It is one such success story about a country where teledensity is one of the world's lowest, an innovative idea based on cutting age technology has been able to by‐pass traditional technology, leap‐frogging into the information age. See also The Working Group on e‐Government in the Developing World ‘Roadmap for e‐government in the developing world: 10 questions e‐government leaders should ask themselves’ Pacific Council on International Policy, Los Angeles, 2002. Available at http://www.pacificcouncil.org/pdfs/e‐gov.paper.f.pdf.

OECD, op cit, note 4.

B Krebs ‘G8 Nations Mull Digital Divide Task Force Report’ (1 June 2001, Washtech.com), online: http://www.newsbytes.com/. The United Nations has also been concerned. See R Shimmon ‘From digital divide to digital opportunity’. Online: http://www.integratedjustice.gov.on.ca/. 23 December 2000, UNESCO, online: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/.

See Electronic Commerce Task Force, Industry Canada ‘Government as a at 728. Model User’ in Canadian Strategy on E‐Commerce, December 2000, online: http://e‐com.ic.gc.ca/english/strat/662.html.

K U Leuven ‘Roadmap for Advanced Research in Privacy and Identity Management (RAPID)’, Jos Dumortier and Caroline Goemans, Interdiciplinary Centre for Law and ICT (ICRI), 2002.

‘Principles for providing and using personal information’; available from http://iitf.doc.gov/ipc/ipc/ipc‐pubs/niiprivprin_final.html.

OECD, op cit, note 4.

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Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

J D Gregory ‘Solving legal issues in electronic government authority and authentication’, Canadian Journal of Law and Technology Vol 1, pp 1–16, 2002.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Subhajit Basu

Correspondence: Dr Subhajit Basu, Lecturer Information and Technology Law, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast, 29 University Square, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK; E‐mail: [email protected].