The Challenge of Taking Baby Steps: Advancing E-Governance beyond Readiness in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published on

Speaker: 
Dr. Richard Boateng
Date/Time: 
Friday, 22 June 2012 - 10:30am
Venue: 
UNU-IIST Seminar Room
Abstract: 

Electronic governance is a global phenomenon but one with an unequal impact. At present, it has comparably gained more ground in developed countries as compared to developing countries. To address this inequality, we must find ways for developing countries to harness this innovation more effectively. That is the purpose of this research – to establish a better understanding of e-governance in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa in order to define appropriate approach to advance beyond the readiness to adopt e-governance. 

This research study presents case studies on e-governance in five countries, namely Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cameroon.  The research defines e-governance as the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to continuously transform the internal and  external relationships of governments, the public sector and other governance stakeholders in a manner that is citizen-centric, cooperative and polycentric.  A conceptual framework was developed from a review of extant e-governance  approaches and was used to assess each country by five interrelated components; objectives, policies, programs and projects, online presence of government institutions, and impact. Data was triangulated from interviews with selected country experts, review of policies on technology and governance, and review of online presence of government institutions.
 
Findings suggest that some substantial progress is being made by governments and civil society organizations to achieve the goals of good governance and transparency and efficiency in the delivery of government services. Government readiness to reform its public sector operations and pursue an ICT-led development agenda tends to be the major enabler or driver of e-governance initiatives. Though some measure of success has been attained, there is sometimes a big gap between what is on paper ‘as policy’ and what is being delivered in actual implementation. Egovernance policies tend to work in tandem with implementation agencies, which are empowered with a legal framework and requisite resources to enact the policies – the latter, resources, often tend to be missing. Further, there is also the challenge of poor promotion and marketing of e-governance initiatives. Poor promotion contributes 
to a general lack of awareness and knowledge among citizens on e-governance initiatives. These findings suggest that adequate resources and contextually-relevant strategies are, therefore, required to promote e-governance initiatives to stakeholders in order to encourage participation, adoption and usage. Concerning the online presence of government, a majority of websites reviewed are informative in nature and offer little room for interactivity between government and citizens. Web 2.0 technologies are more likely to be found on websites of political parties and personal pages of politicians. In local government institutions, there is also low incentive to build a website - low levels of literacy, lack of local content in local languages and other infrastructural challenges make it  challenging to develop citizen-centric services which are affordable and accessible.
 
Concerning e-governance impact, there is evidence of contribution of e-governance to the national development agenda. Aligning e-governance objectives to the development initiatives enhances the visibility of the use of egovernance initiatives to support national development agenda. However, in relation to the achievement of the MDGs, the contribution of e-governance to MDGs tends to be more about the potential impact which is also not directly measurable as of now.  E-governance objectives often have less or no consideration of MDGs in their conceptualization. On e-governance and climate change/environmental protection, it tends to be that, the path lies in government demonstrating willingness to adopt green technology practices and also promote an eco-spirit among the citizenry. In effect, the case countries are gradually migrating from an ‘emerging presence’ towards a networked presence’ where every government  agency  is online, data is automatically shared between agencies, and citizens have adequate access to government services. The study proposes six steps to be taken to address challenges and sustain the progress towards citizen-centric governance; revision of current policies, ensuring sustainability, going mobile, interoperable platforms, e-governance education, local content production and multilingualism, and contributing to MDGs.
Biography: 

Dr. Richard Boateng is a technology researcher who focuses on developing, promoting and protecting ideas and concepts into sustainable projects of commercial value and development impacts. He is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of PearlRichards Foundation, Ghana  (www.pearlrichards.org) and the African Institute of Development Informatics and Policy (www.aidipinstitute.org). He is Director of Research for the International Center for Information Technology and Development, Southern University, USA (www.icitd.com). He holds a doctorate degree in development informatics and a masters degree in management and information systems from the University of Manchester. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.  He is a Chevening Scholar, a Dorothy Hodgkin Scholar and a National Science Foundation Scholar. Richard has experience in working as a hybrid manager – the managerial/policy link between technology and the end-user in information technology projects in Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Togo, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, and USA.

Richard consults on e-governance for UNDP, Ghana and on information and communication for peace and development for UNESCO Accra Office Cluster. In collaboration with other researchers, he has raised more than US$200,000 in competitive research grants. His research experience covers electronic governance, cyber  crime, electronic business, technology curriculum development, ICT and development,  green IT  and ICT and health care at the national, industrial, organizational and community level. He has a rich  experience in both undergraduate and graduate teaching accumulated in UK, USA and Africa for five years. Since 2006, Richard has published more than 30 articles in international journals, refereed conferences and book chapters. The journal outlets include Internet Research, Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, and Third World Quarterly.

Richard’s electronic business projects include VIVA Africa Multimedia, An Internet Television for Africa (www.vivaafrica.tv); Africa Digital Week (www.africadigitalweek.com) and PC Tech Magazine, A Contemporary Technology Magazine for Africa (www.pctechmagazine.com).  He can be reached by Richard@pearlrichards.org.