zanzibar egovernment agenda - a way forward

8/3/2019 Zanzibar eGovernment Agenda - A Way Forward

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ZANZIBAR ELECTRONIC GOVERNM ENT AGENDA

A WAY FORWAR D

18 November 2011

Overview

Electronic government also known eGovernment is an interaction through digitalnetwork between government and citizens (G2C), government to business (G2B),

government to employees (G2E) and between government and government agencies(G2G). The eGovernment delivering models mentioned should consist of goodgovernance element, information and communications technologies status quo (ICT)a country readiness, business process re-engineering (BPR) on government way of

doing things and country citizens at all level as stake holder.

eGovernment will allows Zanzibaris to interact using Internet devices to obtaingovernment service, as well enquire about government information at any time andany location, while eliminates the necessity for physical travel to meet governmentofficials sitting behind desks. Also can improved government accountability andrecord keeping can be simplified through computerisation, while information can beeasily accessed (OGP Open Data Government initiative).

On the administrative side, access to help find or retrieve linked information whichnow can be stored in through electronic databases versus hardcopies stored in

various governments’ facilities. Zanzibaris with disabilities or health conditions can nolonger required being mobile to attain government service or information as they can

be in the comfort of their own homes while attended by government agencies.eGovernment can easily fully engage Zanzibar Diasporas all over the world inbuilding new Zanzibar to realise its full potential, in doing this government openenessis necessary and that can be easily achieved through eGovernment for those who areat distance from their motherland.

Zanzibar socio-economic future will depend very much on how Zanzibar will use ICTand especial new technologies to change the way government is operating anddealing with citizensin an opneness way, it also depend on how the government willuse ICT to enable government to operate efficiently, to allow quick, reliable and

accurate decision making process using business intelligence tools, through ICTgovernment can make good use of knowledge management tools and cut downbureaucratic red tapes, at the same time making the government more accessible tocitizens.

eGovernment if will be properly implemented as process and not an event and whileZanzibar empowered citizens to use it accordingly, it will allow government tomaximise transparency, it is a concept that will allow Zanzibar to realise its 2020development vision. But all this can’t be achieved if Zanzibar can’t get the best out of



Zanzibar Electronic Government Agenda, and reaching there Zanzibar needs to adoptthe agenda in a professional and ethical way, where Zanzibar in-house ICT capacityand potential skills can be utilised to the fullest extent and takes the lead.Government should show high degree of seriousness on the agenda rather adoptingthe agenda in ceremonial or cosmetic way, by keeping in-house potential skills at theback seat in pursuing the agenda. In contrary Zanzibar will join the list of failure

eGovernment project in Africa1

.

Zanzibar eGovernment Agenda and Way Forward

A way forward for Zanzibar to adopt the norms of eGovernment, it will be for thegovernment to establish a dedicated Directorate of eGovernment (DeG) asgovernment agency commitment to make eGovernment agenda a reality, and toensure that it provides the best out of it to Zanzibaris. DeG should be headed by itsown Director General who will also be a chief executive officer of the agency, andshould be a department under the Ministry of State Presidents Office for Civil Service

and Good Governance, the role of the Director General should be advertised and asuitable candidate (a Zanzibari) with the relevant qualifications in IT/IS wishes to beconsidered should apply, meaning the appointment of the Director General should beby application to get the right person instead of nominating the candidate, once the

right candidate indentified can be confirmed by the President.

The mandate of DeG should be to provide leadership, facilitation and coordination of eGovernment agenda across government ministries and accounting departments.DeG further should coordinate and prepares the eGovernment Strategic Planincluding the readness impact assessment, the implementation plan, monitoring andevaluation of the process to a full decorated eGovernment.

Zanzibaris, like any other citizens of the world having no more time to wait for a truedevelopment, while the world increasingly turning to online transactional services to

conduct their day-to-day affairs. The Directorate of eGovernment’s goal should be to

develop eServices for government; services that are easy to use, and meet the realneeds of Zanzibaris, at the same time ensure security and privacy of the scheme.

Also the DeG should develop, coordinate and define ways so that electronic andinformation technology business strategies assist government to operate moreeffectively and efficiently in delivering services to citizens. DeG will be to providecoordination and advice on issues pertaining to electronic business,

telecommunications and technology, plan and strategies, while direct governmentwide activities to support other government departments fully participate in thedevelopment, analysis and evaluation of government wide technology issues, policiesand legislations.

DeG will have a specific strategic function that includes to build and maintain quality

country backbone ICT infrastructure with adequate international connectivity, tobuild and maintain quality ICT infrastructure for Zanzibar eGovernment agenda, toacquire and implement a portfolio of key integrated eGovernment applications, toensure quality management information systems services, to develop and enforcerelevant ICT standards and policies, to ensure security of systems and data, to build

1 Caroline Stanforth (2010), “Analysing eGovernment Project Failure: Comparing Factoral, Systems and Interpretive

Approaches”, IDPM, Manchester UK.



and sustainable in-house human capacity to implement, support and exploit ICTresources more effectively and efficiently, to create and operationalise anappropriate governance structure for eGovernment agenda, and ensure adequateand sustainable funding for eGovernment agenda.

DeG Organisation Structure

The directorate should be governed by Technical Advisory Board where itschairperson2 should be appointed by the President of Zanzibar after receiving profileof at least three potential candidates chosen by the minister. The technical advisoryboard composition should include the Chairperson, DeG Director General and 4Zanzibaris ICT gurus, who will be highly qualified in the ICT industry with not less

than 10 years professional working experience in the field of information technology,information systems management or telecommunications. The Technical AdvisoryBoard will also include representative from key government agencies these areZanzibar Revenue Board, Peoples Bank of Zanzibar, Zanzibar Commission for

Tourism, Principal Secretary Office of the Second Vice President, Principal SecretaryMinistry of Education, Principal Secretary Ministry of Finance, Principal Secretary

Ministry of Communication, and Attorney General as effective eGovernment agendawill involve some of the legislation to be changed to meet the demand of electroniclife.

The management side of the DeG should be headed by the Director General who willbe appointed by application and not by nomination, meaning qualified Zanzibarisshould apply, and successful candidate will be named by the President of Zanzibar asDirector General of the DeG. The Director General will be assisted by for heads of departments whom will be appointed by the Technical Advisory Board by applicationlike any other staff for DeG, those will be Head of Network and Technical Service,Head of Consumers Affairs, Head of Corporate Affairs and Head of Legal Service.

eGovernment Public Consultation

Since the eGovernment agenda involved many areas of life, to be so effective after

implementation, its process requires a through public consultation taking intoaccount of most relevant stake holder opinion, so the system to be user friendly tocitizen at all level, the consultation is the most important step before implementation

as that will avoid the agenda not to be a white elephant. Such an IT project willattract significant amount of capital investment, it is therefore important to have avalue for money output, and that will be achieved by following proper IT projectmanagement life cycle, where every stage needs to be careful evaluated byprofessional and end-user, and that is the reason of having a Technical AdvisoryBoard.

2 Prof. Idrisa Rai (Vice Chancellor – State University of Zanzibar) recommended for the chairperson of the Technical

Advisory Board. Prof. Rai has a strong track record in attracting external resources and establishing partnerships withprivate and educational institutions. To that effect, he has won grants from numerous global IT, Educational, andInternational corporate such as Google, IBM, CISCO, HP, ISOC, ITU, UNESCO, EU/EU, British Council raising over1million USD of grants for Makerere University. He is a founding member of the Joint Institute for Mobile Innovations(JIMI), a collaborative research and development institute between IBM, University of Southern California (USC), andMakerere University, and a founding member of Mobile Monday Kampala (MoMoKLA).



Conclusion

Many eGovernment projects introduced in Africa end up in failure either total orpartial3. To address the challenge before Zanzibar eGovernment Agenda,stakeholders must be sensitised to the large gaps that often exist between projectdesign and public sector reality. The 'design-reality gaps' can be seen to underlie

failure, because eGovernment concepts and the designs have their origins in theWest. Origins that is significantly different from African realities. Public consultationand the use of country potential skills are the best practices outlined that may helpto close design-reality gaps and, hence, help to improve project success rates in

Africa. eGovernment agenda will only be fully realised if the design andimplementation they too are appropriate to Zanzibar realities. Therefore utilisingcountry potential skills and public consultation for effective Zanzibar eGovernmentagenda is very important, which I can’t see now happening in Zanzibar, all run bypersonal wishes, it is worrying that, if personal wishes left to lead the project insteadof country potential skills being fully utilised, Zanzibar will join the list of other

African eGovernment projects that were recognised as failure.

References

1. Caroline Stanforth (2010), “Analysing eGovernment Project Failure: ComparingFactoral, Systems and Interpretive Approaches”, IDPM, Manchester UK.

2. Richard Heeks (2006), “Benchmarking eGovernment : Improving the Nationaland International Measurement, Evaluation and Comparison of eGovernment”,The University of Manchester, 2006

3. Richard Heeks (2002), “ eGovernment in Africa : Promise and Practice”, IDPM,Manchester UK.

3 Prof. Richard Heeks (2002), “eGovernment in Africa : Promise and Practice”, Institute for Development Policy and

Management, The University of Manchester, 2002

zanzibar egovernment agenda - a way forward

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