Electronic Government: Challenges and

Opportunities in Afghanistan

Abdul Hameed- Kingston University

Agenda

What is eGovernmnet Channels of Online Service Delivery Why eGovernment Few eGovernment projects example eGovernment in the context of

Afghanistan eGovernment opportunities eGovernment challenges Recommendations

What is eGovernmnet

eGovernment refers to the use of ICT (such as WWW, Internet and mobile technology) by government agencies and departments to deliver public services[1,2].

Channels of Online Service Delivery[1,2]

Channels of

eGovernment

Government-2-

Citizens

Government 2

Business

Government to

Employee

Government 2

Government

Why eGovernment & its benefits

eGovernment

Transparency

Efficiency

Discretion

Always one

services (24/7)

Flexibility( Multi-

channel service delivery

(TV, Mobile, Internet)

Reform public

administration

Why bother about challenges and opportunities

Why??

IT Spending in 2011 $3.4 trillion [1]

UK Gov wasted 26 billion in IT projects in last ten

years [2]

eGovernment projects tend to be complex

eGovernment projects are notorious [1]

Total Failure Partial Failure Success

Percent-age

0.35 0.5 0.15

5%15%25%35%45%55%

eGovernment Project

Pro

ject

Perc

en

tag

e

Few eGovernment projects in the UK

ePassport

The ePassport initiated by UKBA IPS was planned to cost £80-£100 Million, now the final bill is suppose to cost £365m - more than four times the initial quote [1].

NHS National Programme for IT(NPfIT)

The largest civil project in the world Modernising public health in UK Total cost more than £12billion Recently scraped

UK Government main Portal

UK Government main web portal. One stop shop for all citizens and

businesses[1] More than 800 online services

August July June 17,000,000

17,200,000

17,400,000

17,600,000

17,800,000

18,000,000

18,200,000

18,400,000

18,600,000

18,800,000

Monthly Visits

eGovernment in the context of Afghanistan

Why Afghanistan

In 2008, the Government of Afghanistan with the support of the International Community initiated eGovernmnet initiative.

As eGovernmnet projects has a reputation of failures, which means there are chance the project undertaken by Afghan government are likely to be challenged

The failure will have severe effect on country like Afghanistan

70% GDP supported by International communities [1]

Traditional systems (Passport process)

Online Systems

Disssa

tisfic

ation

the

way g

ov se

rvice

s are

delive

red

Disagr

eem

ent w

ith se

rvice

effi

cent

cy

Disagr

eem

ent w

ith tr

ansp

aren

cy

Agree

men

t with

pap

er w

ork

Agree

men

t with

lack

of fl

exab

ality

Corru

ption

in G

over

nmen

t age

ncies

80% 75% 76%87% 88% 97%

Demand of eGovernmnet in Afghanistan

eGovernment Opportunities in Afghanistan

eGovernment

opportunities for

Afghan Gov

Improvement in public

service delivery

Reduction in corruption

Flexible public

services

Reduction in operational

cost

Increase in accountabili

ty

Mobile government

Both citizens &

Gov agencies

had positive attitude

towards IT

Challenges to eGovernment in Afghanistan

Lack

bas

ic co

mpu

ter s

kills

Do't u

se co

mpu

ters

in o

ffice

Lack

on

Inte

rnet

Lack

of p

arm

enen

t IT

Sta

ff

No IT

trai

ning

s

Data

is st

ored

in con

vent

iona

l file

s and

fold

ers

Use o

f pira

te sof

twar

e in

Gov

age

ncie

s0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

eGovernment challenges’ in Afghanistan ( Continued)

Challenges

Lack of technical

staff Lack of financial resource

Lack of legal

framework

Lack of strategic IT plan

Lack of awareness Over

reliance on pirate software

Poor telecom

infrastructure

Lack of localized software

Change managem

ent

Lack of ICT

adoption

Recommendations

Recommendations

Partnership with private sector

Secure computin

g environm

ent

Long term

eGovernment

strategy

Localized software

ICT legal framewor

k

ICT in education

Recommendations(continued)

Recommendations

Promotion of open

source software Cooperati

on with develope

d and developin

g countries

Investment

opportunities Developm

ent of capacity

development

commission

Building relationship with NGO’s and

academia

Development of ICT infrastruc

ture

Thank you for your attention

Any questions