UN Economic Commission for Africa African Development Forum IV ICT

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UN Economic Commission for AfricaAfrican
Development Forum IVICT GovernanceThe
Regional PerspectiveAddis Ababa, 13 October,
2004

• Dayo Ogunyemi
• ECA Consultant
• CAG/EMC Matrix, NY

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Innovation and E-Government

• Important to look at government processes
  re-design and streamline bureaucracy, not just
  use ICT to automate poor or unwieldy processes.
• Responsive government is the goal and Iinnovation
  is paramount ICT is just one of the tools to
  drive innovation in pursuit of good governance
  goals.

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Enabling Environment - ICT policy and regulation

• Regional efforts at ICT policy and regulation
  have been mixed
• Best success at infrastructure level - strides
  made at regional harmonization of telecoms
  regulation
• Moderate success at ICT policy level - with the
  assistance of the ECA, a number of Regional
  Economic Communities have policy frameworks in
  planning
• Less progress at setting policy and regulations
  for electronic delivery of services - whether
  through e-commerce or e-government.

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3 broad regional perspectives on E-government

• Document and transfer best practices within REC
  from early-adopters to laggards
• Create e-government policies, standards and
  applications at REC level for member states
• Integrate e-gov applications to activities at REC
  level

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1. Harmonize around national best practices

• Collect and disseminate national best practices
  from countries within Regional Economic
  Communities (and continent-wide).

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2. Set region-wide policy, standards and
applications

• Create e-government policies, standards and
  applications at REC level to transmit down to
  member states
• Strong argument for setting certain policies
  pertaining to electronic service delivery -
  e-commerce or e-government - at the regional
  level
• Depending on regional priorities and preferences,
  implement as mere guidelines or issue as
  directives with the force of law.

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3. E-gov applications at REC level

• Integrate e-government applications and processes
  at REC level
• Secretariat
• Parliament
• Access to region-wide functions like courts,
  customs, etc.

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Implementing E-government - multiple drivers
wanted

• ICT Governance does not require government to
  be sole driver, civil society and even the
  private sector have roles to play
• Rationale for aggregating infrastructure -driven
  service delivery across region applies to e-gov
• Important to bring these additional players into
  the ICT governance process to quicken
  deployment and reaching critical mass.

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Implementation Private sector and e-government

• Pros of Public-private sector partnerships in
  delivering e-gov applications and services
• Potential solution to problem of funding
  e-government
• Demand driven - private sector will respond to
  areas with greatest need and value proposition to
  users, ensuring sustainability

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Implementation Private sector and e-government

• Challenges of Public-private sector partnerships
  in delivering e-gov applications and services
• Demand driven approach likely to result in
  cherry-picking to the disadvantage of rural
  areas
• No big bang approach. Reality is that some sort
  of prioritizing and sequencing will have to occur
  as e-gov applications and access broaden
• Donor funding can be conserved for
  non-commercially viable but vital public services
  as well as for disadvantaged areas
• Digital solidarity funds, as envisaged in WSIS
  process, can be created within countries and RECs
  to address universal access and service issues.

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Implementation Private sector and e-government

• Caveats of Public-private sector partnerships in
  delivering e-gov applications
• Important to set out regulatory limits,
  particularly in case of private sector
  facilitation of government fucntions. Key issues
  include authentication, security, privacy, data
  protection, access and utilization
• For successful private sector involvement,
  critical for government to have the capacity to
  set performance/conduct guidelines and the
  capability and will to monitor and enforce these
  guidelines.

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Civil society and E-governance

• With civil society, opportunities to incorporate
  ICT into the push for good governance abound by
  pushing for transparency, e.g Wangonets
  Anti-Corruption Internet Database for Nigeria
• These efforts at e-governance can spur
  e-government progress - Nigerian Finance ministry
  embraced ACID approach and publishes monthly
  accounts of federal, state and local government
  revenue allocations.

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Civil society and E-governance

• Need to review (colonial-era) "state secrets"
  laws restricting the dissemination of and other
  public information
• Essentially a function of democratic opening and
  as states embrace openness, expect civil society
  to play a burgeoning role
• Part of challenge is the way government
  communicates, e.g. formal statements through
  "official government channels (invariably snail
  mail rather than e-mail).

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Final thoughts on ICT Governance

• Implement regional policies in way that permits
  early-adopters to start implementing.
• Remember - Responsive government is the
  objective ICT is just one of the tools to spur
  innovation in order to attain good governance
  goals.