Ashraf Abdel-Wahab* delves into the nuances of e-government E-government, a term that has been increasingly used in the past decade, usually refers to the application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the government. Such technologies enable the government to improve performance, ensure correctness of data, and decrease response time. But is that really all? Of course not: this is just the tip of the iceberg. Increasing transparency, decreasing corruption, administrative simplification, and better decision-making are important side benefits that sometimes are more important than the original goals of e-government. So, are we game? Egypt started its e- government initiative in 2001 as part of a larger initiative to transform Egypt into an information society (EISI). The first phase of the initiative focussed on setting the standards for governmental organisations to ensure compatibility, a common security platform and a networking infrastructure. Pilot projects in different areas were established to test the readiness of organisations and different solutions that can be used to increase reach and to avoid two main barriers: illiteracy and the use of cash over the Internet. The first phase was completed in 2007. Its achievements included availing National IDs and birth certificates by Internet. The project introduced the concept of Cash on Delivery (COD) to overcome the low penetration of credit and debit cards. The second phase started in 2007, where not only more services became available over the Internet but also more service channels were created and more national projects started. To overcome problems such as illiteracy and computer illiteracy which represent strong barriers limiting the use of electronic services, other service delivery channels were created such as allowing services through 140 Egyptian postal offices, establishing a network of 500 Citizens Services Centres and over 1,700 IT clubs as well as two mobile hotlines. The model of service centres allows citizens to request a service. The employee performs the service on behalf of the citizen, and finally delivers it to the citizen on the specified date. It should be noted that the service is not necessarily performed electronically; however, it eliminates the citizen's need to stand in line to get the service. Service delivery represents one aspect of the second phase. Another important programme that started and will change our understanding of the Egyptian family's behaviour is building and linking national databases. This will be achieved by linking all databases using one single identifier: the national ID. This programme offers many benefits such as enabling the government to track children who did not join the educational system right from the start and provide adequate support to bring them back to education. Another project that started and is about to bloom is the Real Estate Registration project. In simple terms, this project will encode all properties, and register ownership documents to produce the properties titles. Thus, all properties can be easily traced and checked for ownership. Thus, selling a property will be as easy and safe as selling a car. This will stabilise and maintain ownership as well as re-energise the economic sector in Egypt since properties can be used as a tool for financial loans. This year will witness the first couple of areas to be declared for real estate registration. How are we doing? According to the UN Public Access Network e-readiness report, our rank moved from 163th in 2003 to 79th in 2008, out of 192 countries. The web presence sub-index was quite a surprise as Egypt ranked 28 ahead of many European countries. Of course, this was not easy. In the beginning, and despite all the support received from different decision-makers, it was very difficult to approach and convince middle and top managers to change their work cycles, delivery mechanisms and even their attitude towards automation. We had our pitfalls, projects that did not work out mainly because of the stagnant work culture in government organisations. We learned to address different issues that may not be directly related to ICT to make it work. For example, proper and continuous training of employees, organisational change, change working environment, change of legislation and by-laws, and operational support for at least three months to make sure that the system and the people are completely operational. The organisational culture, and not technology, is still our biggest challenge. We learned to focus on the notion of government before the "e". We created win-win cases, and showed success, to move forward with more services and to open new horizons. Now, we are adding to these factors the existence of an aware and active civil society to push government organisations for less interaction with citizens, simpler processes, and more transparency. The government should focus on reducing the administrative burden for citizens and businessmen, building capacity and spreading the culture of citizen service as opposed to customer service, communicate more internally to perform services and better decision making. To make it happen, not only ministers should have the same vision, second and third line government officers should share it too. What is our dream? A transparent government: machinery that performs its functions without being noticed by the citizen. In fact, the government should work harder to reduce the face-to- face interaction with the citizen. In the near future, we shall see mobile phones used to request a given service, to pay for it and even receive it. We will not see long lines in front of cashiers in different stores. Rather, one will be able to just choose the needed items and have it billed to his/ her mobile phone. From local government modernisation -- which won the African Union All Africa Public Service Innovation Award 2008 -- to universities enrolment -- via TANSIK which won the UN Public Service Award 2009 -- the e- government initiative comprises more than 60 projects that cover different services and different organisations. Still, the "e" by itself is not our goal. The real added value is to achieve transparency, accountability, rule of law and an engaged civil society which, together, constitute the basic pillars for good governance. * The writer is deputy minister at the Ministry of State for Administrative Development.
