UN E-Government Survey 2010 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

1. THIRD PARLIAMENTARY FORUM ON SHAPING THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
UNDESA E-government Survey:
Leveraging E-government in Times of
Financial and Economic Crisis
SEEMA HAFEEZ
Senior Economic Affairs Officer
Division for Public Administration and Development Management
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
4 May 2010

2. 2
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
2
What this presentation will outline
 Overview of some results from the UN E-
government Survey 2010 in light of this
Meeting’s framework
 Issues in e-government in the context
of the economic and financial crisis:
What parliamentarians can do

3. 3
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
3
The E-government Survey presents a
comparative ranking of the 192 UN Member
States according to their state of e-
government readiness
What is the UNDESA E-government Survey

4. 4
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
4
Conceptual Framework of the UNDESA 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.

5. 5
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
5
The objective of the UN E-government Readiness
Surveys is to provide a:
 comparative assessment of the 192 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
Objectives of the UNDESA survey

6. 6
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
6
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.
Methodological framework

7. 7
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
7
Stages of e-government
 The website
assessments in
the Survey
represent an
ascending
five-stage
model based
on a state’s
online
presence.
Stage
V
Stage IV :
Connected
Stage III :
Transactional
Stage II: Enhanced
Stage I: Emerging

8. 8
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
8
 UNDESA carries out a survey of the online
provision of information and services of 192 UN
Member States
 Countries are scored on the basis of whether
they provide specific features and services on
the websites of :
– National home page/portal
– Ministry/Department of Finance
– Ministry /Department of Education
– Ministry/Department of Health
– Ministry /Department of Labor
– Ministry/department of Social Welfare
Web Measure Index

9. 9
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
9
UNDESA E-government Readiness 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

10. 10
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
10
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

11. 11
Progress in establishing national government
online presence, 2010
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
11
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.
On 28 June 2006 Montenegro was accepted as a United Nations
Member State bringing the total UN Member States to 192.
2009
Countries with central government
websites
Countries without central
government websites

12. 12
National government ministries online 2010
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
12
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

13. 13
Online tracking of Fiscal Stimulus
UN E-government Survey assessed 115 websites globally
to track how governments were using online tools to
track fiscal stimulus and financial bailout funds
 the degree of transparency in crisis response programs
 Whether citizens were engaged in decision making
about the types of response , how much money and to
whom should the funds be made available
 Policies on information disclosure and extent to which
civil society was able to use this information to raise
awareness about particular issues

14. 14
Use of ICT: Government Crisis Response websites
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Numberofcases 31 63 2 19
Natonalgovernments andEU Sub-nationalgovernments InterntionalOrganizations NGOs
The UN survey
assessed crisis
response websites
of 31 national
governments
including the EU; 63
sub-national
governments and 19
NGOs

15. 15
Objectives of the crisis response websites
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
percent 27 34 38 84
Feedbackfromcitizens Socialprotectioninformation Managementoffunds Publicscrutinyoffunds
-84 % websites allow
public scrutiny of funds
-38 % management of
funds
-34 % provide information
on social protection
-But only 27 % allow for
feedback from citizens

16. 16
Some examples: Korean Ministry of Strategy and
Finance website
http://www.mosf.go.kr/recover_eng/
Korean Ministry of
Strategy and
Finance website
outlines policies
related to fiscal
stimulus measures,
employment and
support to various
industries.

17. 17
Philippines government economic and financial crisis website
http://www.neda.gov.ph/erp/
Philippines’ Resiliency
Action Plan
provides useful
information on the
country’s stimulus
plan and fiscal measures
and updated
information on the latest
measures taken by the
Government including
news related to the crisis.

18. 18
Swedish government economic and financial
crisis website
http://regeringen.se/sb/d/11577/a/120213/
Swedish Government
provides general
information
on measures taken in
different sectors, such
as warranty
programmes for
financial institutions
and support for
Swedish municipalities.

19. 19
Benefits of ICT / e-government in the
financial crisis
1. E-government can provide better communication
between the:
- government and citizen (as policy maker and
implementer ) and
- government (as regulator) and the financial sector.
2. E-government can improve transparency,
integrity and productivity (efficiency per unit of
time)
3. Innovative solutions in regulatory oversight in times of
economic and financial crises

20. 20
Parliamentarians can help support use of
ICT/e-government for:
- greater transparency and enhanced supervision
by regulators
- timeliness and flexibility in real-time responsiveness
to crisis events
- effective communication between the regulatory
authorities and the financial sector
- information tools for regulators to develop and
implement regulations
- implementing tools for effective supervision and
monitoring

21. 21
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
21
Following on the basic framework
of the UN e-government
development survey, one set of
issues for this meeting to explore
could be:
Today’s meeting sets the framework for a
discussion on what Parliamentarians can do
for effective role of ICT in regulation

22. 22
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
22
Key issues to explore in national governments:
1. What are the current objectives of ICT and e-
Government for monitoring and supervision
of the economic and financial crisis; what
should they be?
2. If efficiency, transparency, accountability
and effectiveness are the goals to focus on
what ICT related processes and mechanisms
need to be put in place?
3. How should the ‘enabling environment’ for ICT
use by government be defined in the current
economic and financial crisis

23. 23
What the parliamentarians can do
 ICT can contribute greatly to broad-based
productivity growth across many sectors and in
supporting economic recovery by creating
jobs, fostering innovation and promoting
competition.
 As the perils of the economic and financial
crisis have shown an enabling environment is
necessary with the right mix of legal and
regulatory regimes

24. 24
 legislators can support the right legal and
policy framework to curb the negative effects
of the crisis and speed up the recovery process
 legislators can find innovative ICT solutions to
implement regulatory regimes conducive to
economic growth
 Parliamentarians such as this group from both
from developed and developing countries
need to exchange views and experiences on a
mix of such strategies and policies and take
away the ‘best practices’

25. 25
http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/
25
 Finally, UNDESA and the Global
Center provides this opportunity to
‘take away’ best practices and
lessons learnt which we hope will form
the bedrock of such efforts in the
recovery

26. 26
The UN E-government Survey can be
downloaded from:
http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_r
eports/10report.htm
Thank You