The Global e-government Forum: Smart e-government for a Better Future Seoul, Republic of Korea 18 to 19 October 2012 E-Government Development Trends and Challenges in Latin America Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Presentation by Alejandra Naser
E- Government in Latin America and the Caribbean 1. Overview 2. Trends 3. Challenges 4. ECLAC contribution
1. Overview The current situation in Latin America and the Caribbean
Some statistics Internet use worldwide, by region (2011) Internet use (% of total users world wide) Internet penetration rates (% of population) Source: Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm Penetration rates are based on a world population of 6,930,055,154 and 2,267,233,742 estimated internet users on December 31, 2011.
Broadband penetration rate in Latin America (2010) (%) Broadband penetration (per 100 hab.) Chile 10,66 Argentina 10,56 Uruguay 10,0 Mexico 9,1 Brazil 6,34 Costa Rica 6,0 Colombia 5,26 Venezuela 5,23 Panamá 5,01 Dominican Rep. 3,4 Bolivia 2,8 Peru 2,7 El Salvador 2,4 Paraguay 2,2 Ecuador 2,1 Guatemala 0,8 Nicaragua 0,8 Cuba 0,02 Source: Cisco Systems http://www.cisco.com/
United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 Shows the status of the 193 UN member states according to their readiness for e- government, which includes 33 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean: Central America (8) South America (12) Caribbean (13)
E-government development in LAC Between 2010 and 2012, 31 of the 33 countries in LAC improved their scores. World average 2012: 0.49 22 LAC countries above the world average
LAC average: 0.44 South America: 0.53 Central America: 0.39 Caribbean: 0.38 World average: 0.43 North America: 0.87 (includes Mexico) Europe: 0.62 Asia: 0.49 Oceania: 0.28 Africa: 0.26 Online service index Index above the world average Index above the European average
Index of ICT development The index includes 25 countries from the LAC region (152 countries in total). The world average is 4.08 The index average for LAC is 3.72 Nine LAC countries are above the world average: Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Barbados Brazil Chile Panama Trinidad and Tobago Uruguay Venezuela
2. Trends in Latin America and the Caribbean
Trends Nowadays, the countries of the Region are developing and implementing e- government strategic plans at the national and local level in order to improve efficiency, effectiveness, accessibility and transparency.
How are they doing? Working in four aspects: People Process Technology Resources
In general the Region countries are working in: Modernizing IT legislations Building Institution Reforming and re-engineering administrative processes Managing changes and services levels Improving internal efficiency
Training public organizations and citizens Introducing standards and interoperability Reinforcing security and privacy policies Using social networks, Georeferencing tools
In countries whose e- government development is more sophisticated, the focus is on: Coordinating between central and local governments Generating citizen participation Generating laws and transparency portals Development Open Government Data
Some transparency laws in LA Argentina: Law Nº 25326 data protection and Law Nº 3.764 official data access. Brasil: Lei Nº 9.507 Regula o Direito de Acesso a Informações e Disciplina o Rito Processual do habeas data. Chile: Law Nº 20285 Transparency and Access to Public Information. Panama: Law Nº 6 Transparency norm. Paraguay: Law Nº 1728 Administrative Transparency. Peru: Law Nº 27806 Transparency and Access to Public Information.
Open data web portals Chile: http://datos.gob.cl/ Uruguay: http://datos.gub.uy/
3. Challenges for LAC countries
Extending the benefits of the Information Society to every citizen in the country and reducing the digital gap. Adopting policies to foster investment in broadband backbone infrastructure within and between countries in the region and with the rest of world. Developing more and better e- government initiatives to improve and increase the level of sophistication of their online services.
Reducing costs through increased use of Cloud Computing G-Cloud service providers. Creating a public sector commitment to Open Data. Applying the use of ICTs to areas of critical public importance, such as reducing consecuences of natural disaster.
4. ECLAC contribution
About ECLAC ECLAC, headquartered in Santiago, Chile, is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. Their mission is contribute to the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean.
ECLAC actions Promoting dialogue about experiences regarding the information society in Latin America. Monitoring and analyzing the progress of the regional countries towards the development of e-government strategies. Strengthening the partnership with other regions on e-government issues. Promoting greater investment in ICT s and e- gov development
ECLAC contribution to e-government development ECLAC provides technical assistance to regional countries on e-government development through: Training courses Research and technical documents Advisory services Seminars, conferences and expert workshops
Training courses ECLAC, offers courses on various economic and social issues to participants from the countries in the region, mainly from the public sector. These courses provide a combination of theory and practice, and systematize the experiences of the countries in the region.
In 2012 ECLAC offered the first course on e-government. Participants came from 12 Latin American countries (2013 will be the second version you can see details in: http://www.ilpes.cl)
Research and technical documents ECLAC experts are constantly researching and publishing documents on e- government, open government and open data topics.
Advisory services At the request of Governments, ECLAC conducts cooperation missions at the national and local levels, in order to assist member countries in developing their e-government strategies.
Organization of seminars, conferences and expert workshops ECLAC organizes Seminars, Forums and Workshops on e-government issues. ECLAC also sponsors high level meetings in which ECLAC experts have a leading participation.
Ministerial meeting in Ecuador (October, 2012) ECLAC Launched Subsidiary Body for Science, Innovation and Information and Communications Technologies The meeting brought together 35 delegates responsible for digital policymaking from 17 of the region's countries.
Despite progress made by LAC governments and our efforts to support them, there is still a long road ahead.
Many Thanks Muchas Gracias alejandra.naser@cepal.org