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Information Technology Can Foster Good Governance

By Marjorie Rouse, Vice-President for Europe, Eurasia and ICT Policy, Internews Network.

In a side room of Armenia’s Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, David Sandukhchyan, head of the Internews Center for Information Law and Policy in Yerevan, confers with government officials as part of his ongoing efforts to turn high-level verbal commitments to develop an information society and reduce corruption into reality for Armenia’s people. Bribes, nepotism and favors for friends are a fact of life, but putting government services online – and encouraging citizens to access them electronically – reduces the opportunities for corruption by making government operations more transparent.

Constantly convening meetings of key players in government and industry is a major part of David’s work to develop a policy environment that supports this process. While there is potential to reduce corruption through much-needed e-applications, he is frustrated by missed opportunities and thwarted by the lack of commitment to support implementation across the government bureaucracy. He is making progress but it is slow going. One of the main achievements was directing donors' and government's efforts towards the development of an e-government strategy, but for the past year this strategy has been on hold awaiting official adoption by the government.  

In a big tent on the main square of Skopje, capital of the Republic of Macedonia, Jovce Plastinovski shows “Dedo” (Grandfather) Stavre how to use a computer for the first time and Stavre speaks with his daughter in Australia using Skype Voice over IP (VoIP) network. “This takes me back to the time when I went to first grade, learning how to write and read," he says. "I just applied for e-banking service which will help me not to stand in long lines to collect my retirement check every month.”

A few days later, the same computer-filled and internet-connected tent is in the Macedonian town of Bitola. This time, several Roma children use a computer for the first time, opening email accounts and sending greetings to the president of Macedonia. In a country with an Internet penetration rate of 19 percent, this type of road show, which toured around the country, introduces Macedonians to information and communications technology and gets them online. 

The "Surfing Macedonia" road show, is improving the transparency and efficiency of Macedonia's public sector. Yet a recent report from the United Nations shows that as many as 60 to 80 percent of e-government programs in developing countries have partially or completely failed. Africa has suffered the highest rates of failure, but even in the developed world, the record for these applications is not stellar. 

These applications fail in one or more of three key categories: providing the functionality originally promised, meeting their budgets, or delivering the applications on schedule.  These missed opportunities for reducing corruption and increasing transparency drain away taxpayer money, development opportunities, and public support for technology-based projects.

Bridging the Gap

“Think of the applications as the middle of a sandwich with [the slices of bread being] national policy that creates an enabling environment for progress in effective ICT [Information and Communications Technology] applications deployment on one side, and users that are empowered to interact with those applications on the other side,” says George Sadowsky, Executive Director for the Global Internet Policy Initiative. Much of the problem is due to the gap between the design of information systems and the real-life needs and capabilities of the end-user. The ongoing work of Jovce Plastinovski and the e-government project in Macedonia focuses on filling that gap.

Over the past two and a half years, Macedonia has seen a number of successful e-government applications launched and adopted by the business community as well as the general public. One example is the Apply Online application process for government jobs. This process has made the hiring system for government jobs transparent, reduced the cost to applicants from $100 to zero, and decreased the potential for ethnic or gender discrimination in hiring practices.  Reducing barriers to applying has increased the average number of applicants for each position from 7 to 42. Soon an e-application will transform the system for awarding student housing, traditionally a very corrupt process.

"To change the atmosphere in society you need to change the attitude of citizens so people don’t expect to pay a bribe, so that you can stop taking paying bribes for granted," says Jerker Torngren, Chief of Party for Internews' Macedonia e-government project. To do this, the project focuses on applications that makes a difference to the end users, and couples this with well-trained civil servants who buy into the process.

Building e-applications is not a stand-alone solution to reducing corruption and reforming administrative processes. The most successful e-government applications have proven to be those that are developed through a holistic approach that fosters linkages among key stakeholders. E-applications need to be part of an overall strategy for reforming and re-engineering government processes.

According to James Dempsey, Policy Director for the Center for Democracy and Technology, to ensure the success of these applications, the proper regulatory framework must be in place, as well as the support and understanding of key government, business, and civil stakeholders that are the implementers and the end-users. An example both Dempsey and Sadowsky often cite is the relationship between competition in the telecom industry and the growth of Internet penetration. Many countries have restrictive ISP (Internet Service Provider) regulations or unfair competition due to a monopoly telecom operator. These environments stifle people’s access to the Internet, limiting the impact of even the most well-conceived e-applications. As Dempsey states, “The Internet is uniquely democratizing but it is not a silver bullet. It takes a regulatory framework to support it."

This is the focus of David Sandukhchyan’s work in Armenia – developing the broad-based buy-in from stakeholders that is essential to building an e-government strategy and then a supportive environment for implementation. How does he know his efforts are making a difference? “Our work not only involves promoting policies, but also educating people about effective policies,” he says. “When I see at the end of the day that a particular regulation was changed, I understand that we did good work. But that does not happen very often. If I see that more people are thinking the way we do, it means that we have made some real changes.”