‘Washington Dick Regional Advisor ISTD/ECA

1. Status of national and sectoral ICT policies with a special focus on e-Government applications in Africa ICTs, Gender and e-Government 28 - 30 May 2007 ‘Washington Dick Regional Advisor ISTD/ECA

2. Contents • Background • e-Government • e-Government strategies in Africa • Gender and e-Government • Way Forward

3. Background • AISI Vision: • To support and accelerate socio-economic development across the region • By the year 2010, the AISI is intended to realize a sustainable information society in Africa • Information Policy Development and Implementation • national, sectoral, regional, and spatial data and information infrastructure policies, plans and strategies • National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) policies • NICI = Process of developing ICT Policies and Plan • A mechanism to implement the global vision of AISI at national level • Sectoral policies = e-Government, e-Health, etc.

4. Status of NICI Policies 34 12 7

5. e-Government • The use of ICTs to improve government efficiency in delivering services to its citizens • Availability of electronic access points crucial to the use of e-Government for service delivery • Pillars of e-Government strategy: • customs and immigration • e-Parliament • e-Health • e-Banking • e-Procurement • e-Commerce • e-Tourism

6. Focus areas of the Republic of The Gambia e-Government Strategy: an AISI e-Government model • ICT Equipment & Infrastructure • Network, IT Security & Legal Framework • Web Development, Portals/Government-Public Interface, Applications • ICT Human Resource Development and Training

7. Requirements for e-Government Applications • Defining objectives • Agreeing on the guiding principles • Long-term action • Technical liability • Stressing vulnerability • Empowerment • Participation and partnership • National autonomy • Avoiding new structure • Identifying Priority Areas • Pilot projects • Sectoral projects • Developing Strategies • Advocacy and policy dialogue • Mainstreaming of e-Government activities • Partnership development

8. Challenges in developing e-Government strategies • Establishing the right institutional framework • Putting into operation the elements of the action plan • Mobilising resources needed for implementation of the e-Government programme • Thinking beyond government portals and pilot projects • e-Government enshrined in national ICT policy

9. e-Government strategies in Africa (selected countries) • e-Government readiness index (scale 0-1) • Source: 2006 Information & Communications for • Development (IC4D): Global Trends and Policies, • The World Bank. • Botswana 0.29 Malawi 0.15 • Ethiopia 0.03 Namibia 0.12 • Gambia 0.08 Rwanda 0.12 • Ghana 0.05 South Africa 0.52 • Kenya 0.14 Sudan 0.14 • Lesotho 0.19 Tanzania 0.23 • Upper-middle income group: 0.49 • Sub-Saharan group: 0.11

10. e-Government strategies (Global Comparisons) • Regional Comparison of e-Gov Index (2001) • Source: Benchmarking e-Government: A Global Perspective, • United Nations Division for Public Economics and Public • Administration (UNDPEPA), 2002. • an enabling e-Government environment • Web presence Measure • Telecommunications infrastructure Measure • Human Capital Measure. • North America 2.60 Europe 2.01 • South America 1.79 Middle East 1.76 • Asia / Oceania 1.37 Caribbean 1.34 • Central America 1.28 Africa 0.84

11. Measuring impact of ICTs in Governance - Scan ICT • Contain a set of indicators that reflect the specific status and use of ICTs in Africa • Make information available for analysis of specific issues of interest, progress monitoring in ICT Strategies & Plans, investment & policy decision-making, etc. - including ICTs in local governance • Indicators on Governance and the information society • Sectoral Applications surveyed in the Ethiopian Scan-ICT: • The education sector • The health sector • Public administration (Public institutions and Employees of public institutions) • females accounted for only 22% of the total IT expertise in public institutions

12. Gender and e-Government • The Gender Gap • Average adult literacy rate (% age 15 and above) in 2001 • female - 53% • male - 70% • Combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross • enrolment ratio (%) in the years 2000-01 • female - 47% • male - 54% • Female professional and technical workers represented 45% of the total such workforce in data compiled for Egypt, Namibia and Botswana while no data was available on the rest of the continent.

13. Gender and e-Government (continued) • The Gender Gap in access to e-Government • limited awareness of women on ICT opportunities • limited access to ICTs more pronounced in females • different usage patterns of women and men • limited content in local language and relevant for women • Ineffective participation of women in ICT policy formulation and implementation process

14. The East African Community (EAC) e-Government Strategy • an ePol-NET assisted activity • addresses the critical inequality issues in the ICT access and use in the region • outlines action points for the potential use of ICT as a tool for gender equality, Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction objectives of the partner states • - promoting labour-saving devices for Women, creating rural Multimedia Centres for women, access to credit/loan opportunities information online • the launching of e-Government Initiatives / providing access at local area councils in delivering responsive social programs to the poor • - the need to address gender at national and local levels through using innovative ICT applications such as rural Multimedia Centres for Women that can act as the participatory hub/link to the national development processes /programs • - the institutionalising of dialogue between Government, Civil Society and Donors, NGO/CSO links through NGO associations to mainstream gender dimensions in the e-Government processes in the region

15. Assessment of the Status of the Implementation and Use of ICT Access Points in Africa - April 2007 • A study undertaken as part of a UN Project on Knowledge Networks through ICT Access Points for Disadvantage Communities • Also assessed the gender dimension of telecentre use by communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda • Findings: • Telecentres had enabled a large number of people in disadvantaged and under-served communities to have direct access to modern ICTs • Fewer women than men used telecentre facilities and services • Radio played a prominent role in promoting women’s visibility and rights and in tackling gender issues • Some telecentres focused their services on women only • Kubere Information Centre (Uganda) • Sengerema community multimedia center (Tanzania) provided digital content and learning tools on CD-ROMs and Internet content (including on women’s entrepreneurship and ICTs)

16. The Way Forward (to Gender Mainstreaming in e-Government) • Elements of mainstreaming gender in national e-Government strategies, plans and services • Awareness raising • Gender sensitive NICI Policy formulation process • Defining gender disaggregated data • Capacity building • Local languages /content • Avoiding fragmented services • Info & Knowledge sharing • Networking

17. Thank You ! http://www.uneca.org/aisi/ aisi@uneca.org