Date: 28/10/2002
Source: Ministry of Public Service and Administration
Title: Fraser-Moleketi: E-Africa Regional Conference
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION, GERALDINE FRASER-MOLEKETI, AT THE E-AFRICA REGIONAL CONFERENCE, Caesar's Gauteng, 28 October 2002
Special welcome to all of our visitors.
Manuel Castells, pre-eminent writer on the knowledge economy and network society, recalls Kofi Annan's emphasis in his report to the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, of the need for developing countries to leapfrog development. For Castells, this requires the developing world to "not just leap into the high technology of the leading societies and continue along the traditional path of industrial development. On the contrary, what is critical is Internet-based agriculture, Internet-based services, Internet-based health, Internet-based education."
The Internet economy, or the network society to which Castells refers, offers a unique opportunity for states to rapidly address the service delivery requirements of their citizens. It is said that e-government and e-governance may contribute in the process of creating digital opportunities for all. Will these opportunities eventuate for ordinary citizens of Africa? The ordinary citizen is interested in what technology will do to improve the quality of his/her life and alleviate the scourges of poverty, famine and disease in Africa.
What is however central to the African theme is that e-governance should create real, accurate, affordable and convenient access to the services of government to all the people of Africa.
It should also allow government to determine the demographics and social needs of its population to be able to correctly target development areas, projects and delivery of sustainable wealth creating activities at all levels.
The demands on government service delivery today require the constant investigation and implementation of innovative mechanisms to deliver public services. Citizens are continuously demanding more convenient and cost-effective means and channels through which they can access government service delivery. This in part, is due to the fact that citizens are accustomed to convenient channels when dealing with business and they are therefore justified in asking the question;
Whether government cannot use the same channels and means to deliver services? This challenge is being posed to governments throughout the world irrespective of the developmental state of the country. In essence, there seems to be recognition of the role that Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play in facilitating development. In today's world ICT is seen as a basic necessity and is critical in enabling the fast tracking of development. The United Nations Human Development Report for 2002 reflects that by 2005 there will be about 1 billion Internet users, therefore providing a strong motivation for governments to expand e-governance for the benefit of all citizens, not only for improved service delivery, but also for better government to citizen communication. The report indicates three areas in which this can take place - announcing all public meetings, using comment forms, online surveys and focus groups to obtain the input required for genuine e-government and holding government-citizen online consultations.
This conference has primarily been organised to look into those issues in our continent that are critical to improving service delivery to all the citizens of Africa but also to assist with the elimination of the digital divide and how best we can mitigate the effects of the digital divide and take advantage of technology to fast track Africa's developmental agenda.
Obviously, we have an ambitious agenda, as a continent - which I must add, is also achievable - as long as we commit our resources - be they human, financial, physical and otherwise - to the achievement of this dream. The dream to utilise technology as a means to effect government service delivery is indeed the best path if we want to achieve accessible government.
ICTs offer us the possibility to render services in ways that are unimaginable without technological intervention. Services can be rendered on a 24-hour basis thus offering citizens a choice as to when and how they intend to interact with government. Traditionally we have been limited to dealing with government within the confines of office hours and buildings. With e-government, this constraint can once and for all be eliminated.
Another possibility is one of offering alternatives in terms of access channels to government services. ICTs do offer possibilities, and indeed ways that compliment the physical contact-type mode traditionally used. Services can be accessed via the Internet, telephone - that is citizens can call a call centre, which will be able to provide access to government services, or even through radio and TV. With ICTs, it appears, possibilities of service delivery are limitless - the choice, convenience and cost benefits in the long run make a compelling case for e-government.
I believe this conference will have succeeded in its purpose if it enables us as delegates and participants to consider in some way some of the fundamental questions facing e-government leaders, particularly in the developing world. Let me repose some of these questions afresh so that we can begin to consider them at the back of our minds throughout this conference.
We need to examine why are we, in the developing world, embarking on the e-government road? Is e-government a fad, or a tool capable of addressing significant developmental challenges? Is it the preserve of the developed world, with a strong infrastructural base and wealth of resources, or applicable to a context of little infrastructure and a shortage of finance and human resources? The challenges facing us as a continent are too extensive to focus on technology for the sake of it.
Having established a case for e-government, a range of considerations needs to be noted:
* First, successful e-government implementation requires broad consensus amongst political and administrative decision-makers, and strong public-private partnerships. No government has the capacity to undertake such ambitious programmes alone and there should be actively seeking the involvement of the private sector. In addition, the future of e-government will require collaboration on projects and operations at levels previously unknown if the benefits of ICT are to be harnessed for the common good of all. It will require the integration of systems and exchange of data at levels currently unknown on the African continent and will have to span across cultural and language barriers. Clear rules of engagement for the effective involvement of all partners (private sector, community based organisations, non-governmental organisations, unions etc.) We need to determine what roles and responsibilities each of these sectors of society has in the e-Government implementation process. This is a core question as it relates to the development of clear rules that will facilitate constructive engagement of all social partners for the mutual benefit of all.
* Second, do we have an implementation strategy that will ensure success? We are a diverse continent with varying needs, and differing states of e-readiness, and therefore require a multi-faceted strategy to ensure that implementation is practical, and replicable.
* Third, how do we ensure that lessons learnt will be communicated to all concerned to ensure that the rate of expansion and implementation is exponentially enhanced by our learning experiences? What are the appropriate technologies for us? Let us, in this case, give thought to human language technologies, the growth of local industry, security, and free software. How will we use the process to drive down costs while at the same time investing in our own people?
* Fourth, while we plan our ambitious implementation strategies, we should not lose sight of the recipients of these services. We need to understand their needs and priorities, and not make simplistic assumptions about preferred services and modes of delivery.
* Fifth, what projects are we engaging in and what are our selection criteria? It is critical that objective selection criteria be developed beforehand as we may run the risk of selecting projects in an uncoordinated and haphazard fashion leading to us not meeting our objectives. The criteria will assist us in ensuring fairness in the selection and prioritisation of projects. Can we prescribe that the selected e-government projects focus on the immediate needs of Africa and what are they? A critical issue to consider is how e-governance will impact on the following socio-economic realities, through transforming the delivery mechanisms of the state:
-- Hunger
-- Poverty
-- HIV/AIDS
-- Health
-- Job creation
-- Regional coordination and collaboration.
* Sixth, we need to determine the institutional infrastructure and change management required to enable implementation? This involves mechanisms for communication, stakeholder participation and resistance mitigation. The introduction of e-government applications and solutions imply that change will be at the centre of this exercise. It will require change not only within governments but also in the potential users of the systems. The paradigm shift to the new way of doing and delivering services will have to be embedded into the various government cultures and organisations. The African experience with the introduction of cellular communication technology has demonstrated that Africa can embrace and come to terms with new technology.
* Seven, we also need to find a way of monitoring and evaluating performance of e-government? We need to have measurable and tangible results and mechanisms of how to gauge whether we are performing as planned. At the same time we must initiate a process to communicate such successes and failures to the stakeholder community. If indeed there are failures we need to develop timely remedies for such failures. If we say e-government facilitates transparency and citizen participation in public affairs, we need to define exactly how e-government makes this a possibility? If our thrust is towards enabling transparency of the public service, we need to develop programmes that can support this as a thrust of our e-government drive and develop mechanisms taking into account our economic and financial short falls of how we will enable even in the remotest parts of our countries, enable participation of citizens in public affairs by taking advantage of technology as an enabler.
* Finally I want to pose a key question relating to funding infrastructure for e-Government. How do we, in the context of limited financial resources (tight budgets) with competing demands, fund the e-government programme? Can we develop a model for financing an e-government infrastructure that is sustainable or self-sustaining? The cost of ICT goods and services is astronomically high, owing to these being primarily developed in the West and therefore being sold in volatile foreign currencies. How can we ensure that the impact of price increases do not affect us adversely through innovative means of tackling these problems. In short, how can we manage the value chain & make sure that we get the necessary return on investment.
As you are aware, free/open source software (OSS) is on the workshop agenda. I would like us to start thinking critically about how we can make better use of the opportunities availed by the emergence of OSS to drive the costs of ICT products and hopefully services to our benefit. We need to think about its promises and potential benefits. I am hopeful that in the next workshop we will reflect on success stories either in Africa or elsewhere in the world where it was implemented.
I believe these fundamental questions will inform the processes of developing our e-government strategies and visions. They are fundamental to the success in implementing e-government. I believe this conference is not an end but rather the beginning of a continuous engagement among participating countries. I believe we need to continue this process as part of setting an agenda for an e-Africa.
I trust that the Plan of Action generated at this conference will be approved and supported by all African Governments and that when we reflect in the future clear progress according to the action plan will be evident.
The success of this workshop will depend on:
* Commitment of all participating countries to continuously engage in advancing the outcomes of the conference as agreed in the Plan of Action. This includes the willingness and ability to set aside resources to advance the programme of modernising government in Africa.
* A realisation of the central role that ICTs can play in facilitating both social and economic development in today's world. ICTs are now, more than ever before, a basic need in advancing socio-economic development. Without the use of ICTs, as countries we will lose whatever competitive advantage we have in global trade.
* Taking charge and responsibility in exploiting the opportunities presented by ICTs for us to facilitate sustainable development, democracy, efficiency and transparency. Some of these opportunities include the use of ICT in the area of education and health. Telemedicine as we all know is more important for developing countries more than it is for developed countries. We have a shortage of skills in the area of medical professionals necessitating the use of technology to bridge the skills shortage. In the area of tele-education, the shortage of science and maths teachers can be mitigated through technological interventions.
Finally, I would like to express the commitment of our government in pursuing the initiatives to be identified and agreed upon during this conference.
Personally, I am looking forward to partake in the proceedings and I am sure that I will leave this conference more and better equipped to understand and deal with e-government. We feel deeply honoured as a country to be graced by your presence in this conference. We want to appreciate and welcome at the same time our partners such as CAFRAD, NEPAD, for enabling us through their generous support to host this conference. Our private sector partners have made a phenomenal contribution in terms of financing and donating the relevant skills to enable the conference to proceed and we thank them.
I thank you for you attendance and wish you well.
Issued by Ministry of Public Service and Administration
28 October 2002
Source: Ministry of Public Service and Administration
Title: Fraser-Moleketi: E-Africa Regional Conference
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION, GERALDINE FRASER-MOLEKETI, AT THE E-AFRICA REGIONAL CONFERENCE, Caesar's Gauteng, 28 October 2002
Special welcome to all of our visitors.
Manuel Castells, pre-eminent writer on the knowledge economy and network society, recalls Kofi Annan's emphasis in his report to the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, of the need for developing countries to leapfrog development. For Castells, this requires the developing world to "not just leap into the high technology of the leading societies and continue along the traditional path of industrial development. On the contrary, what is critical is Internet-based agriculture, Internet-based services, Internet-based health, Internet-based education."
The Internet economy, or the network society to which Castells refers, offers a unique opportunity for states to rapidly address the service delivery requirements of their citizens. It is said that e-government and e-governance may contribute in the process of creating digital opportunities for all. Will these opportunities eventuate for ordinary citizens of Africa? The ordinary citizen is interested in what technology will do to improve the quality of his/her life and alleviate the scourges of poverty, famine and disease in Africa.
What is however central to the African theme is that e-governance should create real, accurate, affordable and convenient access to the services of government to all the people of Africa.
It should also allow government to determine the demographics and social needs of its population to be able to correctly target development areas, projects and delivery of sustainable wealth creating activities at all levels.
The demands on government service delivery today require the constant investigation and implementation of innovative mechanisms to deliver public services. Citizens are continuously demanding more convenient and cost-effective means and channels through which they can access government service delivery. This in part, is due to the fact that citizens are accustomed to convenient channels when dealing with business and they are therefore justified in asking the question;
Whether government cannot use the same channels and means to deliver services? This challenge is being posed to governments throughout the world irrespective of the developmental state of the country. In essence, there seems to be recognition of the role that Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play in facilitating development. In today's world ICT is seen as a basic necessity and is critical in enabling the fast tracking of development. The United Nations Human Development Report for 2002 reflects that by 2005 there will be about 1 billion Internet users, therefore providing a strong motivation for governments to expand e-governance for the benefit of all citizens, not only for improved service delivery, but also for better government to citizen communication. The report indicates three areas in which this can take place - announcing all public meetings, using comment forms, online surveys and focus groups to obtain the input required for genuine e-government and holding government-citizen online consultations.
This conference has primarily been organised to look into those issues in our continent that are critical to improving service delivery to all the citizens of Africa but also to assist with the elimination of the digital divide and how best we can mitigate the effects of the digital divide and take advantage of technology to fast track Africa's developmental agenda.
Obviously, we have an ambitious agenda, as a continent - which I must add, is also achievable - as long as we commit our resources - be they human, financial, physical and otherwise - to the achievement of this dream. The dream to utilise technology as a means to effect government service delivery is indeed the best path if we want to achieve accessible government.
ICTs offer us the possibility to render services in ways that are unimaginable without technological intervention. Services can be rendered on a 24-hour basis thus offering citizens a choice as to when and how they intend to interact with government. Traditionally we have been limited to dealing with government within the confines of office hours and buildings. With e-government, this constraint can once and for all be eliminated.
Another possibility is one of offering alternatives in terms of access channels to government services. ICTs do offer possibilities, and indeed ways that compliment the physical contact-type mode traditionally used. Services can be accessed via the Internet, telephone - that is citizens can call a call centre, which will be able to provide access to government services, or even through radio and TV. With ICTs, it appears, possibilities of service delivery are limitless - the choice, convenience and cost benefits in the long run make a compelling case for e-government.
I believe this conference will have succeeded in its purpose if it enables us as delegates and participants to consider in some way some of the fundamental questions facing e-government leaders, particularly in the developing world. Let me repose some of these questions afresh so that we can begin to consider them at the back of our minds throughout this conference.
We need to examine why are we, in the developing world, embarking on the e-government road? Is e-government a fad, or a tool capable of addressing significant developmental challenges? Is it the preserve of the developed world, with a strong infrastructural base and wealth of resources, or applicable to a context of little infrastructure and a shortage of finance and human resources? The challenges facing us as a continent are too extensive to focus on technology for the sake of it.
Having established a case for e-government, a range of considerations needs to be noted:
* First, successful e-government implementation requires broad consensus amongst political and administrative decision-makers, and strong public-private partnerships. No government has the capacity to undertake such ambitious programmes alone and there should be actively seeking the involvement of the private sector. In addition, the future of e-government will require collaboration on projects and operations at levels previously unknown if the benefits of ICT are to be harnessed for the common good of all. It will require the integration of systems and exchange of data at levels currently unknown on the African continent and will have to span across cultural and language barriers. Clear rules of engagement for the effective involvement of all partners (private sector, community based organisations, non-governmental organisations, unions etc.) We need to determine what roles and responsibilities each of these sectors of society has in the e-Government implementation process. This is a core question as it relates to the development of clear rules that will facilitate constructive engagement of all social partners for the mutual benefit of all.
* Second, do we have an implementation strategy that will ensure success? We are a diverse continent with varying needs, and differing states of e-readiness, and therefore require a multi-faceted strategy to ensure that implementation is practical, and replicable.
* Third, how do we ensure that lessons learnt will be communicated to all concerned to ensure that the rate of expansion and implementation is exponentially enhanced by our learning experiences? What are the appropriate technologies for us? Let us, in this case, give thought to human language technologies, the growth of local industry, security, and free software. How will we use the process to drive down costs while at the same time investing in our own people?
* Fourth, while we plan our ambitious implementation strategies, we should not lose sight of the recipients of these services. We need to understand their needs and priorities, and not make simplistic assumptions about preferred services and modes of delivery.
* Fifth, what projects are we engaging in and what are our selection criteria? It is critical that objective selection criteria be developed beforehand as we may run the risk of selecting projects in an uncoordinated and haphazard fashion leading to us not meeting our objectives. The criteria will assist us in ensuring fairness in the selection and prioritisation of projects. Can we prescribe that the selected e-government projects focus on the immediate needs of Africa and what are they? A critical issue to consider is how e-governance will impact on the following socio-economic realities, through transforming the delivery mechanisms of the state:
-- Hunger
-- Poverty
-- HIV/AIDS
-- Health
-- Job creation
-- Regional coordination and collaboration.
* Sixth, we need to determine the institutional infrastructure and change management required to enable implementation? This involves mechanisms for communication, stakeholder participation and resistance mitigation. The introduction of e-government applications and solutions imply that change will be at the centre of this exercise. It will require change not only within governments but also in the potential users of the systems. The paradigm shift to the new way of doing and delivering services will have to be embedded into the various government cultures and organisations. The African experience with the introduction of cellular communication technology has demonstrated that Africa can embrace and come to terms with new technology.
* Seven, we also need to find a way of monitoring and evaluating performance of e-government? We need to have measurable and tangible results and mechanisms of how to gauge whether we are performing as planned. At the same time we must initiate a process to communicate such successes and failures to the stakeholder community. If indeed there are failures we need to develop timely remedies for such failures. If we say e-government facilitates transparency and citizen participation in public affairs, we need to define exactly how e-government makes this a possibility? If our thrust is towards enabling transparency of the public service, we need to develop programmes that can support this as a thrust of our e-government drive and develop mechanisms taking into account our economic and financial short falls of how we will enable even in the remotest parts of our countries, enable participation of citizens in public affairs by taking advantage of technology as an enabler.
* Finally I want to pose a key question relating to funding infrastructure for e-Government. How do we, in the context of limited financial resources (tight budgets) with competing demands, fund the e-government programme? Can we develop a model for financing an e-government infrastructure that is sustainable or self-sustaining? The cost of ICT goods and services is astronomically high, owing to these being primarily developed in the West and therefore being sold in volatile foreign currencies. How can we ensure that the impact of price increases do not affect us adversely through innovative means of tackling these problems. In short, how can we manage the value chain & make sure that we get the necessary return on investment.
As you are aware, free/open source software (OSS) is on the workshop agenda. I would like us to start thinking critically about how we can make better use of the opportunities availed by the emergence of OSS to drive the costs of ICT products and hopefully services to our benefit. We need to think about its promises and potential benefits. I am hopeful that in the next workshop we will reflect on success stories either in Africa or elsewhere in the world where it was implemented.
I believe these fundamental questions will inform the processes of developing our e-government strategies and visions. They are fundamental to the success in implementing e-government. I believe this conference is not an end but rather the beginning of a continuous engagement among participating countries. I believe we need to continue this process as part of setting an agenda for an e-Africa.
I trust that the Plan of Action generated at this conference will be approved and supported by all African Governments and that when we reflect in the future clear progress according to the action plan will be evident.
The success of this workshop will depend on:
* Commitment of all participating countries to continuously engage in advancing the outcomes of the conference as agreed in the Plan of Action. This includes the willingness and ability to set aside resources to advance the programme of modernising government in Africa.
* A realisation of the central role that ICTs can play in facilitating both social and economic development in today's world. ICTs are now, more than ever before, a basic need in advancing socio-economic development. Without the use of ICTs, as countries we will lose whatever competitive advantage we have in global trade.
* Taking charge and responsibility in exploiting the opportunities presented by ICTs for us to facilitate sustainable development, democracy, efficiency and transparency. Some of these opportunities include the use of ICT in the area of education and health. Telemedicine as we all know is more important for developing countries more than it is for developed countries. We have a shortage of skills in the area of medical professionals necessitating the use of technology to bridge the skills shortage. In the area of tele-education, the shortage of science and maths teachers can be mitigated through technological interventions.
Finally, I would like to express the commitment of our government in pursuing the initiatives to be identified and agreed upon during this conference.
Personally, I am looking forward to partake in the proceedings and I am sure that I will leave this conference more and better equipped to understand and deal with e-government. We feel deeply honoured as a country to be graced by your presence in this conference. We want to appreciate and welcome at the same time our partners such as CAFRAD, NEPAD, for enabling us through their generous support to host this conference. Our private sector partners have made a phenomenal contribution in terms of financing and donating the relevant skills to enable the conference to proceed and we thank them.
I thank you for you attendance and wish you well.
Issued by Ministry of Public Service and Administration
28 October 2002
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