IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Britain's multibillion pound effort to create electronic government received a confidence boost this week. It is officially the most advanced large European country at making public services available online.

Launched in February 2004 and funded by the INTERREG IIIC programme, which aims to promote interregional cooperation in the European Union, the project looks to develop standard indicators for benchmarking the information society across European regions.

The UK has slipped another rung down the e-government ladder, slipping further behind leaders including Canada, the US and Denmark.

Despite the huge amounts spent on government IT - and the laudable target of having all government services online by the end of this year - the UK is still rated as a follower in the rankings put together by Accenture.

The OECD has published the results of its research into the performance of governments across the world. It measured expenditure, revenues, regulation, corruption and budgeting policies.

The UK has the third most sophisticated e-government service in Europe, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Only Austria and Portugal surpassed the UK in the maturity of their citizen and business-facing government services.

The data is stipulated in the report on the competiveness of Ukraine's regions in 2012 drawn up by the Foundation for Effective Governance (FEG) with support of the World Economic Forum.

“The way of doing things may vary from country to country, but the principles of e-government are the same,” said Haiyan Qian, Director, Division for Public Administration and Development Management, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which produces the survey. “Reducing cost and improving efficiency, transparency and accountability with services that are inclusive. Those that follow these principles do well in our rankings.”

Along with Singapore and Spain, it will receive an e-Government Special Award for making significant progress in improving its e-service delivery and strengthening citizen engagement through e-participation.

The e-Government Special Awards will recognise the success of each world region by distinguishing the top ranked countries from Africa (Tunisia), the Americas (US), Asia (Republic of Korea), Europe (the UK) and Oceania (Australia).

The United Nations e-Government Survey 2016 has ranked Mauritius first in Africa followed by Tunisia and 58th worldwide, with an e-Government Development Index of 0.6231. In 2014 Mauritius was ranked 76th and Tunisia 75th, said a statement from the government. Issued at the moment when countries are launching the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the survey offers a snapshot of trends in the development of e-government in countries across the globe.

It provides new evidence that more governments are embracing information and communication technologies to deliver services and to engage people in decision-making processes in all regions of the world. The survey shows that digital technologies - the internet, mobile phones, and all the other tools to collect, store, analyze, and share information digitally - are being increasingly utilised. E-government has the potential to help support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 sustainable development goals.

According to the UN findings, Azerbaijan holds 96th place with index value of 0.4984 among the 106 countries surveyed. At that, the country received an index at 0.3660 on online service, 0.3033 on telecommunications infrastructure, and 0.8259 on human capital components.

South Korea proved to be the world leader - 0.9283 (online services - 1, telecommunications infrastructure - 0.8356, human capital - 0.9494), the 2nd is the Netherlands - 0.9125 (0.9608; 0.8342; 0.9425 respectively), the 3rd is the United Kingdom - 0.8960 (0.9739; 0.8135; 0.907). The fourth place belongs to Denmark - 0.889 (0.8562; 0.8615; 0.9489), and the U.S. closes TOP 5 - 0.8687 (1; 0.6860; 0.902).

According to the report, Nigeria dropped from 0.2687 in 2010 to 0.2676 in 2012, which indicates a decrease in the level of the acceptance by both government and private individuals in the country.

The report, which centred on e-government development in the largest population countries of the world, also indicated that Nigeria with a population of 158 million people is the least developing country among the top 11 most populated countries of the world, in terms of usage and application of e-governance by both the government and the citizens.

The survey also placed Qatar at number nine in the e-participation index for 2012.

Hukoomi, the Qatari Government’s portal, was commended in the report for undertaking to expand citizen-centric services, which was reflected in the raising of Qatar’s global rankings.

Hukoomi was highlighted as a case study in the survey for excellence in integration of e-services across government agencies and functions. These online services include visa applications, payment for utilities, settlement of traffic violations and renewal of health cards, among others.

A new United Nations survey detailing e-government trends shows the number of nations offering open datasets more than doubled since 2014.

The number of countries providing open access to government data has more than doubled in the past two years, according to figures released in a new report from the United Nations.

The report, the latest in a series of biannual surveys documenting the evolution of electronic government globally, found that 106 out of 193 member countries now make open government data catalogues, or data sets, available to the public, up from 46 countries in 2014.

Serbia has had the highest e-government development index in Europe over the past two years, the 2016 UN e-government survey has shown.

Tanjug reported this quoting a statement from the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government.

With all United Nations Member States now online, more Governments are expanding electronic participation and using more mobile and social media tools to reach people, the world body reported today as part of an e-government survey that also highlighted a lack of resources and a continued digital divide.

“E-government holds tremendous potential to improve the way that governments deliver public services and enhance broad stakeholder involvement in public service,” said Wu Hongbo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

There is a considerable lot left to be done of course, a point borne out by the fact that even nations like Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Chile, Latvia, Colombia, Barbados, Barbuda and Uruguay are ahead of India in the e-governance sweepstakes.