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competencies and skills, contributing to reduce the digital
divide.
o Lack of awareness about potential benefits of ICT – Local
authorities possess limited knowledge on ICT and its potential.
Approach: Communicate in a massive and effective way to
municipal authorities the benefits achieved through the use of
ICT.
5. LESSONS LEARNED
The following two sections present some lessons learnt from
Patzún Municipality (Section 5.1) and from the MuNet Program
(Section 5.2).
5.1 Patzún Municipality
o Strategy for Digital Divide – The first important aspect to
consider is to create a strategy to reduce the digital divide. Two
mainstream topics of such strategy should be indigenous people
development and inclusion.
o Inter-disciplinarity – The project would have benefitted more
from a multidisciplinary team.
o Motivation – Part of the success of the project relied on the
highly-motivated team.
o Communication – The effective communication of both strategy
and implemented activities is crucial to raise the interest of
other institutions, creating the awareness and support that the
program requires.
o Stakeholders’ Participation – To enrich the opportunities and
benefits of the program, participation of representatives from
different areas - i.e. health, education, youth, is required.
o Continuous Training – The support of local authorities is
needed to ensure continuous efforts to building human capacity.
o Efficiency –The program proved the efficiency to change
traditional styles of working, reducing costs through the use of
ITC tools.
o Awareness – After taking the online e-Government course
delivered by the MuNet Program, the awareness raised and
competencies developed among government staff constituted a
key factor to design and implement e-Government strategies.
5.2 MuNet Program
Community development in any municipality must be
accompanied with the provision of access to ICT. Since
indigenous populations have fewer resources and opportunities,
their inclusion in the knowledge society requires the
implementation of e-Government initiatives. However,
implementing such initiatives much rely on the political will of
community leaders and national authorities.
Major qualitative impacts of the MuNet Program include:
o Identifying municipal government strategic objectives in the
short, medium and long term
o Inspiring municipalities to improve their ICT infrastructure to
enhance connectivity
o Implementing online services for citizens
o Contributing to increase citizen’s trust in the municipal
government
o Expanding team members’ perspective beyond the local
context, stressing the importance of ICT in global development.
o Deploying ICT applications to monitor the execution of projectrelated
tasks.
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Lessons learnt from the execution of Phase I of the MuNet
Program are classified into the following perspectives:
o Program Planning – It is important to define the terms of
reference of project consultants and local stakeholders, and to
establish local teams ensuring that interdisciplinary and
multiple skills are represented.
o Training – Officials and municipal workers should have a
preparatory phase for the program implementation. Technology
Adoption – A wide gap was identified among cultural and
social diversity across teams. To overcome differences,
required and essential organizational changes were
implemented and a record of the identified technical challenges
was maintained for future improvements. Additionally, as long
as the program implementation progresses and ICT becomes
embedded in the administration, new ICT demands emerged
from specific areas – health, education, etc.
o Political Management – Top-level leadership is essential for
project success. Such leadership should manifest abilities in
management and communication to share the achievements
with project stakeholders, and maintain the e-Government
strategy according to the municipal development plan.
o Dissemination – Document all facts and events and dedicate
special efforts to internally and externally disseminate the
project progress. Moreover, awareness should be raised among
project stakeholders on the opportunities offered by ICT.
o Sustainability – It's essential to create legal, financial, and
political instruments as well as building national and
international networks to provide project sustainability.
o Collaboration - MuNet contributed to strengthen collaboration
among government authorities and officials, guaranteeing
autonomy in the long term.
Methodological Approach - MuNet offered a comprehensive
methodological framework for the municipalities to use.
6 CONCLUSIONS
This paper introduced the MuNet Program and the experience of
its implementation in Patzun Municipality. The Patzún experience
- called “Patzún, all its information in a click” has participated in
several competitions; winning a third place in the call to the best
local innovations organized by the Executive Secretariat of the
Presidency Coordination (SCEP). In addition, it has being
nominated in the category of e-Inclusion for the World Summit
Awards 2011 Guatemala.
Next steps for Patzún Municipality include presenting the
program and its progress to the Municipal Corporation and
obtaining their commitment to continue the activities under the
Modernization Commission, led by a Councilor. To raise more
visibility, there will be an official re-launch of the website and
presentation of the actions carried out by the Municipality to
reduce the digital divide. Finally, the Municipality will continue
its efforts to publicize its actions in this field, both nationally and
internationally.
Next steps for the MuNet Program include seeking allies in
government who are committed to implementing e-Government
strategies and updating and improving several methodologies.
7 REFERENCES
[1] Cardona, D, MuNet un esfuerzo de la OEA/ACDI/CAF para
llevar el gobierno electrónico a los municipios en el