Designing and Implementing

e-Government Strategy
Agenda

 E-government – brief introduction

 E-government strategy – components
 Case study – e-Bharat
 What does all of this mean for the
World Bank

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 Why e-government?
“Everyone else is doing
“Its hype” it, so its probably
important and useful”

“We don’t want to

“We think it will provide faster, more
fall behind all
convenient government services”
others”

“We think it will reduce costs for ”We think it will reduce costs for
individuals and businesses to deal government (reduced data entry
with government” costs, lower error rates)”

“We think it will

improve
”To reduce corruption
democratic
and fight poverty” process”

”We need to reach out to a broader

”We think it’s a tool for transformation of part of population”

public administration from bureaucracy to

service provider”
 So what is E-Government?
 E-government is very simply about applying
information and communication technology
to all aspects of a government’s business
where it makes sense to improve efficiency
and effectiveness in the achievement of
policy and program outcomes

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 So why an E-Government strategy?
 To pursue real economic development goals not just “technology
push”
 To create the right policy and institutional frameworks from the start.
 To maximize effectiveness of ICT initiatives within Government.
 To manage the increasing costs of I&IT in government
 To generate savings by applying I&IT in backend processes or other
programmatic areas
 To map path from pilot experiments to sustainable, scalable systems
 To design technology architecture (infrastructure, data, standards) for
the public sector
 To integrate organizational silos and deliver citizen services through
common channels.

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What is an e-government strategy?

1. Conceptual framework
2. Business case
3. Implementation Process
4. Measurement of results

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 Conceptual Framework for E-Government
Strategy
Dimensions Outputs Goals
E-Governance:
Leadership •Legal Framework, TRANSPA-
•ICT Policies - Standards RENCY

Human
Connectivity & Data Processing
Resource Dev. infrastructure SERVICE
Policy &
Institutional Institutional Infrastructure for
Service Delivery
Reform
EFFICIENCY
Client-Oriented Service
Technology Applications

ECONOMY
Back-End Government
Financing Applications
 Making a business case for E-Government
Strategy

a. Defining worthwhile goals

b. Demonstrating financial feasibility

and sustainability

d. Developing incentive scheme

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 Business Case: Goals

 To extend the reach of government services

 To promote equal access to government services
 To increase constituency satisfaction with government
services
 in particular: to reduce transaction costs for citizens
 Survey of citizens in Ontario indicated that citizens
want – timeliness of response and right outcome
(right information or completed transaction)
 To reduce government costs

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 Business Case: Financial Feasibility

 Incremental investment financing– Justified by public goods nature

of outputs or market failures related to infrastructure-type investments.
For example, it is clear that there will be no competition for providing
training to public servants unless the government pays. The same
about the CSC infrastructure; unless government is willing to provide
some seed capital and selective operational subsidies the private sector
will not deploy the centers needed.

 Cost sharing with business _ through PPPs based on real user fees
or shadow transaction fees.

 Redirection of line ministry HRD and ITC budgets.

 Savings accrued over time from BPR, automation and outsourcing of

client interface. Important to note that in initial stages costs to
government may not be reduced (multiple channels, significant uptake)

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Business Case: Incentives

 Individuals: skills upgrading,

professional development, increased
autonomy, international exposure

 Departments: Increased budgetary

control, organizational visibility,
economic rewards, e.g. share of
profits/savings, etc.

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 E-Government Strategy: Process (1)

• Define vision and goals

• Set up high level leadership task force

• Ensure consistency with economic

development priorities
• Assess status quo and
• Secure political support

• Establish stakeholder participation

mechanisms (including demand)
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 E-Government Strategy: Process (2)

• Put in place e-govt. management framework

• Assess priority needs for government services

• Secure funding

• Establish partnerships with private sector,

where feasible

• Design technical, data sharing, and service

delivery infrastructure.

• Prioritize projects (BPR first)

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 E-Government Strategy: Process (3)

• Develop time-bound implementation plan

• Secure stakeholder buy-in of

implementation plan

• Implementation the strategy in phases

• Measure and publicize progress

• Evaluate results and make course

corrections.
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 E-Govt. Strategy: Measurement of results

Output Indicators
 Infrastructure
 Improvement in connectivity and data processing capacity
 Governance
 E-government management framework in place
 Policy and regulatory framework in place
 Institutional Capacity
 Geographical reach of government services
 Training imparted
 Business processes reengineered
 Number of Government systems operating at service
standards
Note – illustrative examples – there are other measures of
capabilitiy 15
 Business Case: Measurement of results

Impact Indicators
 Constituency satisfaction with government
services (opinion surveys, citizen report
cards)

 Access by the poor and rural population

 Client orientation in public service

 Data sharing across information systems
 transparency of government organization to service
recipients

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Example of e-government
strategy

NEGP - E-Bharat under

preparation
 Example: NEGP - India’s e-Government
strategy
 NEGP’s goal is the provision of improved, more convenient
government services countrywide through on-line delivery at
local service centers.
 NEGP is fully recognized as key part of national development
plans.
 Involves central and all state governments. Will be led
centrally and implemented locally.
 Will be implemented over an 8-year period (FY2006-2013) at
a cost of roughly USD 4 billion.
 To be supported by proposed USD 1 billion Bank project in
two phases

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India’s NEGP : Scope of Outputs
Central State Integrated
Services to Income Tax Land records Common Services Centres:
Citizens Passport, visa and Property registration
Single-window public service
(G2C) immigration Road transport
delivery points eventually
E-Posts Agriculture reaching all the 600,000
Municipalities villages in India
 State Wide Area Network
Panchayats

Police
SWAN: fiber optic connectivity
up to block level
Employment Exchange
Countrywide State Data
Education
Centers
Health
All India Portal
Food Distribution & other
National E-Governance
welfare programs Gateway

Services to Excise Commercial Taxes

 EDI (customs & foreigh trade)
Business Company affairs E-BIZ

(G2B) E-Procurement

Other National ID Treasuries

  E-Courts
National GIS for

planning
India’s NEGP: Criteria for selection of
MMPs

 Measurably improved citizen/business service

delivery

 Ownership by line ministry/ state department

 Acceptable BPR & change management plan

 Solutions can be rolled out in 2-4 years

 emphasis on poor & rural communities

 Use of PPP solutions

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 India’s NEGP: Funding Sources

 Existing ministry budgets (3% national guideline for IT)

 Existing State funds

 Additional Central Assistance (ACA) from the central government to

the states.

 External financing from the Bank and other donors, with harmonized
administration procedures.

 Private financing through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)

 User charges
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 India’s NEGP: Strategy for CSC Infrastructure

• To setup ICT- enabled CSCs in villages to deliver

multiple services to the villagers

• To deliver all possible G2C services through these

CSCs

• To promote public-private-partnerships (PPP) in

ownership and operation of CSCs

• To provide government subsidies calibrated to financial

sustainability of CSCs
 India’s NEGP: Strategy for Capacity
Building

 Provide expert TA on project management

and procurement

 Support BPR plans of implementing

departments

 Finance extensive training program

 Nurture stakeholder/domain networks

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Levels of Capacity Needs- at State Level

•Policy Formulation
•Committing Resources Leadership & Vision
•Taking hard decisions

P •Preparing Roadmaps
R
O
•Prioritization Program Development
•Frameworks, Guidelines
G
R
A •Monitoring Progress
M
M
•Inter-agency Collaboration Program Management
•Capacity Management
E

P •Conceptualization
R
O
•Architecture Project Development
•Definition (RFP, SLA…)
J
E
C •Bid Process Management
T •Project Monitoring Project Management
•Quality Assurance
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 Program Management Overall Governance
Structure- at National level (proposed)

NEGAP Strategy Setting

National e-Governance
National e-Governance
Advisory Cabinet/ CCEA
AdvisoryBoard
Board Cabinet/ CCEA
(Chairman MCIT)
(Chairman MCIT)

Programme Project Approval

Monitoring

Expenditure
Working Group
Working Group Apex Committee Finance
(Chairman Secy DIT)
(Chairman Secy DIT) Committee

Project Owners
Programme Secretariat (Central Line Ministries
/ State Government)
Program Management Unit
Program Management Unit

Sub-Program Project
Sub-Program
Committees Project
Committees
DIT Committees Committees

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Proposed Institutional Framework – at State
level

State Government

State eGov Council (CM)

State Apex Committee (CS)

DIT
Departmental
Committee

SeMT DeMT

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 Sourcing Capacities - Options
Role Task Source of Capacity
Within Govt. Outside
Council Leadership & Policy Formulation
Vision 50% 50%
Resource Commitment

Apex Program eGov Roadmap

Committee Development Prioritization
75% 25%
Frameworks/

SeMT Guidelines
Program  Monitoring Progress
Management 30-50%
Interagency
(tech + 50-70%
Collaboration
domain)
Capacity Management

Project Conceptualization
DeMT Development Architecture

Definition
50%
Project Bid Process 50%
(domain)
Management Management
Project Monitoring

Quality Assurance
Implications for the World Bank

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 But is our client interested?
 Strategic intent of a Government is signaled by:

 Formally expressed interest

 Active planning: documents are available and have
been discussed internally; ICT deployment is a part of
PRSPs; e-readiness assessment done e.g. through an
Infodev grant
 Established government agency for ICT development
 Strategy implementation already started

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 Bank ICT Assistance Strategy

 Assistance must be country-specific depending on

government commitment and country e-readiness.

 Given high risk of ICT investments, a careful

implementation strategy is a must

 For laggard countries, target ‘low hanging fruit’ projects

with high visibility, quick impact and easy implementation.

 For more advanced countries—i.e. have already

implemented pilots-- the Bank can help in scaling up
those systems that best fit within the CAS

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 In the Bank , all types of public sector projects, have e-Gov in them
E-Gov???
Really???
Institutional Reform and
Capacity Building Projects
Enhance efficiency of the
Government’s decision-making
process for public procurement
and Documentation flow.
Administration
Capacity
Building Projects
Civil Service Reform and
Modernization
Improve administration structure
and processes, civil service
performance, public expenditure
management de-concentration ,
revenue collection and
accountability mechanisms.
Health
Systems
Modernization
Trade facilitation and market
access
Lay groundwork for
effective health sector
policy making &
monitoring
Supports improving the legal &
regulatory framework for public
financial management and new
Integrated IFMIS
 Why is this important for the Bank?

 Conservatively more than 50% of our projects involve

significant investments in ICT

 Most ICT project components involve e-Government initiatives

 Several countries envisioning comprehensive projects: e-Lanka,

India’s e-Bharat, e-Vietnam, e-Ghana, e-Peru

 Several regions working on an ICT strategy (SAR, EAP)

 Most of our clients are investing in this area anyway, it

is better the Bank has a strategy to manage that
investment and get better/wider impact from it

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Who provides this support?

 ISG – e-government practice – applications,

e-government strategies
 GICT – telecom, policy, infrastructure, e-
agenda
 Legal - legal frameworks
 WBI – client training, distance learning
 Regional units – AFTQK, ECSPE
 Sectors – for domain knowledge especially
PREM

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 Closing thoughts

A country’s e-government strategy will need to be

calibrated to the country's situation in terms of

 PC & Internet penetration, (adequate technological

infrastructure)
 software development capabilities available locally,
 literacy levels (both conventional & IT),
 economic level (ability to pay),
 Legal framework
 languages prevalent, etc.
 preparedness and commitment of political,
administrative and technical leadership.

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 And Finally
 E-Govt is a multi year commitment. Even if technology can
be rapidly implemented organizational change takes time and
use patterns change even more slowly.

 E-Government offers tremendous opportunities for improving

service delivery, efficiency and transparency in government

 High risk of e-government projects require careful design

 Client countries increasingly require this type of assistance

from the World Bank 

 Finally – while e-Govt is important it is a means to an end,

and not an end in and of itself (its about the ‘g’ and not the
‘e’)

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 Credits – Contributors and Reviewers

Contributors Reviewers

 Government of India  Subhash Bhatnagar

- DIT  Mark Dutz
 Åke Grönlund  Tenzin Dolma
Norbhu
 Elisabet Rosengren
 Joan McCalla
 Seda Pahlavooni  Eduardo Talero

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 E-Government: Lessons of experience

 E-Government cannot perform as a substitute for

governance reform
 E-Government must address the rural urban divide
 Manage expectations: e-government is not a magic
bullet
 Translating promises to benefits involves difficult
organizational changes.
 There is no “one size fits all” strategy: the context
needs to be understood
 Balance top direction and bottom up initiative
 Avoid large failures; deliver early results

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E-Government: Lessons of experience

 Identify priority interventions that are capable of

exploring a country’s competitive advantage,
delivering cross-cutting positive impacts
 Promote partnerships between government, private
sector, civil society and donors
 Avoid technology focus: ensure complementary
investment; skills, organizational innovation and
incentives are crucial for making technology work
 Emphasize training and capacity building

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 Country Experiences: UK

 Focus on improving government services for citizens

 Priority on ‘high impact’ areas - 
 Take-up of services must be the key driver of investment and the key performance
indicator.
 Create competitive pressure
 Open up electronic delivery of government services to the private and voluntary sectors.
 Do not make exclusive contracts for front-end delivery Ð avoid private sector
monopolies.
 Let electronic delivery compete with traditional delivery inside government.
 Make the Internet the backbone to ESD, but allow multiple entry routes.
 Reward innovation, accept some failure
 Get going quickly, and keep learning from mistakes.
 Set ambitious goals, informed by citizen preferences.
 Begin with prototypes that can be built quickly and tested.
 Quickly scale up successful prototypes for launch.
 Be ruthless in weeding out unsuccessful government e-venture
 Push for efficiency savings
 Wherever possible ESD should substitute rather than complement traditional delivery.
 Determine the trade-off between trust and income (e.g. advertising) for each service.
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 Country Experiences - Australia
 Agency e-government programs are more likely to be successful
when:
 Executive-level support has been obtained from the CEO and senior
agency staff
 Agency staff are committed to the broader concepts of e-government
 Recognition exists that people wish to deal with government through a
variety of channels, and service delivery strategies are tailored
accordingly
 Potential awareness is heightened by promoting availability of online
programs to people
 Legislation and authentication issues have been resolved
 Confidence has been raised through electronic signatures
 Models for effective inter-agency collaboration have been built and
proven
 Momentum is maintained through better integration of enterprise, work,
information, application and technology architectures with and among
agencies

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 Country Experiences - Canada

 Canada regularly surveys citizens and businesses about

their attitudes and needs--more so than any other
country.
 Canada also actively markets its E-government services.
It advertises on TV and radio, ad in airline magazines
and newspapers to get citizens to use its portal
 Canada, like many nations, has a national CIO, given
the necessary muscle to drive standards and create a
common E-government offering

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 Country Experiences - Singapore

 To pull down silos, you need a big stick

 Vision of "many agencies, one government" became mantra
 The Ministry of Finance was sole authority in approving funding
for e-government projects
 IDA managed central IT and telecom infrastructure and defined
national policy, standards and procedures
 All e-services followed same security, electronic payment and
data exchange mechanisms, by regulatory and policy mandate
 While Internet technology was an enabler, people made it
happen, through strong e-leadership  Deputy prime minister
launched the plan in 2000 "to be a leading e-government to
better serve the nation in the digital economy."

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New Zealand e-Government Architecture
Sri Lanka e-Government Architecture
India e-Government Architecture
Australia e-Government Architecture