United Nations Global E-government Readiness Report; Global digital divide issues stemming from analysis of the patterns of e-readiness globally

1. UN Global E-government
Readiness Report
Meeting on ICT for development
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Seema Hafeez
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)
United Nations Headquarters
New York
27 July 2006

2. What this presentation will
outline
 UN Global E-government Readiness
Report 2005
 the UN program of e-government for
development: The Way Forward

3. The UN E-government Report 2005 is available in hard
copy and published online at
http://www.unpan.org/egovernment5.asp

4. UN Global E-government Readiness report
is in 2 parts:
 Part I : UN Global E-government Survey
 Part II: Global digital divide issues
stemming from analysis of the patterns of
e-readiness globally
Presentation will focus more on the e-government Survey

5. Conceptual Framework
of the UN E-government Readiness
Survey
UN E-Government Survey focuses on the
issue of how willing and ready are the
governments around the world to:
– improve the access, and quality, of basic
economic and social services to the people ;
and
– involve them in public policy making via e-
participation.

6.  The UN Global E-government Survey
framework encompasses the
economic and social development
context of a country.
 It places the e-government readiness
in the context of the overall pattern and
the level of development of a country.

7. The conceptual question behind the Survey
is:
 how ready are the countries to take
advantage of the opportunity provided by
advances in information technology?

8. The objectives of the Survey are to provide
a:
comparative assessment of the
willingness and ability of governments
in the use of e-government and ICTs as
tools in the public delivery of services;
and
benchmarking tool for monitoring the
progress of countries, now three years
in a row, as they progress towards
higher levels of e-government and e-
participation service delivery.

9. 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 Web
measure index, the Telecommunication
Infrastructure index and the Human
Capital index.

10. E-government
readiness Index
Web Measure
Index
1/3
Infrastructure
Index
1/3
Human Capital
Index
1/3

11.  The website assessments in the Survey
are base upon an ascending five-stage
model based on a state’s online
presence.
 Countries are scored on the basis of
whether they provide specific products
and social services

12. What the web assessments
measure
Stage I: Emerging Presence
 an official website/ national portal / an official
home page;
 links to government ministries;
 regional/local government, non executive
branch of the government;
Overall information is limited, basic and static.

13. Stage II Enhanced Presence
 Online services databases
 sources of current and archived
information
 policies, laws and regulation, reports,
newsletters,
 downloadable databases.
 search option, help feature ; site map

14. Stage III. Interactive Presence
 online downloading; security link;
electronic signature facility;
 audio and video capability for relevant
public information
 government officials can be contacted via
email, fax, telephone and post.
 The site is updated with greater regularity.

15. Stage IV: Transactional Presence
 Two way online transactions
 paying for motor vehicle violation, taxes,
fees for postal services through credit,
bank or debit card
 online bidding for public contracts
 secure links provided

16. Stage V: Networked Presence
 citizen feedback to the government
 web comment form
 calendar of events
 online polling mechanism /discussion
forums
 online consultation facilities.

17. Telecommunication Index
The telecommunication infrastructure index
is a composite weighted average index of
six primary indices based on basic
infrastructural indicators that define a
country’s ICT infrastructure capacity.
PC Index Internet Index
Telephone Index Online population;
Mobile phone Index TV Index

18.  Human capital index is a composite of the
adult literacy rate and the combined
primary, secondary and tertiary gross
enrolment ratio, with two thirds weight
given to adult literacy and one third to the
gross enrolment ratio.

19. UN Global Survey 2005 Results:
E-government readiness across regions of the world
 The regions of Northern
America and Europe show
the highest e-readiness
followed by South and
Eastern Asia
 In 2005 countries
comprising Western Asia
have done very well pulling
up the aggregate index to
0.4384 and surpassing the
Caribbean region at 0.4282
(which was the fifth
highest region in 2004).
 E-government readiness in
Africa, though marginally
higher than in 2004, is the
lowest in the world.
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
NorthAmerica Europe South&
EasternAsia
South&
Central
America
WesternAsia Caribbean South&
CentralAsia
Oceania Africa

20. Global E-government readiness :
top 15 countries
Rank Country Index
1 United States 0.906
2 Denmark 0.906
3 Sweden 0.898
4 United Kingdom 0.878
5 Republic of Korea 0.873
6 Australia 0.868
7 Singapore 0.850
8 Canada 0.843
9 Finland 0.823
10 Norway 0.823
11 Germany 0.805
12 Netherlands 0.802
13 New Zealand 0.799
14 Japan 0.780
15 Iceland 0.779

21. US is the world leader
followed by Denmark,
Sweden and the United
Kingdom
Republic of Korea stands at
5th position in the world

22. In Eastern Asia Korea leads
Country
E-government
Index
Global Rank in:
2005 2005 2004 2003
1 Republic of Korea 0.8727 5 5 13
2 Singapore 0.8503 7 8 12
3 Japan 0.7801 14 18 18
4 Philippines 0.5721 41 47 33
5 Malaysia 0.5706 43 42 43
6 Thailand 0.5518 46 50 56
7 China 0.5078 57 67 74
8 Brunei Darussalam 0.4475 73 63 55
9 Mongolia 0.3962 93 75 103
10 Indonesia 0.3819 96 85 70
11 Viet Nam 0.364 105 112 97
12 Cambodia 0.2989 128 129 134
13 Myanmar 0.2959 129 123 126
14 Timor-Leste 0.2512 144 174 169
15 Lao, P.D.R 0.2421 147 144 149

23. E-government rankings in Eastern Asia 2005
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
RepublicofKorea
Singapore
Japan
Philippines
Malaysia
Thailand
China
BruneiDarussalam
Mongolia
Indonesia
VietNam
Cam
bodia
Myanm
arTim
or-Leste
Lao,P.D.R
Graphically the rankings show Korea as the No.1 in e-
government readiness in the region
Korea

24. Top 10 economies performance by
stage of e-government readiness
Stage 1:
Emerging
presence
Stage II:
Enhanced
presence
Stage III:
Interactive
presence
Stage IV:
Transactional
presence
Stage V:
Networked
presence
USA 100 99 100 100 76
Singapore 100 94 99 100 83
UK 100 99 99 100 76
Republic of Korea 100 98 96 90 80
Denmark 100 97 98 90 78
Chile 100 93 93 85 65
Australia 100 95 93 80 61
Canada 100 99 90 61 69
Sweden 100 99 92 63 52
Germany 100 95 100 54 41

25. Comparison of Stage III Interactive features of some global
leaders
USA
Singapore UK
Republic of Korea
Denmark
Chile Australia
Canada
Sw eden
Germany
84
86
88
90
92
94
96
98
100
102
Korea is among the top 10 and close to the levels that of USA, UK and the
Singapore

26. Comparison of Stage IV transactional features, selected
countries
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
U
SA
Singapore
U
K
R
epublic
ofK
orea
D
enm
ark
C
hile
A
ustralia
C
anada
Sw
eden
G
erm
any
The table shows percent of features available out of the maximum
assessed

27. Comparison of Stage V Networked presence features,
selected countries
USA
Singapore
UK
Denmark
Chile
Australia
Canada
Sweden
Germany
Republic of Korea
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
In Stage V also Korea is indeed very close to providing 100 % of the features as
assessed by the UN survey.

28. E-government readiness by stage in Asia
Stage 1 Stage 11 Stage III Stage IV Stage V
67-100 % utilization
Korea 100 98 96 90 80
Japan 100 94 92 37 56
Philippines 100 91 82 44 35
34 - 66 % utilization
Thailand 88 89 76 20 31
Argentina 100 83 74 39 24
Malaysia 100 69 70 29 20
China 100 75 71 5 24
1 - 33 % utilization
Brunei
Darussalam 63 39 24 0 9
Mongolia 100 34 19 0 11
Cambodia 100 30 26 0 7
Viet Nam 0 45 17 0 9
Myanmar 88 22 13 2 4
Lao, PDR 0 8 16 0 0

29.  Korea has also done very well in
e-participation as assessed by
the UN E-government Survey

30. E-participation Index
 The e-participation index assesses “how
relevant and useful the e-participation
features of government websites around
the world are; and
 how well they are deployed by the
governments for promoting participatory
decision-making

31. E-participation Index
 E-Participation index is a qualitative
assessment of the quality, relevance
and usefulness of government
websites in providing online
participatory tools to the people.

32. E-participation Index: top 10 countries
 The United Kingdom,
scores the highest and
forms the comparator for
the relative performance
of all other countries.
 It is followed by
Singapore and then the
United States
 Korea is ranked 5th
among all 191 countries
of the world
Country Index
2005
1 United
Kingdom
1.0000
2 Singapore 0.9841
3 United States 0.9048
4 Canada 0.8730
5 Republic of
Korea
0.8730
6 New Zealand 0.7937
7 Denmark 0.7619
8 Mexico 0.7619
9 Australia 0.7143
10 Netherlands 0.6984

33. Conclusions of the UN E-government
Readiness report 2005
Trends in e-government development
in 2005 indicate that a consciousness
of the benefits of the information
society is gaining currency
Approaches to e-government
programme offerings differ from
country to country.

34. Conclusion contd…
 The “how” of what countries choose
to display on their websites is a
function of “what” they want to focus
on and “why” they want to focus on
the issue(s)
 E-government development appears
to have a strong correlation with
income per capita.

35.  Whereas part of the reason for the
high e-readiness in most of the
developed economies is past
investment in, and development of,
telecommunications infrastructure,
resource availability appears to be a
critical factor inhibiting e-government
initiatives in many developing
countries.

36.  Despite steady progress in e-government
development across the globe, lack of
access to ICTs remains a major challenge
for the world.
 One of the central obstacles in the march
towards an information society for the
future in developing countries is the huge
disparity that exists in both access to and
use of ICTs.

37. Part II: UN E-government readiness program:
the Way Forward
UN Global E-government Readiness Survey 2007-2008
UN E-government Online Knowledgebase (2006-2007)
UN E-government Readiness Regional Reports for :
- Asia & the Pacific
- Africa
- Arab States
- Latin America
- Europe

38. The Way forward:
 In 2006 the UN is evolving its Global
E-government Report further.
The basic questions we are seeking
are:

39. The way forward contd…
1. what constitutes e-government
and e-participation
2. what should be the objectives of
e-Government and e-
participation in the service of
the citizen

40. The way forward contd…
3. is one conceptual model of 'how to'
for e-government indeed feasible or
desirable or each country needs to
tailor it according to its level of
development
4. What are the existing e--
government / e-participation
endeavors in countries around the
world

41. The way forward contd…
5. What are the challenges and barriers
to e-government and e-participation
service delivery from the government
perspective
5. What are some of the innovative
practices of citizen engagement and
reasons for their success;

42. Each of the Reports will be
accompanied by an interactive tool
i.e. a ‘how to’ guide /manual on
special policy issues
 For example for the Africa report
the UN is thinking of the special
issue: ‘should m-government be
an alternative or a complement’

43.  In 2005 the UN E-government Survey
evaluated whether a wireless access
alternative was available at the
National Site of countries.
 Only eight countries were found to
provide citizens with some form of m-
government via the website namely
Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Malta,
Norway, Philippines and Slovenia.

44. Other special issues we are going to be
working on are:
 How to build an e-government
strategy (we are looking into the
development of an interactive tool)
 what is the efficacy of the open
source software for developing
countries

45. Finally to undertake this
program the UN is beginning a
process of dialogue between
all stakeholders to forge the
boundaries of a framework of
e-government for the future
work of the UN.

46. Thank You