United Nations
Nations Unies
DIVISION FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS
Electronic/Mobile Government in Africa: Progress Made and Challenges Ahead Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17-19 February, 2009
Mission Report Organizers: Start Date/Time: End Date/Time: Venue:
DPADM/UNDESA and ISTD/UN-ECA 17 February, 2009 0830hrs 19 February, 2009 1730hrs Conference Room 3, ECA Building, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Workshop Brief:
This was a three-day capacity building workshop for Africa, focusing on the development and implementation of e-government services, policies, strategies and solutions. The participants were also introduced to the latest UNPAN ICT tools as well as the latest development on Electronic/Mobile Government Knowledge Repository (EMGKR)
Table of Contents 1.
Background
2.
Session 1: Opening Session
\
3.
Session II on e/m-Government issues and challenges in Africa
4.
Session III on Capacity Building for e/m-Government
5.
Session IV on Country Presentations
6.
Session V on the UN Global Knowledge Repository through the UNPAN tools, and the e/m-Government Knowledge Repository (emGKR)
7.
Session VI on UNPAN Knowledge Management ICT Tools, and preview of emGKR Portal
8.
Follow-up Actions
Appendix I: Web Links to Documents and Presentations Appendix II: List of Participants Appendix III: Workshop Evaluation
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1. Background The goal of the Workshop was to explore regional knowledge into the issues and challenges of e/m-government development in Africa, further explore the concept of the development of the UN Global Knowledge Repository, develop partnerships for capacity building in the region and identify capacity building needs for e/m-government in the region. Invited participants from regional institutions and countries presented papers; made presentations on the themes outlined above, as well as participated in discussions at the Workshop which had the following objectives: •
• •
• • •
To explore the challenges and barriers to e/m-government development, review current research, including concepts and approaches of e/m-government in Africa; To map innovative practices of e/m-government development citing best practices and lessons learnt; To facilitate an active dialogue between the UN, the various regional stakeholders, and Member States towards a framework of assessment on e/mgovernment development in Africa; To provide training on knowledge management on the development of the UN Global Knowledge Repository for Africa utilizing the UNPAN tools; To forge partnerships for the future work on the UN Global Knowledge Repository in Africa; and To promote regional cooperation and the regional perspective in e/m-government development, through discussions and presentations regarding the fundamentals of an enabling environment.
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2. Opening Session Ms. Haiyan Qian, Acting Director, Division for Public Administration and Development Management, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs delivered the opening message through Mr. Richard Kerby. She welcomed the participants and thanked UN-ECA for agreeing to host this meeting. The support and professionalism that they provided us was greatly appreciated and has strengthened our partnership. In line with meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals and the implementation of the WSIS Action line 7 on e-government, she shared on the development and launching of the Electronic and Mobile Government Knowledge Resource (EMGKR) project. Ms. Aida Opoku- Mensah, Director ICT, Science and Technology Division – ISTD/UNECA welcomed all the participants and invited all participants to take an active role during the workshop. She spoke about the work that UNECA was doing in the area of e-government focusing on building capacity at all levels. She noted that a number of countries around the table had benefited from UNECA’s support to develop their national ICT strategies and policies.
Mr. Richard Kerby, DPADM/UNDESA commenced with the first presentation on E/M-Government issues and challenges in Africa. He highlighted the results of the UN e-Government Survey 2008, which showed that the majority of countries in Africa were in the lower 50% of the countries surveyed. The e-Government Survey also showed that the development of integrated e-services and e-solutions through back-office integration and the use of e-participation tools were challenges for the region as a whole. A number of countries had requested the assistance of UNDESA to strengthen their e-government service delivery, policies and content. 3. Session I - E/m-Government Overview in Africa An open discussion was facilitated by Mr. Richard Kerby, and various topics on e/mGovernment issues and challenges were highlighted by the various speakers. The topics that were discussed included comparison of the UN e-Government Readiness survey with the Brown University’s survey state e-government performance. The general agreement was that similar sets of challenges and issues were present across the region, and there was an utmost need to address tactfully with different approaches such as introducing change agents, applying small steps of changes, and adopting the ‘Yes, we can’ attitude. In addition, the discussion also outlined the barriers and issues facing the continent such as: infrastructure development, especially the need to have broadband widely introduced in all countries, capacity development at both the technical and management levels of egovernment, lack of Africa owned content on the Internet, the lack of e-services available
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for the use of mobile (especially since the penetration of mobile was greater than that of fixed lines), accessibility of the Internet and the financial implications needed to implement e-government. 4. Session II - e/m-Government issues and challenges in African countries The second session of first day mainly focussed on the experiences and challenges of the regional economic commissions (RECs) in Africa which includes COMESA, ECOWAS, EAC, SADC and CEMAC, as well as the experiences of the UNPAN Regional Partners like the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) in RSA, CAFRAD in Tunisia, IDEP in Senegal, AAPAM in Kenya, and AMDIN in RSA.Their presentations mainly focussed on the organisations administrative set-ups, their objectives in relation to egovernment, the policy environment and egovernment programmes and initiatives, challenges and what the institutions intend to do in the next few years in relation to e/m government as part of their organisational objectives in Africa. CHALLENGES Most of the challenges faced by the different RECs converged to the following areas: • National Policy Frameworks – development & implementation; • Infrastructural Development – National/regional backbone, connectivity, power fluctuations, connectivity to rural areas and delivery of services at low cost. • Trade facilitation through ICTs among member states • Capacity – human skills & numbers (EAC, National level) • Harmonization of Laws, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks • Development and of Interoperability Information systems • Funding MAIN ISSUES DISCUSSED After the difeferent presentations from the RECs and Partners, participants were allowed to comment and questions on pertinet isues from the presentations. Some mebers suggested a framework for policy harmoisation for the continent based on the EU framework. It was indicated that it could be better to look at Africa as a whole, then the RECs and then finally member states. It was suggested that this could be done through ECA developing the Africa level framework, then work on RECs on implementation in different African countries. In support of the suggestion some members indicated that it is possible to have a consultant to look at all member states and assess the different levels of development. However, the problem is that member states have different objectives, and there are problems when it comes to implementation as most of the RECs have their own mandates and priorities that will make it difficult to integrate with the continental framework. However it was agreed that there is need for harmonisation of policies in different countries despite being at different levels of policy development or implementation, and the countries having different priorities. For this to be achieved it was noticed that there
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is need to check the status of each and every country on issues regarding the different policy initiatives in different countries inorder to find out what has been done before charting the way forward. And it was argued that there is need to come up with mechanisms on how to measure progress made in the harmonisation of regional or national priorities. Participants also asked about the harmonisation of policies between SADC and COMESA as they seem to share most of the member states. In response an official from COMESA indicated that this is a political issue and the Member States know exactly what they want and they know exactly why they belong to the two groupings The participants observed also that there is need for a political will in African countries when it comes to the implementation of egovernment initiatives. 5. Session III - Country Presentations – Morning Session Each country presented on the different aspects of e-Government strategies, policies, institutional and technical frameworks, case studies, past and recent development, as well as success stories and challenges. Various topics enveloped on the approaches, varied focuses and the similarity and dissimilarity of experiences of the countries. A summary of the discussions is presented in the following pages and the detailed presentations are available as downloadable documents listed in Appendix I. ¾ Burkina Faso, Mr. Alfred Namwaya Sawadogo, Directeur Générale, Promotion des Programmes de Dévéloppement des TIC, Ministere des Postes et des Technologies de l’information et de la Communications ¾ Kenya, Mr. Meoli Kashorda, Professor and ICT Expert, Strathmore University, Faculty of Information Technology, Nairobi, Kenya ¾ Ghana, Ms. Veronica Boateng, Ghana Information and Communications Directorate (GICTeD), Accra, Ghana ¾ Ethiopia, Abiyot Bayou, Government Info. System Expansion and Service coordination Project Manager, Ethiopia ICT Development Agency (EICTDA) ¾ Senegal, Mr. Mouhamed Tidiane Seck, Directeur Générale Agence de l’informatique de l’Etat, Dakar, Senegal ¾ Rwanda, Mr. Moses Ndahiro, Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA), Kigali, Rwanda
After the country presentations, Sam-Gwang Cho, the Chief of Private Sector and Enterpriese Development Section of UNECA/GPAD asked the presenters about the criteria behind top priority areas (G2C, G2B, G2G) on e/m-government projects.
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Mr. Meoli Kashorda of Kenya responded by explaining that it is important to know what to start and when to do what. He stated that they prepare a 2 years plan in Kenya and each ministry defines its own priority by looking at the budget available and the requests from the citizens. He also stated that there are other factors affecting project decisions such as government infrastructure. Mr. Abiyot Bayou of Ethiopia stated that they follow the government strategy and also the projects are allocated to the focus ministries that the government emphasizes more. Mr. Mouhamed Tidiane Seck of Senagal stated that the question is relatively complex. He responded by stating that if you have no resources then you would have no industry. He stated that there is limited budget and these are utilized on main sectors such as Human Capital Development, Education, and Health. However, he stated that they still need to find resources for e/m-government projects and they go along with the concept of indicators on the national level in order to define a good number of priorities. Mr. Sherin T. Shoukry of Zambia also commented on the question by stating that a study is carried out in 2004 in Zambia in order to identify the certain area in certain sectors that would help development in the country. After his comment, he asked to the presenters availability of any national strategy, a coordinated regional strategy and how one would distinguish between the two. Mr. Mouhamed Tidiane Seck of Senagal stated that each country has different circumstances i.e. it is difficult to compare Senegal with Ethiopia and stated that there is no unique recipe for the region. He also emphasized that governance, accountability are generic terms but nobody can adapt it as they are defined these would exist in different context in each country. Other presenters also agreed with the above view and stated that it is very difficult to have a regional framework in the ICT levels and also due to the fact that countries have already moved ahead before the regions. However, Mr. Alfred Namwaya Sawadogo of Burkina Faso expressed a different opinion on the question; he stated that there is no need to be pessimistic as long as one defines the necessary guidelines for regional policies. He stated that this could be achieved by supporting policies at the regional level by regional partners. Ms. Khedija Zammouri of Tunisia, Chairperson, stated that all countries have same objectives and these objectives are following the regional framework. She emphasized the importance of prioritizing good governance or leadership, political goodwill, coordination and the need to prioritize ICT. Ms. Zammouri stated that she has two questions after listening through all the presentations. She stated that more focus is given on the infrastructure without modernizing the public sector. How does this dimension complete the whole picture and what are the views on this issue? Her second question was related to the concept of governmental intranet within the
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administration and she specifically asked more elaboration on what kind o services are provided in the governmental intranets. Mr. Mouhamed Tidiane Seck of Senagal responded by stating that the second question is simpler and he explained the intranet services as basic services such as an agency for ICT, internet access to each public official, e-mail service and as well training on project management and English required for Internet usage. Mr. Seck also elaborated on the second question by stating that all the strategies need to be coordinated for example Minister of Health and Interior do not have the same kind of information or vision on the strategy. He stated that the idea should be to put everything in a pool and provide access to the data to everyone.
5. Session III - Country Presentations – Afternoon Session Countries continued to present on the different aspects of e-Government strategies, policies, institutional and technical frameworks, case studies, past and recent development, as well as success stories and challenges. A summary of the afternoon discussions is presented in the following pages and the detailed presentations are available as downloadable documents listed in Appendix I. ¾ The Gambia, Ebrima Jobe, Director of ICT, Department of State for Communication & Technology, Banjul, The Gambia ¾ Tunisia, Ms. Khedija Zammouri, Directeur General, E-government Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister, Tunis, Tunisia
Mr. Jobe provided the group with the strategy and the governance structure that the Government of The Gambia developed to introduce e-government. He gave the example of the financial application of the IFMIS and others and identified the phases of “Go Live” and “Rollout”. He also spoke about the Official Government Web Portal and its goals to increase the amount and quality of information provided to the citizens; to enhance e-participation in government decision-making; and to make government services available online. Mr. Jobe ended his presentation by reminding the group that one should “Think Big, Start Small and Scale-up”. Ms. Zammouri provided the group with an historical context of the e-government legacy of Tunisia, which starts in 1970s and is currently at the implementation of a roadmap that will accelerate the development and implementation of e-government in Tunisia. She noted in order to have a successful e-government programme, political will needs to be in place and there must be the commitment from the highest level to support the programme. She spoke about the simplification and streamline of workflow processes and having multi-channels of access to e-services as critical requirements that need to be Page 7 of 28
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developed to implement a successful e-government programme. She described some selected online services available in Tunisia such as: electronic commerce, payment of taxes, registering for university, payment of utilities (telephone, electricity, and water). The roadmap of Tunisia focuses on identifying and prioritizing e-services that need to be put online, the creation of a citizen-based e-government portal, a shift in administrative paradigm using new e-tools and technologies. The above would create an integrated government that would link local, regional and national layers of government into one seamless entity. Both presentations were well-received by the group and the questions focused on how they were able to implement these e-government activities? Both presenters spoke about capacity building as one of the barriers that needed to be overcome and the need to have all government institutions working together to ensure the proper delivery of egovernment services.
6. Session IV - Service Delivery There were three presentations in this session. These were: •
Geo-Enabled Service Delivery – Need for a Spatially-Enabled Society, by Mr. Chukwudozie Ezigbalike, Chief, Geoinformation Services Section, ISTD/UNECA
•
Promoting the Pan African Framework on Gender and e-Government: ePolNet Initiative, by Ms Eskedar Nega, Programme Officer- ICT Policy Development Section – ISTD/ UNECA
•
Improved Immigration Service Delivery through ICTs in Zambia, by Mr. Kennedy Simenda, Deputy Public Relations Manager, Department of Immigration, Lusaka, Zambia
Mr. Ezigbalike made a presentation on “Geo-Enabled Service Delivery – Need for a Spatially-Enabled Society” focusing on the major problems and challenges that African countries are facing in terms of spatial data infrastructure and usage. He pointed out that the main challenge is arranging the information needed to make decisions to be available ubiquitously; and making the society spatially enabled so that planning, delivering and exploiting process can access spatial data seamlessly – without additional effort. The presentation also highlighted the real life situation in a typical African village when it comes to geographical addressing. Finally, the presentation stressed on the importance of mobile technology in addressing these challenges particularly in the African context; and put forward two scenarios: either develop address codes based on coordinates or have mobile devices read the information off.
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Ms. Eskedar Nega’s presentation focused on the Action Plan for gender and eGov in Africa. The presentation started by providing some global figures on gender divide highlighting on the gender divide challenges and opportunities. A few findings from the ECA Scan-ICT programme in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Senegal were shared with participants to show the gender divide that exists in African countries while addressing information society development issues. Ms. Eskedar pointed out that mainstreaming gender in ICT4D process is crucial in promoting the Information Society in Africa. These include engendering national ICT policy processes, measuring gender gap in ICT4D processes, awareness raising & capacity building for media, policymakers, parliamentarians, entrepreneurs etc.; and development of sectoral ICT policies and applications (e-Government. In addition, the cases of Nigeria & Gambia were highlighted as examples of engendering national e-Strategies (NICIs). Finally, the presentation outlined the different components of the action pillars of the Plan of Action for Gender and E-Government in Africa. It was mentioned that under the framework of ePolNet, ECA and CePRC organized two workshops in Tunis, Tunisia and Maputo, Mozambique on “Gender and e-Government” in June 2006 and March 2007, respectively. It was pointed out that the recommendations developed at these meetings form the basis of the Action Plan for Gender and e-Government in Africa. The overall objective of the Action Plan is to provide and use ICTs as tools for empowering and benefiting women and men, for full inclusion in e-government programming and service delivery. The presentation provided some recommendations as a way forward including coordinating with and promoting collaboration among regional initiatives and networks on both gender and ICT, such as the Women Parliamentarian's network; regularly organizing ICT and gender forums, forwarding the Action Plan on Gender and eGovernment to Governments, setting up joint ICT & gender working groups to plan and monitor implementation, creating gender and ICT networks at the national level, using ECA/ePolnet Gender and e-Government website & online platforms for information sharing, and setting up a proper mechanism for broad and prompt dissemination of information on gender and ICT. Mr. Kennedy Simenda shared Zambian best practice on improved public service delivery in immigration. The presentation highlighted on the functions of the Department of Immigration, the roles of ICTs immigration, reforms and Business Process Reengineering, Zambia Immigration Management System (ZIMS), customer service center approach, and the key challenges and some conclusions. Mr. Simenda stressed that putting in place the ZIMS programme enhanced and improved the Department’s public service delivery to a greater extent. ZIMS is an electronic integrated visa and permit approval system including a component on border management. The presentation pointed out the following as key challenges: bringing all staff on board in the reengineering process so that there is staff ownership of the new work processes (Mind set Change), create an interface between the Zambia Immigration Website and ZIMS to enable clients to file in applications and monitor progress electronically, inadequate physical infra-structure at various Immigration Offices and Border Controls in the country to enable the speedy processing of applications and the efficient handling of travelers,
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building staff confidence in the new business processes, and the continued necessity for institutional capacity building in ICTs. Finally, Mr. Simenda concluded that effective border management, permit and visa approval systems are very cardinal areas of operations for the Department of Immigration. He also pointed out that efficient service delivery enables the Department contribute positively to investment, trade and tourism in the country; and the paradigm shift from manual to an electronic based operating system is giving the Department an impetus to offer a more effective immigration service delivery. Following the presentations, the chairperson invited the participants for any questions, comments and suggestions, which are presented as follows: Ms. Nancy Hafkin, an international consultant and expert on ICT4D in Africa shared further information on gender and ICTs particularly an IDRC-funded project on gender, ICTs and education. The project is implemented in 11 countries focusing on access, usage and skills at the three levels of education (primary, secondary and tertiary). The URL for the project and related information portal is: http://www.observatoiretic.org Ms. Eskedar thanked for the useful information and confirmed that ECA will incorporate in its ICT indicators work. Referring to her own experience as a Zambian, a delegate from ITU asked Mr. Simenda about services to citizens including passport issuance and renewal. Mr. Simenda replied by saying that these kind of services are provided by another Department (Home Affairs Department). ZIMS is aimed at providing immigration control to foreigners as well as citizens at ports of entry and exit. A delegate from Senegal asked whether information on purpose of visit is included in ZIMS to obtain information on foreigners coming to the country for investment purposes. Mr. Simenda said that only basic information such as contact details, where the visitors stay (hotels), etc. are included in the system. However, the suggestion was well taken as such information will be very vital for promoting trade and industry. A delegate from Senegal suggested that it is important to consider developing special tools in collaboration with operators for geo-enabled services by putting GPS SIMS in GSM phones considering the less accuracy of GSM for addressing. Mr. Ezigbalike replied that technology in evolving. There are more improvements from GPS technology. If the technology/device is developed and used extensively, manufacturers will definitely improve their products on a regular basis and conduct mass marketing; thus, reducing costs for average user resulting in extensive use of the technology. A delegate from IDEP asked a general question about the main factors for penetration of eGovernment services? Is it the cost of phone charges (which is cheaper in some countries) or packaging the right information to the right receiver? In response to this, Mr. Richard Kerby from UNDESA said that both contribute to expansion of eGov services. However, pricing depends on sharing infrastructure locally to bring the cost
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down. This is a policy issue that needs to be addressed in each country while developing their eGovernment strategies in particular and national ICT policy in general. Mr. Simon Batchelor, an international consultant and expert on m-Government in Africa added that sharing local ICT infrastructure by ISPs (through IXPs) will lower taxes, encourage more usage; thus, increasing the net revenue. Ms. Eskedar asked country delegates if they have a gender component in their respective national ICT policies, strategies and plans. Only the delegate from Gambia responded by saying that gender is a key component of Gambia’s NICI and eGovernment strategy. Furthermore, effort was made to gather gender-disaggregated data during the second phase of Scan-ICT in The Gambia. Finally, participants agreed that there is a strong need for eGovernment programmes to consider gender issues and enhancing public service delivery in the various sectors. Particularly, eGovernment services to facilitate trade and investment should be encouraged, and effort should be made to measure the socio-economic impacts of eGovernment services.
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7. Session V on the UN Global Knowledge Repository through the UNPAN tools and the e/m-Government Knowledge Repository (emGKR) During this session, Richard Kerby, UNDESA and Mr Deniz Susar, UNDESA made two presentations on UN Electronic Mobile Global Knowledge Repository –Substantial View and the UN Electronic Mobile Global Knowledge Repository – Technical View jointly respectively. Firstly Mr. Deniz Susar presented the technical view of UN electronic global knowledge repository. He described UNPAN portal as the global networking tool that connects international, regional, sub-regional, and national institutions worldwide for the promotion of better public administration. By way of example, he then demonstrated the African homepage within this global portal, which contains, among others, different announcements, news, library (resource repository), events page and a directory list. Further elaborating the UNPAN, he described the distinction between emGKR (emGovernment Knowledge Repository) and UNPAN. Accordingly, emGKR is a global online facility for knowledge transfer, information dissemination, and partnership and state-of-the-art research on e/m-government development in Member States. While UNPAN is the major global portal in which partners create content filtering as required into other sub-access points and emGKR is a part. Similar to emGKR, there are other portals made in this manner such as DPADM, GAID, etc. Describing the rational for emGKR as being the need to support developing countries to build national capacities in e/m-government and the lack of an integrated portal on e/m-government at national and international level, Mr. Susar confirmed that e/m-government aims to promote worldwide knowledge sharing and collaboration on e/m-government between development stakeholders working to achieve national objective, in the service of Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs), including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To this effect, the target audiences are development stakeholders such as national decision makers, CSOs in developing countries, researchers and academia, and private sector; and national and local stakeholders, organizations, and researchers to build and learn from each other’s knowledge and resources. He also listed the thematic areas that the emGKR covers and the knowledge resources, which include knowledge resources on member States, tools for assessment of e/m-government, online training resources, e/m-government related directories, and News and Events. Furthermore, the emGKR promotes knowledge sharing in three ways through Engage (i.e. regional/international institutions and member States to share, learn and exchange), Enable (i.e. institutions and member States to make informed decisions, and as an enabling environment and platform for the network), and Empower (i.e. by providing information on e/m-government resources, member States’ strategies and policies). Richard also emphasized that UNPAN is trying to strengthen country focal points to keep the country pages up-to-date. In terms of the impact of the portal it was confirmed that the portal receives 35,000 unique visitors per day. Therefore, as a way forward it was suggested that there is a need to develop and maintain the platform, develop and update content, communicate among network partners, include new knowledge resources,
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monitor assess and analyse resources and conduct periodic consultation meeting and workshop in cooperation with international and regional partners. Following UNDESA’s presentation, the chairperson invited the participants for any questions, comments and suggestions, which are presented as follows: Question:
What are the incentives in place, if any, for countries to be able to provide information and update country pages?
Answer:
Richard responded saying that there are robust users visiting the site, which encourage countries to put up their information. On average a user (visitor) spends 5 minutes per visit, which quiet, an encouraging thing to participate in this. Furthermore, the possibilities for partnership with regional and national organizations, institutions and country agencies in the field of ICT4D with common objectives of sharing and promoting ICTbased knowledge resources. Some of the other incentives for partners include: visibility on the UNPAN and emGKR portals; content generation on your own portal by using API web services and RSS fields, etc.; networking opportunity with other organizations; free access to UNPAN KM and online training tools; technical support from UNPAN Knowledge Unit; and opportunities to participate in related workshops (training, meetings). Finally, UN is an honest broker /partner which many organizations are keen to partner with.
Question:
UNU asked about the scenario how to exploit this kind of repository and infrastructure. Kenya – due to bandwidth it would be great if there were mirror sites nearer to Africa for effective access. Furthermore, do you have an enewsletter that show what is up there? Senegal – appreciated that the presentations gave a lot of information about the viability of the portal. When connecting using my computer, which is a Macintosh computer, the design of the portal requires the users to register twice or more to access various services offered through the portal, which might be discouraging to users, could this be adjusted? And it would be great if you could have a to do list to really put in place a userfriendly system. Tunis - can country focal points be able to enter information directly to the portal? If so, how do you verify and validate the information being entered into the portal?
Answer:
Richard responded by saying that UNU’s point is valid and said that he agrees that UNPAN should be a creator/generator of information and not
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simply a consumer. With regard to updating information, UNPAN provides a log in ID for countries to go online and update their information and any information is screened before it is pot live on the site. Regarding visitors profile and information, UNPAN has data for each country and that more than 90% of the visitors are from developing countries and the top ten countries are also from developing countries. Yes, you will receive newsletter every month, which can give you updated information. Regarding using the portal with Mac computers, I believe that it would work but need to check and provide you more precise information on this issue. Therefore, registration on UNPAN not emGKR, you don’t need registration for two different application, document or web content in the portal. The approval of document is seen by two regional focal points. Question:
Gambia – can you explain the time frame and objectivity of the egovernment survey you mentioned? Nancy Halfkin - What is the relationship between UNPAN and GAID? UNU – Why not use DVD, CDs to disseminate the knowledge / content from the portal due to the bandwidth issue for some countries?
Answer:
The survey is completely objective. With regard to the relationship between UNPAN and GAID, UNPAN is a portal while GAID is a department within UNDESA that deals with issues with regard to the WSIS outcomes and information society development. The problem with DVD and CD distribution is keeping it up-to-date which is very difficult to maintain.
The last session was a discussion on the priorities for Africa as a way forward to the outcome of this workshop. The participants were asked to give up to three key areas that they think would be priorities for Africa to develop in relation to e/m-government. A list of over 30 priorities areas was given some of which are repeatedly suggested. Among these, the participants agreed on the following six priority areas for the way forward to ensure the development of e/m-government in Africa, these are: -
Infrastructure; Capacity development; Monitoring and evaluation; Citizens engagement; Enabling environment; and Funding
Finally, Richard on behalf of UNDESA made a closing remark emphasizing on the e/mgovernment front in Africa, UNDESA would closely work with ECA to take forward the
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outcomes of this workshop in line with UNPAN’s objectives. He also confirmed that UNDESA would provide ongoing support to this effect. On behalf of Ms Aida OpokuMensah, Director of ISTD, UNECA, Mr Sizo Mhlanga, Chief of ICT Policy Development Section of ISTD made a closing remark appreciating the active participation of the participating institutions in this workshop. He also confirmed that ICT, Science and Technology Division of ECA has been working in supporting member States in Africa to develop their National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plans in which many countries have now such policies in place and that ISTD is now engaged in supporting member States in the implementation process of their NICI plans. To this end, one area that member States are implementing is e-government strategies that we appreciate our partnership with UNDESA to this effect. Group Discussion on Ways forward There was a lengthy open discussion session, with focus on the ways forward for eGovernment Programmes in Africa. A common set of key areas were identified:
Key Areas of E-government to focus on: ¾ Infrastructure (Bandwidth, Internet Exchange Points, Exchange Points, Fiber
optic, Speed, ICT Infrastructure Management) ¾ Accessibility ¾ African Content (Content Generated by Africans) ¾ E/M-Government Strategy ¾ Standardization & Interoperability (Integration) ¾ Governance & Regulatory framework ¾ M-Government (Mobile Internet, Mobile Governance , SMS notification, SMS
bundles, Usage of M-government ¾ Project Management (Especially for large ICT Systems, Change Management and Risk Management) ¾ Funding, Financing (Public Private Partnership, G2G) ¾ Monitoring & Evaluation ¾ Capacity Development, Training & Education (Quality of ICT Education) ¾ Leadership (Political Will, Raising Awareness, ICT Leadership, Political Climate, Incentives) ¾ Pricing (Charging policies, Cost of Internet Connection) ¾ Maintenance and Sustainability (Sharing of Information, Integrated African Network Directory, Best Practices, e-communication and need for network consolidation, E-mail alerts etc.) ¾ Enabling Environment (Tools & utilities, Certified Email Systems, Implementation of Critical Applications, Security, E/m-services design model, Back office design model) ¾ Citizen Engagement (Level of usage by citizens, Incentives for people) ¾ Credible Statistical Data
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¾ Eco-solution for electricity, e-waste management ¾ Services in the Local Level ¾ Social & Cultural Issues (Gender Balance/Issues, Ensuring participation of
women) ¾ French / English divide ¾ Research
8. Session VI on UNPAN Knowledge Management ICT Tools, and preview of emGKR Portal Facilitator: Mr. Deniz Susar Mr. Deniz Susar facilitated the training on UNPAN Knowledge Management ICT Tools. He first introduced the UNPAN Africa Regional Homepage, followed by UNPAN Event Management System, UNPAN Online Training Centre, UNPAN Governance World Watch Database, UNPAN Document Management System, UNPAN Contact Management System, UNPAN Announcement Management System. He highlighted the new features of the portal and the new online tools on Knowledge Management. On request by participants, and as a follow-up on the Workshop, he would provide more information on UNPAN online training and lend assistance to interested participants for the online training. A preview on EMGKR - Electronic-Mobile Government Knowledge Repository was presented to the workshop participants, which included the emGKR homepage, regional pages, country pages, knowledge resources on e/m-Government as well as the Social Networking and Web 2.0 tools A further discussion on the partnership on UNPAN Knowledge Management was initiated, and the appointment of country focal point from each country was determined to be essential to facilitate the constructive contribution to the emGKR initiative, meeting both short term and long term commitment to the initiative. All participants agreed that this initiative would serve as a previous resource repository and network source for all stakeholders.
8. Follow-up Actions The following actions were identified: Each country agreed to identify a focal point who would be in charge of entering documents in the EMGKR and would also be the main liaison between UNDESA and the Page 16 of 28
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country or institutions. UNDESA will also identify a smaller working group that would act as a Steering Committee. Capacity Development: 1. Make available to Workshop Participants on all documents and presentations 2. Establish the Africa network, both online and offline, on e/m-Government with all participants UNPAN ICT Tools: 3. Follow-up on appointment of country focal points, who will be responsible for the UNPAN network, including populating the knowledge base for their respective countries. 4. Consider translation of UNPAN online training to the Arabic languages, with assistance of CPSI/COMESA emGKR Project: 5. Follow-up on appointment of country focal points, who will be responsible for the emGKR network, including populating the knowledge base. (These are the same representatives for the UNPAN focal points.) 6. Schedule the First Meeting of the Steering Committee of the e/m-Government Repository in Africa. 7. Setup virtual online networks to keep the Africa e-Government network connected Appendix I: Web Links to Documents and Presentations [CTRL – click to follow link]
Day 1 - Opening Session - Mr. Richard Kerby & Mr. Deniz Susar Day 1 - Session I - E/M-Government Overview
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Overview of National and Sectoral ICT policies and implementation plans: Opportunities and challenges for Africa – Mr Sizo Mhlanga o E-government in Africa: Progress made and challenges ahead - Ms. Nancy Hafkin o Mobile Government in Africa - Mr. Simon Batchelor Day 1 - Session I - Role of Partnerships and Networking in ICT for development o International partnership for measuring ICT for development - ISTD/UNECA o Partnership with Research Centers – Research and Capacity Building for e/m Government in Africa: The Role of UNU Day 1 - Session II - e/m-Government issues and challenges in African countries o Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) o Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) o Southern African Development Community (SADC) o East African Community(EAC) o ECOWAS Day 1 - Session II - Presentation from UNPAN regional partners o Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) o The African Training and Research Center in Administration for Development (CAFRAD) o African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) o African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) o African Management Development Institutes Network (AMDIN) Day 2 - Session III - Country Presentations o Burkina Faso o Ethiopia o Gambia o Ghana o Kenya o Rwanda o Senegal o Tunisia o Zambia Day 3 - Session V - Framework for the UN EMGKR Global - UNDESA/DPADM - Mr. Richard Kerby & Mr. Deniz Susar Day 3 – Session VI - Capacity Building for e/m-Government: The UNPAN ICT Training (UNPAN/emgKR) – Mr. Deniz Susar
o
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Appendix II: List of Participants NATIONALITY
NAME
1
Botswana
Ms. Cecilia MAMELODIONYADILE
2
Burkina Faso
Mr. Alfred Namwaya SAWADOGO
3
Central African Republic
Mr. Isidore EMBOLA
4
Gambia
Mr. Ebrima JOBE
5
Ghana
Mrs. Veronica BOATENG
6
Kenya (AAPAM) UNPAN
Mr. Husdon Mose BIGOGO
TITLE Senior Programme Manager (Communications), Southern African Development Community (SADC), Gabarone, Botswana Directeur Générale, Promotion des Programmes de Développement des TIC, Ministere des Postes et des Technologies de l"information et de la Communication, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Chef de service des télécommunications, Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), Bangui, Central African Republic Director of ICT, Dept of State for Communications Information & Technology Banjul, Gambia Director, Application Systems, Ghana Information and Communications Technology Directorate (GICTeD) Finance and Administration Officer, African Assoc. for Public Administration & Management (AAPAM), Nairobi, Kenya
EMAIL ADDRESS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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7
Kenya
Mr. Meoli KASHORDA
8
Morocco (CAFRAD) UNPAN
Mr. Sylvestre Zue NDOUTOUMOU
9
Mozambique
Mr. Salomao J. MANHICA
10
Nigeria
Ms. Folake OLAGUNJU
11
Rwanda
Mr. Moses NDAHIRO
12
Senegal (IDEP) UNPAN Mr. Aloysius Ajab AMIN
13
Senegal
Mr. Mouhamed Tidiane SECK
14
South Africa (AMDIN) UNPAN
Ms. Odette HARTSLIEF
15
South Africa (CPSI) UNPAN
Ms. Lydia Mohurutshane SEBOKEDI
Professor and ICT Expert, Strathmore University Faculty of Information Technology, Nairobi, Kenya Expert in Public Administration, The African Training and Research Center in Administer for Development Director, ICT Policy Implementation Technical Unit, Maputo, Mozambique Programme Officer, Information & Communications Technology, ECOWAS Commission, Abuja, Nigeria Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA), Kigali, Rwanda Director, African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), Dakar Senegal Directeur Générale, Agence de l'informatique de l"Etat, Dakar, Senegal African Management Develpopment Institutes Network (AMDIN), Pretoria, South Africa Director, Enabling Environment, Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), Pretoria, South Africa
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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16
Tanzania
Ms. Sarah K. BATUWA (requested itinerary: Nairobi Addis - Nairobi)
17
Tunisia
Ms. Khedija ZAMMOURI
18
Zambia
Mr. Sherin T. SHOUKRY
East African Community, Arusha, Tanzania Director General, EGovernment Unit Office, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Tunisia Director of Information Networking, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Lusaka, Zambia
[email protected],
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
PARTICIPANTS FROM THE UNITED NATIONS
19
20
UNDESA
UNDESA
Mr. Richard KERBY
Interregional Adviser, KMB/DPADM/DESA, New York
[email protected]
Mr. Deniz SUSAR
Governance and Public Administration Officer, KMB/DPADM/DESA, New York
[email protected]
CONSULTANTS
21
USA
Ms. Nancy HAFKIN
Consultant on Electronic Government in Africa
[email protected]
22
United Kingdom
Mr. Simon BATCHELOR
Consultant on Mobile Government in Africa
[email protected]
PARTICIPANTS FROM ETHIOPIA
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23
Ethiopia
Mr. Solomon TESFAYE
24
Ethiopia
Mr. Abiyot BAYOU
25
Ethiopia
Mr. Abiy TESSEMA
26
Ethiopia
Mr. Mesfin Belachew
27
Ethiopia
Dr. Solomon ATNAFU
28
Ethiopia
Dr Dawit BEKELE
29
Ethiopia
Mr. Amare Molla
CEO, eSystems Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Head, Government Information Systems Development and Service Coordination Project, Ethiopian ICT Development Agency, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Head, PSCAP - ICT Coordinating Office Ethiopian ICT Development Agency, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Deputy Director, Ethiopian ICT Development Agency, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Assistant Professor, Addis Ababa University, Regional Bureau Manager - Africa, Internet Society (ISOC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
e-Systems Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
OTHER SELF-FUNDED PARTICIPANTS (INVITED BY DPADM) 30
Nigeria
Mr. Adeboyega OJO
31
Ethiopia
Mr. Amare ASSEFA
32
Mr. Raul ZAMBRANO
Center for Electronic Governance, United Nations University, Macao Divison Manager, Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation United Nations Development Programme, New York
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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33
Zambia
Mr. Kennedy SIMENDA
34
South Africa
Ms. Idah Keitumetse RAMAGOGODI
35
Ethiopia
Dr. Asmelash BEYENE
Deputy Public Relations Manager, Dept of Immigration, Lusaka, Zambia UNPAN Administrator, Centre for Public Service Innovation, Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa Governance Center, Ethiopia
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
UNECA SECRETARIAT 36
UNECA
Ms. Aida OPOKU-MENSAH
Director, ISTD
37
UNECA
Mr. Ikey ONYEJEKWE
Director, GPAD
38
UNECA
Mr. Kojo BUSIA
GPAD
39
UNECA
Mr. Sizo MHLANGA
ISTD
40
UNECA
Mr. Thierry AMOUSSOUGBO
ISTC
41
UNECA
Mr. Mohamed TIMOULALI
ISTD
42
UNECA
Mr. Makane FAYE
ISTD
43
UNECA
Ms. Eskedar NEGA
ISTD
44
UNECA
Mr. Hopestone CHAVULA
ISTC
45
UNECA
Mr. Afework TEMTIME
ISTD
46
UNECA
Mr. Girma DESSALEGN
ISTD
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47
UNECA
Mr. Sultan MOHAMMED
ISTD
Appendix III: Workshop Evaluation Results
Part I: Multiple Choice Questions Excellent-5
Very Good-4
Satisfactory-3
Unsatisfactory-2
Poor-1
Your overall impression of the Workshop
8 (36.4%)
13 (59.1%)
1 (4.5%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Clarity of the workshop objectives
9 (37.5%)
13 (54.2%)
2 (8.3%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Selection of the Workshop themes and sessions
10 (43.5%)
10 (43.5%)
3 (13.0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Extent to which the objectives of the workshop were achieved
4 (17.4%)
16 (69.6%)
3 (13.0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Quality of the materials/media used during the activity
10 (45.5%)
8 (36.4%)
4 (18.2%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Administrative arrangement and facilities of the Workshop location
9 (39.1%)
8 (34.8%)
6 (26.1%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Overall value and quality of the activity
7 (30.4%)
16 (69.6%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Relevance of the activity to the needs of your organization
9 (39.1%)
13 (56.5%)
1 (4.3%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
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5 4.32
4.29
4.30
4.27 4.04
4.21
4.30 4.13
4
3
2
1
Your overall impression of the Workshop
Clarity of the workshop objectives
Selection of the Extent to which the Quality of the Workshop themes objectives of the materials/media and sessions workshop were used during the activity achieved
Overall value and Administrative quality of the arrangement and activity facilities of the Workshop location
Table 1: Weighted Average of the Multiple Choice Questions
5- Excellent 4- Very Good 3- Satisfactory 2- Unsatisfactory 1 - Poor
Part II: Responses to the Open-Ended Questions Notes: •
• •
Relevance of the activity to the needs of your organization
Participants’ feedbacks listed below are verbatim (exact reproduction of a sentence, phrase, quote or other sequence of text from the evaluation forms). One bullet item means one response from one participant Please note that not all the participants answered the open-ended questions
1. What was the most useful element of the Workshop? - Presentations Page 25 of 28
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- e/m-Government issues and challenges in Africa countries - Countries’ experiences (Best practices) / Training - Acquiring in-depth understanding of e-Governance phenomena - The PPP & e-Government opportunity / Content development and EM-GKR portal - e-Government countries’ presentations and sharing experiences - Partnerships / Working together as Africans / Infrastructure / Easy and accessible information / Sharing of information - Sharing information among sub-regional and country representatives on strategic frame works and progress made in adoption and adaptation of e/m-Governments - Training on EM-GKR / Networking with colleagues from other RECS - Countries’ presentations and case studies - Presentation and discussions - Substantive and country presentations, discussion following each of these - Country presentations and how they relate to the objectives of EM-GKR / Sharing of the best practices - Materials and presentations / Sharing of information / Networking - PPP and e-Government opportunities / EM-GKR portal and content development - It provided me with the wealth of knowledge and potential resources available on e/mGovernment - Understanding knowledge on best practices and challenges that other RECS and countries have faced - Exchanging experiences / e/m-Government - Exchanging the best practices - Sessions that provided the clear ideas and vision of e/m-Government/Presentations and debates
2. What was the least useful element of the Workshop? - Presentations - Training - Policies and strategies of using the EM-GKR portal / Technical discussions - Presentations not directly related to UNPAN or e-Government - Lack of time to debate
3. How often should this Regional Workshop be organized?*
How often should this Regional Workshop be organized?*
Once a year
Once every 2 Years
Others
21 (92%)
2 (8%)
0 (0%)
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How often should this Regional Workshop be organized?* Once every 2 Years 8%
Others 0%
Once a year 92%
5. What are the TWO most important things you gain from the Workshop? - 1. Information about the availability of resources in EM-GKR 2. Networks - 1. EM-GKR and challenges 2. Knowledge of EM-GKR - 1. Appreciate the use of ICTs in improving service delivery 2. Appreciate the work in progress made in various countries or organizations, challenges faced and then the way forward on subject - 1. Concepts of inter-governmental transparency 2. Networking with regional organizations - 1. Countries’ status developments in e/m-Government 2. UNPAN, EM-GKR resources - 1. Uploading not downloading Africa 2. Sharing information as Africans - 1. Need for governments to transform their operations from physical to e-systems 2. Involving and creating awareness in the citizens in use of e-systems in accessing services - 1. Having a follow up organ as a steering committee 2. An online (e-learning) platform - 1. Understanding EM-GKR 2. e/m-Government initiatives for our countries - 1. Tremendous amount of activity requiring in e-Government in Africa 2. Importance of Africa uploading to EM-GKR - 1. Better knowledge of EM-GKR practices - 1. Contacts and network 2. Information sharing on countries, problems and roles of each participant - 1. Managing a portal 2. Managing e-Government services - 1. Mobile government Page 27 of 28
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2. EM-GKR - 1. Reinforcement of capacity and elaboration for e/m-Government (Importance, Methodology and Priority) 2. Relationship established between participants
6. Please give us any comments or suggestions: - More time required for presentation - The workshop was very relevant to work - To plan a workshop only on the training - The workshop was very interesting and a lot of good ideas were discussed - For Africa, it is a commendable approach for UNDESA to work with ECA closely to strengthen the network of focal points that ECA has been working with in order to enhance the UNPAN/EM-GKR initiative. - The workshop should move around to different countries. - Besides involvement of all RECS and UNPAN regional partners, more country representatives be involved in annual workshops. - As a REC we would require specific roles to play in the EM-GKR. - Sort of MOUs / partnerships to address our requirements for our region - Limit the number of presentations to give more time to presenters - Network consolidation and provision of incentives for commitment of participation - More time for presentations - Using case studies in future - Organizing this type of reunion for region of Africa - This workshop was really worth the price.
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