Dear Colleagues, Greetings from the KnowNet Initiative at <http://www.knownet.org> and the Digital Governance Initiative at <http://www.digitalgovernance.org>
Digital Governance is a project of the KnowNet Initiative. KnowNet Initiative aims to popularize the use of ICT for empowerment and development in developing countries, while DigitalGovernance.org explores and disseminates innovative models by which ICT can be used in developing countries to lead to better governance. Do have a look at both the websites and we are sure that you will find a lot of useful resources in it. We now have over 950 members from over 85 countries as a part of this virtual initiative launched over 18 months back. And this has singularly contributed to maintaining rich and diverse information resources on both the websites. We now have resources from Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Vietnam, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guyana, Pakistan, Israel, India and many others. We thank all the contributors who over the months have shared different web resources, links and case studies through this initiative. Both the initiatives function on a continuous learning mode. And more knowledge products (similar to this) would be brought into light in the subsequent updates. These occasional updates may be subscribed by sending a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The updates are basically a compilation and reflection of the experiences shared by many of the E-governance practitioners and researchers working in the South. We are still at the beginning of the century and yet very exciting developments are happening on the E-governance front in South. More and more number of people are getting connected to some or other form of telecommunication and the network of interconnected people is geometrically rising. Whilst it is true that link to emails/ Internet is integral to large sections of people living in developed countries and there is a huge North-South divide in terms of connectivity, it does not mean that the South is not benefiting from getting connected to the telecommunications network. Interestingly, in comparison, the impacts of getting connected are very much different. And "Impacting Governance" is the front where the adoption of modern technologies could lead to (and is leading to) more radical changes in South than in North. And the South may have so much more to offer on how to innovatively use ICT to impact on governance processes. This is because, the Southern models often create communication channels between Individuals and Governance mechanisms where none existed earlier and thus lead to their greater popularity and faster adoption. Nevertheless, this does not imply that E-governance should become an elixir or the only desirable solution for better governance. Electronic Governance has to be realized by focusing on the two-way link between Government and Citizens. The link from Government to Citizens, provides an interface for the Government to reach out to the citizens. But this will happen only if the Government promotes the culture of information-sharing and has the intentions to foster participation and create greater awareness among the citizens. This often may not be the case and such an attitude will not happen immediately, especially at the national level. Information continues to be power in countries with high levels of information asymmetry and sharing of information could thus be construed as lessening of power or having to be more transparent- both of which- may high political risks in the eyes of traditional power holders. Nevertheless, changes could be incremental. For instance, in India, some of the States went much ahead in putting state government related information and procedures on the Internet, in comparison to the country as a whole. And it was often because of the positive efforts of some individual politicians/ government offices who take the political risk and in process paved way for a more transparent governance. The incremental effect has led to a more concerted efforts such as national recommendations to earmark $587 million in addition to the 3 percent plan outlay of each ministry for e-governance and convergence projects. In some countries, the seeds of change has been more at the national level and the central governments have served as a role model for the state governments to follow. The process of using e-governance may be incremental or centralized but the effectiveness of such government provided interface will still largely be dependent on the level of openness and risk-bearing capacity of the Government officials/ offices to make way for direct citizen involvement. The other link is from Citizen to the Government-in which electronic governance opens up an interface where the citizens demand participation in governance mechanisms- be it at the local, national or international level. The caveat is that under normal circumstances, the citizens may not be at the stage where they are pro-actively able to demand and push for spaces in decision-making. To take it even further, there may not be much willingness to directly engage with the governance processes or provide information to the governance machinery. The level of disengagement could be a function of past experiences with government engagement, illiteracy, skewed powered equations, opportunity cost for time spent, and existing information levels. The empowerment stage is the crucial stage which has to be achieved before citizens pro-actively start to engage in decision-making processes at Individual or Community level. In absence of it, the citizen to government interface will continue to be usurped by a few and may not lead to a governance mechanism which is more effective than the existing one. This shatters the myth that E-governance occurs automatically, when people are provided with ICT connectivity. Interestingly a benchmarking research study (2001) brought out by Taylor Nelson Sofres, puts countries like Great Britain and Malaysia into low bracket of E-governance users whereas India and Hungary comes into the medium bracket E-governance users. (In terms of Internet penetration, India and Hungary come under low-penetration bracket, and Great Britain and Malaysia under medium-penetration bracket). For Electronic Governance to become significant and also effective, one has to examine the ways in which government could be made to adopt an information sharing culture and at the same time, ordinary citizens could be made more interested in engaging with the government. The low voter turnout in some of the countries such as Great Britain and India does signify that some sections of people have adopted a minimal engagement approach with the government due to several reasons. Electronic governance cannot be served as an elixir or even a marginally better solution in such cases. Voter turnouts do not become significantly better whether elections get conducted online in comparison to those done in the physical domain. The solution may lie in 2 domains and both need to be taken up simultaneously for optimal results. The first is the domain of the Government Offices and Officials. It becomes increasingly important to sensitize government officials and bureaucrats to the positive impact of Information sharing and how it could aid their work and bring greater recognition to it rather than creating hindrances and political risks. The younger class of government officials need to be drawn into this mindset so that they may adopt it in a smaller jurisdiction first to gain some immediate successes. This is more likely to create an incremental and expanding effect in terms of number of government officials adopting it and the jurisdictional area in which there is a greater access to information. The second domain is the Citizens Domain. An active push is required to break the attitude of the common citizen that "Nothing Changes through individual engagement with the government machinery." The role of the NGOs, citizen groups, academic institutions, political leaders is instrumental in demonstrating the strengths of information and knowledge networks and how people can effectively engage in these networks to promote information sharing and opinion building. A community, which shares information among each other, is more likely to succeed when engaging with the government since alternate channels for communications may not have much support. And the value of such a knowledge network grows as more number of users participate in it. As a consequence, some of these networks have been very successful in tacking local issues such as better implementation of government schemes, better health facilities etc. (See our other project- KnowNet Initiative at http://www.knownet.org which explores the use of ICT for empowerment) It needs to be stated that Better Governance does not always happen automatically. There has to be a demand for it and requires a suitable threshold beyond which bad governance becomes intolerant. E-governance can prove to be a good tool in promoting good governance and making people more intolerant of bad governance. As always we look forward to your reactions, feedforward on E-governance issues. You are invited to share your independent views as an E-governance practitioner, researcher or a user. You could write to us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Best, Vikas Nath Inlaks Fellow, LSE, UK Founder, KnowNet.org Initiative and DigitalGovernance.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.vikasnath.org ********************************************************************** KEY WEB UPDATES ON THE SITE OF Digital Governance at http://www.digitalgovernance.org ** Publications on E-Governance in South The website has links to over 100 relevant publications largely relating to South. Some sample links: Taylor Nelson Sofres Government Online Study 2001 http://www.tnsofres.com/gostudy/ The study is a result of interviews with over 29,000 individuals across 27 countries. The GO study was researched and written by Taylor Nelson Sofres. It provides global and national benchmarks relating to the use of government services online and perceptions of safety when providing personal information to Government. E-Government: Enabling Asia-Pacific Governments and Citizens to do Public Business Differently Clay G. Wescott http://www.adb.org/Documents/Papers/E_Government/default.asp This paper begins with a brief review of the potential benefits of e-government in supporting public sector reform. It then gives some examples of adoption of e-government in recent years in the Asia-Pacific region, to see the extent to which these benefits have materialized. It analyzes six stages of e-government, and reviews both the benefits and challenges of each stage, highlighting different processes of adoption in different types of jurisdictions. Finally, there is a discussion of three major, cross-cutting challenges effecting all stages, and directions for further research. Electronic Media in Rural Development: Individual Freedoms to Choose versus Politics of Power and Control" (including case studies of Vietnam, Indonesia and Peru) Robin van Koert www.btinternet.com/~rvankoert This research conceives of development as a process, aimed at increasing people's individual political, social and economic freedoms, or capabilities, and at enabling them to make their own choices and decisions. Free and independent information dissemination plays an important role in that process. In rural areas of developing countries, radio, for example, is very important in disseminating information. However, this information does not always meet the existing demand for information. In addition, physical distances typically hamper exchanges of existing information, knowledge and experience. Legislative Assembly Websites in Central America: Citizen Participation, Transparency and Accountability Katherine Reilly http://katherine.reilly.net/e-governance/LegislativeAssemblies.pdf This working paper is the first in a series of short think pieces that form part of the research process for a study of e-governance in Central America. This larger study is looking at the use of Internet by Central American governments. In particular, it will examine if Central American governments are making use of ICTs to improve transparency, participation, equity and accountability in public policy. ** Case Studies on E-governance in South The Digital Governance website has links to over 60 Southern case-studies. Some of the recently added links are: Nepal: A district puts old records to new digital uses http://www.undp.org/dpa/frontpagearchive/2001/october/16oct01/index.html Old records used to lie in dusty corners in Kanchanpur, a district in far-west Nepal. Now they have become part of the digital revolution. Kanchanpur is one of the areas in this mountainous country most dedicated to using information technology to modernize public administration and promote local development. UGANDA : Mobile Phone Use Has Improved Public Discourse http://allafrica.com/stories/200107100343.html The growing number of mobile phones is transforming the Ugandan society. While there is evidently increased excitement about the emergent technology, the ease and convenience of communicating has improved public discourse and given impetus to development initiatives. Now villagers can even fire questions at the Ugandan president, both parties, of course, living worlds apart. Zimbabwe: Kubatana.net http://www.kubatana.net/ Harnessing the democratic potential of email and the internet in Zimbabwe.The NGO Network Alliance Project (NNAP) aims to strengthen the use of email and internet strategies in Zimbabwean NGOs and civil society organisations. The NNAP will make human rights and civic education information accessible to the general public from a centralised, electronic source. Costa Rica: Democracia Digital http://www.democraciadigital.org A non-profit civic initiative directed towards using information and communication technology for the extension and the enrichment of the democratic coexistence of the Costa Rican society, facing the beginning of a new century. The strategy aims at information dissemination on subjects relative to the public interest and creation of new spaces of consultation. **Links to E-governance The website has almost 100 links to good resoures on E-governance. Some of the recently added one are: Global Corruption Report http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/ The Global Corruption Report 2001, launched on 15 October 2001, is the new publication of Transparency International (TI), the leading global anti-corruption NGO. It provides an overview of 'the state of corruption' around the globe. Indonesia: Infoprada http://www.infoproda.com/ Monitoring Indonesia's new regional autonomy laws and regulations; decentralization of powers to its provincial administrations and local governments (regencies and cities); governance reform; tax, aid, environment and social equity; investment and development opportunities. Institute on Governance : Governance and the Web http://www.iog.ca/about/themes-ict.html The Institute believes that new technologies, and in particular the Internet, are having a profound effect on governance. For example, these technologies create new expectations among citizens for how governments should interact with them, and how services should be delivered. The internet provides civil society organizations around the world with greater access to information, and enhances their opportunities to collaborate and to bring pressure to bear on policy makers. Worldwide Resources on Government http://www.gksoft.com/govt/ Comprehensive database of governmental institutions on the World Wide Web: parliaments, ministries, offices, law courts, embassies, city councils, public broadcasting corporations, central banks, multi- governmental institutions etc. Election Resources http://www.electionresources.org/ In this space you will find links to Internet sites around the world which provide complete and detailed national and local election statistics, as well as other election resources. Kyrgyzstan Government Site http://www.law.gov.kg Internet is being used by political parties and NGOs to distribute their documents and network with each other and organizations abroad. This is the official government site which serves like an official gazette - everyone gets to read documents signed by prime-minister and president. ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>
