E-Government practice at the local government level Douglas Cohen South African Local Government Association (SALGA)

e-Government practice at the local government level

Douglas CohenSouth African Local Government Association (SALGA)

2

80% of G2C = LG

Around the world the overwhelming majority of citizen-government transactions takes place at the local level.

Schmidt, Oliver. 2002. Balanced E-Government: Connecting Efficient Administration and Responsive

Democracy. Gutersloh: Bertelsmann Foundation.

3

Presentation Overview

e-Gov @ Lo-GovState of South African Local Government

onlineChanging / Challenging the status quo

4

e-Gov @ Lo-Gov

Reported from the Civil Society Colloquium on E-government

What is e-Government?

http://www.wordle.net/create


5

e-Gov @ Lo-Gov

What is Local Government e-Government?

• The closer to the ‘front end’ that decisions about service provision can be made, the closer they can reflect local needs.

Decentralisation of government

• Collaborative-design and decision making

Citizen involvement

• Overlapping, inter-related needs

Partnerships of place

Encouraging growth of e-business and

associated opportunities. Providing

access 24 hours a day, seven days a

week

Reducing the cost of delivery

of some government

services

Reducing bureaucratic and jurisdictional

demarcation to provide unified services based on user requirements

Increasing efficiency-saving tax-

payers’ funds

Improving public access to a wide range of government

services, especially by people who live in regional, rural and remote areas and people with

disabilities

6




7

State of South African Local Government online

It should be no surprise that not all of the 283 municipalities have functional, effective or active websites

8

State of South African Local Government online…

Buts it’s not just a nice to have… Guiding legislation but who’s watching

compliance?

9



The reasons?


10


There are huge disparities in the websites’ functionality, compliance, content and relevance 98% of websites are in English and none

support disabled access No up-to-date listing of Municipal Contact and

/ or Leadership Information Publishing draft Municipal IDP’s and Budgets

appears to be a nice to do rather than a must

11


Transform

Integrate

Transact

Interact

Static Info

Value toCitizens

and Businesses

E-Government Capability

Metros have the plans, budget and resources to Allocate to ICT’s

Towns and rural Municipalities do no have resources or ability prioritise ICT

12


Low Levels of ICT penetration in South Africa

Source Data: Stats SA Community Survey 2007

13


Limited involvement of Local Government in National e-Gov Policy (and visa-versa) No standardisation in terms of the local

government domain No single up-to-date listing of Municipal

Websites

14




15

Changing / Challenging the status quo

South Africa now boasts almost 100% mobile phone penetration.

16


Expanding the use of Mobile / WEB 2.0 Technologies eDemocracy eParticipation

• E.g. Emakhazeni LM

17


Stimulate demand Acknowledge the role of Local Government

as an key e-Government channel Think of services (and service delivery) NOT

eServices Local language content Increase access points

18


Stimulate supply Increase the strategic profile of ICT @ LG Drive 100% compliance with legislation Generic standards, supporting guidelines,

shared good practices and solutions and benchmarked costs

Reward performance

19


Waterfall Models

What can we learn from the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?

Spiral Models

Balancing Analogue & Heuristic Approaches

20


User led approach to e-government (NAO 2002)

21


"And thus, dear students, we have arrived at the formula for understanding

local government e-Government practice ”

But what is SALGA’s

role?

Thank You

[email protected] 369 8000

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

E-Government practice at the local government level Douglas Cohen South African Local Government Association (SALGA)