The presentation discusses the importance of e-government in promoting transparency, efficiency, and citizen participation in public service delivery. It highlights the UN e-government survey as a key benchmarking tool for assessing countries' e-government readiness and outlines various stages of e-government development. The presentation concludes with insights on future e-government trends and the potential for more participatory governance.

1. eWorld Forum 2011 United Nations Program in E-government: Assessing national e-readiness SEEMA HAFEEZ Senior Economic Affairs Officer Division for Public Administration and Development Management UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs New Delhi, India 2August 2011

2. What this presentation will outline Issues in global e-government Overview of some results from the UN E-government Survey in light of the framework of eWorld Forum discussions

3. Why e-government ? Governments today are looking to reform processes to: Implement more transparency and accountability, so that citizens can understand how the public sector operates, who is making the decisions, how input can be provided, and whether or not this input is being used. Improves access to basic services and ensures equal access to the population. Provide faster response times and improve the quality of service. Allow greater participation and suggestions from more people, at all stages of the policy process.

4. E-government can: 1. Provide better information and services from : government to citizen (as policy maker and implementer ) government to citizen (as provider of services) citizen to government (by participating in public policy decision making) 2. E-government can improve transparency, integrity and productivity (efficiency per unit of time) Measurements of e-government therefore provide some insights on the performance of the governments

5. The UN E-government Survey presents a comparative ranking of the 193 UN Member States according to their state of e-government readiness UN DESA Research work : the e -government Survey

6. UN has published 5 surveys since 2003; these are considered a global bedrock for e-government readiness assessment Several countries use the UN Methodology to conduct their own e-government readiness European Union and the World Economic Forum use the UN e-government Index as their key indicator for global e-government assessment Google has around a million links to the Survey It is referenced in over 700 journals, academic papers Translated into several languages

7. UN E-government Surveys available at: http://www.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/08report.htm

8. The objective of the UN E-government Development Surveys is to provide a: comparative assessment of the 193 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 and e-participation service delivery.

9. What is the UN E-government Development Index It is a benchmarking tool for monitoring the progress of countries towards higher levels of e-government and e-participation service delivery.

10. 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 Online service index, the Telecommunication Infrastructure index and the Human Capital index. Methodological Framework http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/

11. Stages of e-government in the Survey The website assessments in the Survey represent an ascending four-stage model based on a state’s online presence. Stage V Stage IV : Connected Stage III : Transactional Stage II: Enhanced Stage I: Emerging

12. Results: Progress in establishing national government online presence, 2010 http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/ 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. In July 2011 South Sudan was accepetd pted as a United Nations Member State bringing the total UN Member States to 193.

13. UN DESA E-government Development Index 2010 Top 10 countries Six of the top ten world e-government readiness leaders are countries from the European Region

14. Several developing countries are among the top 35 e-ready countries and ahead of some developed economies, 2010

15. E-government Readiness in South Asia

16. Email and contact information on websites By 2008, 136 countries (out of the 192 UN Member States) had e-mail information available on their national website Telephone number/fax number was available in 159 countries

17. National government ministries online 2010 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 0 1-5 6-10 More than 10 Number of Countries 52 13 9 118 Percentage of Total 27% 7% 5% 61%

18. Transactional e-government services, 2008 and 2010 39 or one-fifth of all 192 UN Member States , countries offered online form submission 31 countries offered users the possibility to make online payments with credit or debit cards.

19. Of the lessons learnt from 7 years of UN Global e-government readiness survey the following are of relevance to the discussion today: Approaches to e-government programme offerings differ from country to country. There are a variety of e-government development models The “how” of what countries choose to dispense online is a function of “what” they want to focus on and “why” they want to focus on the issue(s) Lessons learnt

20. Following on the basic framework of the UN e-government development survey, one set of issues for national governments to explore could be the following: http://www.UNPAN.org/DPADM/ Th discussions at the eWorld Forum revolve around what governments can do in ensuring effective e-government

21. Issues: What is the domain of e-government in the national government what should be the objectives of e-government in the service of the citizen is one conceptual model of 'how to' for e-government and service delivery indeed feasible or desirable or each country, each village, needs to tailor it according to its needs and level of development What are the challenges and barriers to e-government and e-participation service delivery from the government perspective

22. National governments need to: Readjust and realign the human, capital and technological systems to adapt to innovations Establish policy frameworks for integrating ICT and e-government in national planning processes Establish ICT focal points in governments and develop institutional arrangements Form South-South partnerships for ICT led development

23. Trends in future e-government the real benefit to e-Government lies not in the use of technology per se, but in its application. innovative e-government programs re-shape the relationship between national, regional and local actors. trends of future world e-government are likely to contribute to more participatory, and potentially more democratic, governance around the world.

24. Finally, I feel confident that discussions at the eWorld Forum will provide an opportunity to ‘take away’ such best practices and lessons learnt which can form the bedrock of effective e-government strategies and efforts in India and indeed for other countries of the region, and beyond.

25. Thank You