E GOVERNANCE & DEVELOPMENT

Training Objectives

The specific objectives of the Training are:

• To critically analyze advantages and disadvantages of e-government programs
• To identify major issues of e-government programs
• To reach consensus on major issues
• To prioritize types of e-government services
• To draft action plans for introducing e-government programs

Background

Information and Communication technologies (ICT) have  fundamental  impact and huge influence on the human civilization. ICT is changing the economy, society and culture in increasingly persistent and complex ways. The dramatic advancement of the ICT in the recent years has provided all sections of a society with enormous prospective benefits in almost all the fields. This development of ICT even led to advent of e-governance which is now one of the most discussed topics all around the world.

E-Governance is about the use of ICT in the public sector with the aspiration to improve the quality of its services to the citizens. It encourages the active citizen participation in the decision-making process and reinforces the relation between the public officials and communities; leading to more accountable, effective, inclusive and transparent government. In other words, e-governance is the process of using ICT for automation of both internal activities or operations of the government and its external interactions with citizens and other governmental agencies. Automation of internal activities of the government reduces the cost as well as improves their response time. External automation like interaction with citizens and other governmental agencies reduces the overhead thus creating the value of economy.

The main objective of e-governance is to engage, empower and enable the citizens to build their capacities. Good governance is generally characterized by participation, accountability and transparency to manage affairs of country at all levels. It provides the opportunities to transform the bond between the government and citizens in a new way. The use of ICT in the public sectors can enhance the government’s capacity to provide better services to citizens in terms of time and to make the governance more effective, more efficient and more transparent. In addition, the transaction cost can be lowered and the government services and information are more accessible.