IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Government initiatives to improve efficiency levels across the healthcare continuum in eastern Europe are resulting in widespread restructuring and the integration of disparate healthcare IT systems. This process will be facilitated by accession to the European Union and associated increases in infrastructure building funding flows. However, centralised purchasing will hamper the rapid expansion of these emerging healthcare IT markets.

Government initiatives to improve efficiency levels across the healthcare continuum in eastern Europe are resulting in widespread restructuring and the integration of disparate healthcare IT systems. This process will be facilitated by accession to the European Union and associated increases in infrastructure building funding flows. However, centralized purchasing will hamper the rapid expansion of these emerging healthcare IT markets.

During the past few years eGov related programs have been developed in Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. But in none of these countries has eGovernment become a priority and there is, as yet, no certainty as to how eGovernance issues could be prioritised within a wider public context.

eGov projects in these countries are generally market-driven rather than strategic choices. In Ukraine and Belarus, they are stimulated to a large extent by the strong demand from businesses and from governments' desire to standardise its operations, and to implement more effective managerial controls.

An analysis of eGov projects in Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania

During the past few years eGov related programs have been developed in Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. Governments in the three countries are reconfiguring their activities in order to make use of the opportunities provided by the internet and ICTs. At the same time, civil society organizations have tended to devote their attention and resources to questions of connectivity, access and community development rather than to the matter of participation in eGov programming. As a result, they lack information about the development of eGov strategies and about who exactly is and could be involved at the planning stages. As long as civil society actors do not participate actively in eGov programming, it does not effectively serve its purpose - to improve communication among government, citizens, and parliament.