United Nations e-government survey 2008: from e-government to connected governance

The United Nation’s e-Government Survey 2008 presents an assessment of governments in enhancing public service delivery while improving the efficiency and productivity of government processes and systems. It also assesses the e-government readiness of the 192 member states of the UN according to a quantitative composite index of e-readiness based on website assessment, telecommunication infrastructure and human resource endowment.

The document has two parts. Part I presents the findings of the e-government survey 2008 while Part II focuses on ‘how to’ approach connected governance.

The main findings of the survey include:

• governments are moving forward in e-government development around the world
• only a few governments have made the necessary investment to move from e-government applications per se to a more integrated connected governance stage
• Europe tops e-governance readiness index followed by Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Asia and Oceania are slightly below the world average while Africa lagged far behind
• in terms of citizen engagement, the e-participation index indicates a modest upward movement with 189 countries online in 2008 as compared to 179 in 2005
• the United States scores highest in the e-participation index. This is primarily due to its strengths in e-information and e-consultation which enabled citizens to be more interactive with their government
• Republic of Korea scores second in e-participation while Denmark and France are tied for the third place
• governments are increasingly looking towards e-government-as-a-whole concept which focuses on the provision of services at the front end supported by integration, consolidation and innovation in back-end processes and systems to achieve maximum cost savings and improved service delivery
  

In sum, the survey concludes that while technology is increasingly resilient and ‘fit for purpose’, the evidence indicates that success or failure is less a technological issue and more a people-issue.