The Challenge of Taking Baby Steps in E-governance in · PDF fileThe Challenge of Taking Baby...

Dr Richard Boateng [[email protected]] Photo Illustrations from Getty Images – www.gettyimages.com

Richard Boateng, PhD. Email: [email protected]

The Challenge of Taking

Baby Steps in

E-governance in West

Africa

UGBS Seminar Presentation by


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Outline

1. Background of Project 2. Research Issue/Problem 3. Conceptualizing E-governance 4. Method 5. Key Findings 6. Next Steps 7. Future Directions


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Project Background

Basic/Pure research

• The scientific community

• Focus is on the rigour of the process

Applied research

• Policy or Practice

• Focus is on the outcome/implications of results

• Evaluation research

– Assess the effectiveness

• Social Impact Assessment

Neuman, W.L. (2011) Basics of Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 2/E, Pearson

Education – ISBN ISBN-10: 0205484379 | ISBN-13: 9780205484379

Taking a Step Back


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Basic and Applied Social Research Compared



Taking a Step Back


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Project Background

African e-governance Academy

To establish a better understanding of e-governance

in five countries sub-Saharan Africa in order to define

appropriate approach for pragmatic support.

The study presents case studies on e-governance in

five ECOWAS countries, namely Ghana, Nigeria,

Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cameroon.



Taking a Step Back


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Is there a case for e-governance?

• Is this research very new?

– Not really

– Has been studied from a number of

perspectives using different terminologies • E-government; digital government

• Teledemocracy, e-democracy; ICT and government

• E-voting, Internet voting; e-participation

Taking a Step Back


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Is there a case for e-governance?

• But is it important?

Two words – electronic and governance

By Governance: the processes and institutions, both

formal and informal, that guide and restrain the

collective activities of a group (Keohane and Nye (2000).

Development analysts and academics alike have

posited that the prerequisite of development is the

promotion of good governance (Sen, 1999)

Taking a Step Back


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Conceptual definitions

The study defines e-governance as the use of information and

communication technologies (ICTs) to continuously transform

the internal and external relationships of governments, the

public sector and other governance stakeholders in a manner

that is citizen-centric, cooperative and polycentric (Saxena, 2005;

Ghayur, 2006; Ray and Mukherjee, 2007).

e-governance encompasses e-democracy and e-government.


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E-democracy entails the structures and processes which

enable government to communicate and interact

electronically with citizens in order to foster democratic

processes;

E-government refers to the electronic delivery of

government services to the public.

Six core interrelated applications– e-information, e-service,

e-commerce/procurement, e-administration, e-voting and e-

participation.


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The promise of technology

ITU (2010)

Taking a Step Back


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The problem as it defined by development agencies

• There is a need for a study which can

investigate e-governance from a more a

comprehensive approach:

• Lifecycle: – Needs – Design – Adoption & Usage – Impact

– Objectives- Policy & Programmes – Adoption & Usage and

Impact

– Previous studies have a narrow approach eg. UNDP Panos

2011 “e-governance in West Africa”

Taking a Step Back


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exploring extant research


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The research problem

• establish a better understanding of e-

governance in sub-Saharan Africa in order

to define appropriate approach for

pragmatic support

• five countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina

Faso, Senegal and Cameroon


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Method


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Method

1. Timeline: May 2011 – April 2012

2. Review of literature

3. Development of Country Case Study Guide

4. Selection of Consultants in all the countries

5. Minimum of 3 revisions for each country case study

by independent reviewers

• Data was triangulated from interviews with

country case study, review of policies on

technology and governance, and review of

online presence of government institutions.


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Method – Case Study Guide

a) E-governance Objectives

b) E-governance Policies

c) E-governance Programmes and Projects

d) Online Presence of Government Ministries, Local

Government and Political Parties

e) E-governance Impact on key stakeholders including:

National Development Agenda, Millennium

Development Goals, Principles of Democracy, Local

Government, Climate Change, and Citizens and

Society.


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Findings

Government readiness to reform its public sector

operations and pursue an ICT-led development agenda

tends to be the major enabler or driver of e-governance

initiatives.

Thus, ICTs are either used as enablers or drivers to the

development of e-governance objectives.

Enablers – Ghana and Cameroon

Drivers – Senegal and Burkina Faso

Blurred Distinction – Nigeria

e-governance objectives


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Findings

1. National ICT policies tend to support the

achievement of objectives

2. Most Policies are still at the implementation stage – Implementation agency (often comes late): Ghana (NITA); Nigeria

(NITDA); Cameron (ANTIC); Burkina Faso (ARCE)

3. Policies need revision and consolidation;

strategic focus 1. Nigeria consolidates ICT policies (Draft National ICT policy – Jan 2011)

2. ANTIC and UNU-IIST worked on EGOV.COM (Jan 2010)

4. Poor Promotion of Policies and Programmes

5. Confusion on the between implementation agency

and other government agency on responsibilities

6. Structural and Endogenous Challenges

e-governance policies and programmes


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Findings

1. Very informative in nature; low interactivity

2. Web 2.0 are on websites of political parties and

personal pages of politicians

3. In local government institutions, there is also low

incentive to build a website - low levels of

literacy, lack of local content in local languages

online presence of government institutions

Burkina Faso

demonstrates a good

example of how ICT

drives policy


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Findings

1. Criticism: only two objectives - regional

marketing and political patronage

2. E-governance fears and resistance:

– Transparency in processes

– No more kickbacks and bribes

3. Administrative hurdles affect website

updates

4. Parliamentarians attitude – constituents are

not online

5. Confusion between Implementation agency

and local government

online presence of government institutions


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Findings

1. National development agenda

– Easy to demonstrate contribution of e-governance

2. Millennium Development Goals

– More about potential

– Project/Programme Maturity

3. Citizen Participation

More informative and less interactive

Interactivity is primarily on low cost/social

technologies (radio and recently social media)

4. Climate Change/Environmental Protection

Lack of policy on e-waste

Lack of eco-spirit

No direction/example by government

e-government impact


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Next Steps 1. Revision of policies

2. Ensuring sustainability

3. Going Mobile

4. Interoperable platforms

5. E-governance Education

6. Local content production

& multilingualism

7. Contributing to MDGs

Policy readiness

Infrastructure

readiness

Culture & Actor

readiness

Emerging

presence

Networked

presence

Transformative

presence


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Next Steps – For Research

1. Multidisciplinary Approach

– The place for ICT for development

in universities??

– Why – eg: Talking Book by Literacy

Bridge

2. Evidence-based Policy

Development

3. More Process-based research

- how and why

Thank You


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References

• Funilkul, S. and Chutimaskul, W. (2009) The framework for sustainable eDemocracy

development, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Volume 3, No. 1 pp. 16-31

• Kamal, M.M. (2009) "An analysis of e-Participation research: moving from theoretical to pragmatic

viewpoint", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 3(4), 340 – 354.

• Keohane, R.O. and Nye, J.S. (2000), “Introduction”, in Nye, J.S. and Donahue, J.D. (Eds)

Governance in a Globalization World, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC.

• Ray, S. and Mukherjee, A. (2007) Development of a framework towards successful

implementation of e-governance initiatives in health sector in India. International Journal of Health

Care Quality Assurance, 20(6), 464-83.

• Sen, A. (1999) Development and Freedom, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

• UN E-government Survey (2010) Global E-Government Survey 2010, Leveraging E-government

at a Time of Financial and Economic Crisis, Available:

http://www.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/08report.htm

• UNDP-PANOS (2011) E-governance and Citizen Participation in West Africa, UNDP-PANOS,

Available: http://www.undpegov.org/WA-epart.html.

Photo Illustrations from Getty Images – www.gettyimages.com

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