Page 15 - DPSA_SDR Vol12 no1 A4.indd

E-GOVERNMENT

Mobilising e-government to

build resilient societies

The 2018 UN E-Government Survey, with the overall theme “gearing e-government to support transformation
towards sustainable and resilient societies”, is published as the implementation of the 2030 agenda advances to
its third year and the 2018 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) focuses on transformation towards sustainable and
resilient societies.

Global and regional trends standing in the high- and middle- level in 2016, and 152 countries provided
in e-government EGDI. The number of African countries such services in the health sector this
year compared to 75 in 2016. A growing
in the high-level EGDI group remains
relatively modest at six, with only one number of countries are also providing
E-government has been growing country, Ghana, joining the group since targeted online services to vulnerable
rapidly over the past 17 years since 2016. groups: 86% in the Americas, 79% in
the 1 attempt by the United Nations to Asia, 57 % in Africa and 15% in Oceania.
st
benchmark the state of e-government Many people in these countries are One hundred and forty member states
in 2001. The 2018 survey highlights unable to benet from ICT because provide at least one transactional
a persistent positive global trend of poor connectivity, the high cost service online. Improvement in such
towards higher levels of e-government of access and a lack of necessary services is strong and consistent in all
development. In this edition, 40 countries skills. These disadvantages are likely assessed categories: paying for utilities;
scored ‘very-high’ on the E-Government to affect the further development of submitting income tax; registering
Development Index (EGDI), with values e-government in Africa as the pace new businesses; paying nes and
in the range of 0,75 to 1,00, compared of technological innovation intensies. fees; applying for birth and marriage
to only 10 countries in 2003 and 29 Finally, in order to build a well-functioning certicates; registering motor vehicles;
countries in 2016. Since 2014, all 193 e-government, countries need to and applying for driver’s licenses and
member states have delivered some strengthen investments in developing personal identity cards.
form of online presence. human capital and telecommunication
infrastructure.
The average world EGDI has increased Transforming cities to
from 0,47 in 2014 to 0,55 in 2018 due According to the 2018 survey, the
to the continuous improvement of its complexity of e-government in pro- increase resilience and
subcomponents’ indices. This suggests moting accountable, effective, inclusive, sustainability
that globally, there has been steady transparent and trustworthy public
progress in improving e-government services that deliver people-centric The survey provides an overview of
and providing public services online. But outcomes is growing. Currently, there assessment models and presents the
despite some development gains and are trends of deploying e-services, ndings of a pilot study carried out in
major investments in several countries, especially in health, education, the 40 municipalities around the world.
the e-government and digital divides environment and decent employment, The challenges and opportunities
persist. Fourteen countries in the low- while the reach to the most vulnerable of applying e-governance to local
EGDI group are African and belong to is expanding. The major drivers of government units are presented
the least developed countries. the EGDI, as well as trends in open through specic cases. E-government
government data, public participation improves public services, citizen
Denmark, followed by Australia and and engagement for delivering engagement, and the transparency and
the Republic of Korea, lead the world innovative public services are scrutinis- accountability of authorities at the local
in providing government services ed in detail. level. E-government also strengthens
and information through the Internet resilience and sustainability and better
according to the 2018 EGDI. The According to the survey, the three most aligns local government operations with
remaining countries in the top 10 are commonly used online services in 2018 national digital strategies.
the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, are utilities payment, submission of
Singapore, New Zealand, France and income taxes and registration of new Among the top 10 of the 40 pilot cities,
Japan. businesses. Service availability through Moscow ranks the highest, followed by
emails, feed updates, mobile apps and Cape Town and Tallinn (second, tie)
E-government development increased SMS (short message service, or texts) and by London and Paris (forth, tie).
overall across regions, driven largely has doubled globally, especially in According to the Local Online Services
by improvements in the online service the health and education sectors. For Index (LOSI), used in determining this
index. The European countries lead instance, 176 countries provide online ranking, the remaining cities in the
e-government development, while the services in education via email alerts top 10 are Sydney, Amsterdam and
Americas and Asia share almost equal to citizens compared to 88 countries
Volume 12 No. 1 of 2018 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 13