Transcript Document
Status of national and sectoral ICT policies with a special focus on e Government applications in Africa
ICTs, Gender and e-Government 28 - 30 May 2007
‘Washington Dick Regional Advisor ISTD/ECA
Contents
• Background • e-Government • e-Government strategies in Africa • Gender and e-Government • Way Forward
Background
• AISI Vision: • To support and accelerate socio-economic development across the region • By the year 2010, the AISI is intended to realize a sustainable information society in Africa • Information Policy Development and Implementation • national, sectoral, regional, and spatial data and information infrastructure policies, plans and strategies • National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) policies • NICI = Process of developing ICT Policies and Plan • A mechanism to implement the global vision of AISI at national level • Sectoral policies = e-Government, e-Health, etc.
Status of NICI Policies
34 12 7
e-Government
• The use of ICTs to improve government efficiency in delivering services to its citizens • Availability of electronic access points crucial to the use of e-Government for service delivery • Pillars of e-Government strategy: • customs and immigration • e-Parliament • e-Health • e-Banking • e-Procurement • e-Commerce • e-Tourism
Focus areas of the Republic of The Gambia e Government Strategy: an AISI e-Government model
• ICT Equipment & Infrastructure • Network, IT Security & Legal Framework • Web Development, Portals/Government-Public Interface, Applications • ICT Human Resource Development and Training
Requirements for e-Government Applications
• Defining objectives • Agreeing on the guiding principles • Long-term action • Technical liability • Stressing vulnerability • Empowerment • Participation and partnership • National autonomy • Avoiding new structure • Identifying Priority Areas • Pilot projects • Sectoral projects • Developing Strategies • Advocacy and policy dialogue • Mainstreaming of e-Government activities • Partnership development
Challenges in developing e-Government strategies
• Establishing the right institutional framework • Putting into operation the elements of the action plan • Mobilising resources needed for implementation of the e-Government programme • Thinking beyond government portals and pilot projects • e-Government enshrined in national ICT policy
e-Government strategies in Africa (selected countries)
• e-Government readiness index (scale 0-1) Source: 2006 Information & Communications for Development (IC4D): Global Trends and Policies, The World Bank.
Botswana Ethiopia Gambia Ghana Kenya Lesotho 0.29
0.03
0.08
0.05
0.14
0.19
Malawi Namibia 0.15
0.12
Rwanda 0.12
South Africa 0.52
Sudan Tanzania 0.14
0.23
Upper-middle income group: 0.49
Sub-Saharan group: 0.11
e-Government strategies (Global Comparisons)
Regional Comparison of e-Gov Index (2001) Source: Benchmarking e-Government: A Global Perspective, United Nations Division for Public Economics and Public Administration (UNDPEPA), 2002.
• an enabling e-Government environment • Web presence Measure • Telecommunications infrastructure Measure • Human Capital Measure.
North America South America Asia / Oceania Central America 2.60
1.79
1.37
1.28
Europe Middle East Caribbean
Africa
2.01
1.76
1.34
0.84
Measuring impact of ICTs in Governance Scan ICT
• Contain a set of indicators that reflect the specific status and use of ICTs in Africa • Make information available for analysis of specific issues of interest, progress monitoring in ICT Strategies & Plans, investment & policy decision-making, etc. including ICTs in local governance • Indicators on Governance and the information society • Sectoral Applications surveyed in the Ethiopian Scan ICT: • The education sector • The health sector • Public administration (Public institutions and Employees of
public institutions)
• females accounted for only 22% of the total IT
expertise in public institutions
Gender and e-Government
The Gender Gap • Average adult literacy rate (% age 15 and above) in 2001 female - 53% male - 70% • Combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio (%) in the years 2000-01 female - 47% male - 54% • Female professional and technical workers represented 45% of the total such workforce in data compiled for Egypt, Namibia and Botswana while no data was available on the rest of the continent.
Gender and e-Government
(continued)
The Gender Gap in access to e-Government • limited awareness of women on ICT opportunities • limited access to ICTs more pronounced in females • different usage patterns of women and men • limited content in local language and relevant for women • Ineffective participation of women in ICT policy formulation and implementation process
The East African Community (EAC) e Government Strategy
• an ePol-NET assisted activity • addresses the critical inequality issues in the ICT access and use in the region • outlines action points for the potential use of ICT as a tool for gender equality, Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction objectives of the partner states - promoting labour-saving devices for Women, creating rural Multimedia Centres for women, access to credit/loan opportunities information online - the launching of e-Government Initiatives / providing access at local area councils in delivering responsive social programs to the poor - the need to address gender at national and local levels through using innovative ICT applications such as rural Multimedia Centres for Women that can act as the participatory hub/link to the national development processes /programs - the institutionalising of dialogue between Government, Civil Society and Donors, NGO/CSO links through NGO associations to mainstream gender dimensions in the e-Government processes in the region
Assessment of the Status of the Implementation and Use of ICT Access Points in Africa - April 2007
• A study undertaken as part of a UN Project on Knowledge Networks through ICT Access Points for Disadvantage Communities • Also assessed the gender dimension of telecentre use by communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda • Findings: • Telecentres had enabled a large number of people in disadvantaged and under-served communities to have direct access to modern ICTs • Fewer women than men used telecentre facilities and services • Radio played a prominent role in promoting women’s visibility and rights and in tackling gender issues • Some telecentres focused their services on women only Kubere Information Centre (Uganda) Sengerema community multimedia center (Tanzania) provided digital content and learning tools on CD-ROMs and Internet content (including on women’s entrepreneurship and ICTs)
The Way Forward (to Gender Mainstreaming in e-Government)
Elements of mainstreaming gender in national e Government strategies, plans and services • Awareness raising • Gender sensitive NICI Policy formulation process • Defining gender disaggregated data • Capacity building • Local languages /content • Avoiding fragmented services • Info & Knowledge sharing • Networking