E-Government Initiatives in Ethiopia

Transcription

1 E-Government Initiatives in Ethiopia Mesfin Belachew Ethiopian ICT Development Agency Deputy Director, Assistant Professor Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Phone , Mobile ABSTRACT E-Government, considered to be a narrower concept than e-governance, offers a great potential and opportunity for developing countries to improve their governance and citizen satisfaction. E-Government reduces costs, increases transparency and citizen participation in decision-making processes, strengthens accountability, improves service delivery, etc. In the process of setting up e-government initiatives and to become successful, there are some prime issues for developing countries to assess and to research. In developing nations where capital is a major scarcity, failing to be successful in the implementation of information communication technology (ICT) initiatives can have a great impact. In case of faller, the leadership commitment, which is already low in some countries, could be greatly affected. This will cause major obstacles to get some other ICT project s approved. ICT is a capital intensive (for example in infrastructure and application development) and requires qualified human resources. Apart from this, the globalization and dynamism associated with the field are making the realization of e- Government in particular in developing countries more challenging. Implementing e-government principles and functions require a range of standards, guidelines, rules, policies and legislative changes which do not exist in most developing countries. These all add up to the challenges in e-government implementation. The following are also potential threats in implementing e-government: low level working culture, high resistance, weak private sector, low level collaboration/partnership between private and public sectors, etc. In this case study, I will assess the potential of e-government projects and initiatives for developing countries by taking the case of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The opportunities will be widely discussed by taking practical examples. I will also identify and analyze major challenges that may be encountered in implementing e-government initiatives based on my practical experience in Ethiopia. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. ICEGOV2010, October 25-28, 2010, Beijing, China Copyright 2010 ACM /10/10 $5.00 Categories and Subject Descriptors K.6.1 [Project and People Management] Features ICT project identification, planning, initiation, implementation, commissioning, maintaining to impact the e-government activities. General Terms Management, Performance, Reliability, Human Factors, Standardization. Keywords E-Government, ICT, E-Governance, Challenges, Opportunities. 1. INTRODUCTION E-Governance [8] (also called electronic governance) is the public sector s use of information and communication technologies with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective. E-Governance involves new styles of leadership, new ways of debating and deciding policy and investment, new ways of accessing education, new ways of listening to citizens and new ways of organizing and delivering information and services. According to [6], e-governance is a broader concept that deals with the whole spectrum of the relationship and networks within government regarding the usage and application of ICTs whereas e-government is limited to the development of online services. As indicated in [4, 5, 6], e-government is an institutional approach to jurisdictional political operations where as e- Governance is a procedural approach to co-operative administrative relations E-Government [4, 5, 11] on the other hand refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and cost reductions. In making the initiatives successful, governments has to narrow down the differences between 'where they are now' the reality and 'where the e-government project wants to get them' the design [3]. By minimizing design-reality gap of the e-government projects in

2 the developing nations we can maximize the success and also benefits indicated above. The e-government activities in developing nations are progressing positively from time to time. Governments have recognized that ICT is a major tool to meet the millennium development goals (MDGs). They are more concentrating to the service automations which help the Government to become more efficient, transparent, and participatory. In this case study, section two deals with the e-government activities in Ethiopia to show the steps taken in the area, section three describes the different challenges faced to maximize the opportunities by giving some practical examples from Ethiopia. Lastly, in section four I will conclude by giving some major lessen learned in being successful in e-government initiatives. 2. MAJOR E-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES IN ETHIOPIA Ethiopia, based on the 2008 [7,9] UN E-Readiness index report, is ranking 172 from 192 countries scoring a total and distributed to in web measure index, in infrastructure index and in human capital index. Even so the status is far below the world average, the trends in improving towards these averages are encouraging. If we see the statistics of the last three evaluations, focusing only on web measure index, Ethiopia has scored in 2005, in 2008 and 0.20 in This institutes that the improvement in 2010 is far better than the previous years. Figure 1. E-Readiness Index for Ethiopia The initiatives that contributed to the above results are many and they are also diversified in nature. The major initiatives can be divided in infrastructure, application, standards/guidelines and human resource development. 1) Infrastructure, which is a backbone of e-government activities and capital intensive compared to other e- Government activities, 2) Applications, which is automation of the process, data storages, data sharing, information exchange, service delivery, etc in the government, 3) Standards & Guidelines which are to be used in implementing e-government assignments (policies, strategies, etc) 4) Human Resource Development, which a major activity to produce ICT skill in specialized and general level 2.1 Infrastructure The infrastructure is one of the major activities which is to be available, at least on the threshold level. The infrastructure comprise of many assignments and just to list some are the telecommunication infrastructure, the different level of e- Government data centers, the different level of networking, the servers, computers, etc. This activity involves a heavy investment and requires a professional skill which is a scarcity in most of developing nations. In this regard, I want to take only two major initiatives undertaken by Ethiopian Government, which are the WoredaNet 1 and the SchoolNet WoredaNet WoredaNet is one of the public network infrastructure established purely to link administrative components to make the government operations transparent, to make the government accountable, to increase citizen participation in government, etc. The main objective of WoredaNet is to provide ICT services such as video conferencing, directory, messaging, and voice and Internet connectivity at the federal, regional and lowest level of government throughout the country. In this virtual private network over 630 Woredas are connected and getting services indicated above. In connecting those Woredas, one National Data Center and eleven regional data centers are established. The connection is through a combination of terrestrial and VSAT type. In the physical connection, more than 4,000 KM is optical fiber cable. The video conference service is one of the major services widely used in meetings, trainings, etc using point-to-point and multipoint connections. For example, from July 2009 up to July 2010 a total of 99,690 people participated in a total of 1190 hours of multipoint video conferencing organized by federal level and regional level bodies to conduct meetings, trainings, hearings at different level of courts, awareness trainings, etc. This means, citizen don t need to travel a long distance to participate in meeting, training, etc. In addition to the cost reduction in travelling, they will get the same level of information of the meeting, training, etc transferred to all participants. Using the same network, connected centers can access internet to browser information locally and globally, share information and data using internal s and use also the voice over IP in day-today activities for voice communications SchoolNet SchoolNet is another big network connecting the different schools distributed all over the country. In this network, a total of 756+ schools are connected which are 574+ of them are high Schools and 191+ of them are preparatory 2 Schools. Services like video education (synchronous, unidirectional), digital library and internet are provided in the Schools connected to this network. 1 Woreda is district in Amharic with an average population of around 100,000 which is the lowest government administrative component. 2 Preparatory Schools are schools used to give courses for students eligible to university education.

3 The network integrates ICTs into Ethiopia s educational system to provide quality education for all the Ethiopian school. This system supports the teaching and learning process by giving a similar content to all schools independent of the geographical location (rural and urban). The synchronous access of the broadcasted materials is stored on the servers and later accessible based on the need of the individual Schools. This digitalization process is progressing in the second phase of SchoolNet. The network solves a number of problems associated to the educational processes, like unavailability of qualified teachers in different subjects, the shortage of educational materials, inconsistent content delivery of the same subjects in a different locations, etc. Using this network, the above mentioned limitations are somehow solved in the schools connected to the network EthERNet (Ethiopian Educational & Research Network) EthERNet is a University network which is a similar network to the SchoolNet and used to connect all public universities in the country. In the first phase of this project all 22 public Universities are interconnected to provide synchronous video enabled training in masters and PhD programs in collaboration with foreign Universities. The first phase includes also an online sharing of digital library materials between universities connected in the network. This infrastructure will allow universities to share experiences, exchange materials and information, share resources, etc. locally. One qualified professor in specific field can give lectures to more than one location simultaneously. Using this infrastructure, currently, students are attending courses in collaboration with universities outside Ethiopia. This will be intensified in the second phase of the project implementation of EthERNet. 2.2 Applications The application development is not managed centrally by some institutions, where us each Ministry and Agency will automate the back-office activities they have. The application developments like Financial Systems, Human Resource Management Systems, National Archive and Library Systems, National Transport Management Systems are initiated by respective Ministries and Agencies and coordinated on Federal level. In this regard, I want to give two examples where e-government activities became ease to access, transparent and simplified, those are, the Justice Information System and Transport Management Information System developed and applicable widely Justice Information System Justice Information System is a system developed to serve the citizens having different legal cases at the supreme level. The system is web and voice enable system where citizens can enter their case unique identity and track each. In case of vice request, citizens have to call and provide the case numbers to have voice response from the system indicating the status of their cases Transport Management Information System Transport Management Information System is the most widely and efficient system developed for automating the back office operation and makes every activity simplified and controllable. In vehicle management, driving license, issuing new plates, renewal of issuances, etc every data is electronically processed and every change is traced automatically. This system has increased highly the efficiency of the Government service delivery, reduced waiting of customers, reduced the corruptions caused by changing records, etc. For example, a renewal of a driving license was taking a half working day before the system is deployed. Now this issuance will only take minutes from customer s points of view. The actual processing time is only 4-5 minutes for driving license renewal including the picture taking, signing, etc which were manual. 2.3 Standards and Guidelines Policies, standards, guidelines are block stones in realizing concrete results to the citizens. The national ICT policy and the ICT for Development (ICT4D) strategy are the governing component in a successful e-government activity. The different standards and guidelines are also facilitating the seamless interactions between different e-government initiatives. The ICT policy and the e-government strategy are the leading assignment to be handled in this regard and based on the countries demand some other standards and guidelines like interoperability standard, public key infrastructure (PKI), ICT human resource development (HRD) strategy, standards in localizations, etc. Ethiopia has an approved ICT policy and the ICT4D strategy which gives a comprehensive list of concentration areas in ICT and e-government. Some of the guidelines and standards already enforced at national level are localization of ICT terminologies, keyboard standard, national disaster prevention & recovery plan, procedure and guideline, national ICT HRD strategy, national ICT research and development (R&D) strategy and guideline. The e- Government strategy, interoperability standard, enterprise architecture and PKI are on the process of development. 2.4 Human Resource Development HR capacity, to implement and use ICT, is one of the major limitations in most of the developing nations. The maximum utilization of infrastructures and systems emplace are among the challenges existing in most nations. In ICT project management, skilled manpower in initiation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation projects is crucial. The process of human resource development has an evolution nature. It is linked to many factors like the HRD policy, the educational system in all level, the capacity of the universities and training centers, etc. Here, the globalization nature of the field and the demand of professionals in many countries are extremely high, which create the greatest possible degree of brain-drain from one country to another country. The issue of brain-drain is not only limited between countries but also in the country. With regard to the e- Government activities, which are more to be done by ICT professionals, the internal brain drain (from government to private sector) is a major subject to be handled. All the systems, applications, devices, etc in the Government has to be managed by the civil servant and the civil servant at large has to get also a

4 minimum knowledge how to go with the devices. This also requires a strong organization in the country to introduce different levels (low and high level) of trainings. Ethiopia, in this case tried to revise the curriculum from elementary to the university level to have ICT be introduced in all level of schooling. In addition to that, a focused training to the civil savants is also organized at federal and regional level. Professional trainings are also organized nationally to produce skilled manpower in the public institutions. For example, Ethiopian ICT Development Agency (EICTDA) has organized trainings, between July 2008 to Jun 2009, for 931 employee basic IT skill, for 203 employee Interactive and dynamic webpage development, for 1180 employee advanced network management and maintenance, for 103 employee IT security, for 80 employee IT security & cybercrime, for 100 employee business (IT) continuity and disaster recovery, for 60 employee C# with dot.net frame work, for 33 employee CCSP, for 112 employee database management and for 488 TVET teachers in database, networking, PC maintenance and troubleshooting. 3. CHALENGES IN E-GOVERNMENT ICT offers increased opportunities for economic development and plays a critical role in rapid economic change, in improving productivity, in enhancing the international competitiveness, etc for developing countries [1, 10]. Opportunities and challenges of e-government in developing and developed countries have a similar nature, but the speed in maximizing the opportunities and in overcoming the challenges varies. In addition to that, the major challenge in one country is not always the same in another country, for example, cost related challenges, leadership s commitment related challenges, etc. Some of commonly listed opportunities [10] are reduced government operation cost, improved quality of service delivery to citizens, increased transparence and accountability in Government operation, increased citizen s participation in decision making process. On the way to the above opportunities, Governments will face quite a number of challenges [10] like limited/inadequate infrastructure, lack of qualified human resource, lack of appropriate standards, guidelines, and Legal issues, low leadership commitment, low level working culture, high resistance to the technology, weak ICT private sector, low level collaboration/partnership between private and public sector are just to list some. In the next subsections, I will elaborate some of the major challenges by indicating their impact in hindering the way forward in e-government activities specially for the developing nations. 3.1 Infrastructure Limited or inadequate infrastructure is one of the major challenges in e-government implementation which comprises of low connectivity, limited bandwidth, low computer penetration, inadequate mobile/landline, etc. In building it, it requires a high cost and qualified professionals, where both are major limitations for developing nations. In general, the digital divide between countries and also between rural and urban internally in a country is high. When it deals with e-government, the developing countries have some other urgent priorities than ICT infrastructure which consume most of their capital budget. These urgent priorities are fighting poverty, increasing food security; building democracy and political stability, eliminating internal conflict, etc. where the urgency varies from country to country. The challenges are complex in nature. For example, in some developing nations, even if the infrastructure exists, under utilization is a major challenge because of lack of skill manpower, less commitment in the civil servants to utilize, etc whereas in some other countries acquiring the minimum infrastructure itself is a challenge. The solutions to maximize the opportunities by minimizing the risks associated vary also from nations to nations. One solution in specific country may not bring the same effect in another country. In general, it is advisable to start building the infrastructure on step-by-step bases which comprises an end-to-end solution to the end users. The end users, citizens in view of e-government, have to get some services through the infrastructure already existing. Then, more infrastructures can be built, more services can be rendered. 3.2 Qualified Human Resource As it is indicated in section 2.4 above, a qualified human resource is essential to build and utilize e-government services. Building a qualified human capital in on all level which represents quite a range of people from highly qualified up to ICT operation skill for the citizens at large is indispensable. In developing nations, countries have limited (lack) of qualified professionals to install, commission, run, maintain, utilize the infrastructure and application. In addition to that, there is a lack of hybrid human capacities: technological, commercial and management, etc which is mandatory requirement to be successful in e-government projects. Getting a qualified human resource is a process and it is not possible to achieve it in short period of time. It is interlinked with the educational system/policy of the country in all level of schooling. It also depends on the type and level of training institutions (private or public) existing in the nation. The other challenge on top of the above issue is the brain-drain of the qualified professionals from developing nations to developed nations for searching a better wage and privileges. The issue of brain-drain has also internal effects specially if we consider the e- Government activities. The skills required to build, maintain, run the system is usually required in Government institutions. Here, the movement of professionals from public institutions to private institutions in same country affects the successfulness of e- Government activities. Here, has to device a strong ICT HRD strategy and guidelines and follow to fulfill the demand of skill shortage in the public institutions. Intensive short term trainings and public awareness training in ICT is important. 3.3 Standards, Guidelines, and Legal Issue Processing of e-government principles and functions requires a range of new rules, policies, standards etc. ICT national policy and e-government strategy are the one to be a priority in e- Government initiatives. Also standards and guidelines like interoperability, public key infrastructure (PKI) guideline, human resource strategy, e-readiness roadmap, etc are required to make

5 the service deliver seamless. For example, in the absence of interoperability standard, systems are created which don t talk each other and this brings a multiple entry of the same data, a multiple sign-on, etc. Making interoperable at latter stage is becoming too expensive in cost and time. 3.4 Leadership s Commitment One of the driving forces in making ICT project implementation a success is the leadership s commitment in all level of administration. E-Government activity is always attached to high cost and high failure risk [3]. In developing nations where finance is a major problem, a leadership s commitment to fund and to implement ICT projects, to overcome resistance in change [2] and to make use of ICT in a day-to-day activates, play a major role. 3.5 Collaboration/Partnership between Private and Public Sector Most of the activities in e-government implementation, like procuring devices, installing, developing, commissioning, training etc are done by involving the private sector by means of outsourcing. The role of the Governments in this case is to monitor the process, check the quality of the deliverables, etc. In most developing nations, Government doesn t have potential to establish the infrastructure, give qualified trainings, to deliver goods, etc. The international and the indigenous private sector are usually participating in ICT implementation. Specially, indigenous private sector are playing a major role in localization, in providing a strong local support, etc The public-private-partnership (PPP) model can be considered as a solution to collaborate and even helps to strength the private sector in the country. The trust and the collaboration will maximize the interest of both parties to collaborate. 4. CONCLUSION This case study demonstrated the different challenges faced in implementing e-government activities and the opportunities to be gained from the e-government initiatives by considering the case of Ethiopia. Like most of the other developing nations, with minimum and mandatory infrastructure fulfilled, limited band width, less penetration of computers, etc, still Ethiopia can provide services to citizens. In the first phase of e-government initiatives, Ethiopia has invested a lot in infrastructure to establish the baseline requirement to provide services. By narrowing down the differences between 'where we are now' and 'where the e- government project wants to get us', we have achieved some services to provide. This is implemented using the step-by-step approach; like using communal services to attend video conferences from one center, accessing internet centers established and located around the communities, use available infrastructures like mobile-phones and landline phones to deliver the services, etc. In developing nations like Ethiopia, fiber to home or broadband services to home, etc have to wait for some time. In reality, we should not be waiting longer until the all the problems are solved. We can learn from others by benchmarking their past experiences and maximize the latecomer s advantage to leapfrog the e- Government development. To do so, for sure, we need to work hard in human resource development, in availing the different policy, legal and procedural issue and also the collaboration with the private sector which are basics for success. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thanks go to the Ethiopian ICT Development Agency and the expertise in the Government Information Systems and Data Center Directorates for providing me the data. I thank also my close friends for editing and giving me a positive advice towards enriching this work to maximum quality. 6. REFERENCES [1] Backus, M. (2001) E-Governance and Developing Countries, Introduction and examples [2] Kettl, D. F. (2002) The Transformation of Governance: Public administration for the twenty-first century America. Paperback: Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 204pp. [3] Richard Heeks, Most e-government-for-development Projects Fail; How Can Risks be Reduced?, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) igovernment working paper, 2003 [4] Riley, T.B. (2003) E-Government vs. E-Governance: Examining the Difference in a Changing Public Sector Climate [5] Shailendra C. Jain Palvia and Sushil S. Sharma (2008) E- Government and E-Governance: Definitions/Domain Framework and Status around the World [6] Sheridan, W., and Riley, T.B. (2006) Commonwealth Centre for E-Governance, E-Gov Monitor [7] UN Global E-Government Readiness Report 2005, from E- Government to E-inclusion, UNPAN/2005/14, United Nations publication [8] UNESCO ( [9] United Nations e-government Survey 2008, from e- Government to Connected Governance, ST/ESA/PAD/SER.E/112, United Nations publication, Sales No. E.08.II.H.2, ISBN [10] Valentina Ndou, E Government for Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges, The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, EJISDC (2004) 18, 1, 1-24 [11] World Bank ( definition (Asia Oceania Electronic Marketplace Association, AOEMA report)