Designing e-Government for the Poor - Tanzania Development ...

I. ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP
A. Organization
The Regional Workshop on Designing e-Government for the Poor
was organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(ESCAP) with the support of the governments of Japan and the Republic of
Korea, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Microsoft Corporation and
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The Workshop was
designed to provide a forum for discussion on implementing e-government
for the poor, and train participants in designing government portals, and
draft action plans.
B. Objectives of the Workshop
Organization of the Workshop
The objectives of the Workshop were to highlight the benefits of egovernment
for the poor, and provide specific recommendations to develop
strategies for the implementation of sustainable e-government.
E-government has the potential to improve efficiency and transparency
in the public sector, and promote greater accountability of the
government. It is a tool towards better governance which helps to limit
corruption, minimize bureaucratic inefficiency, minimize time in processing
government services, and brings the citizen, especially the poor, closer
to the government processes. However, there are a multitude of
challenges in introducing and implementing e-government. A leading challenge
is that poor and rural communities lack access to ICT and knowledge
of its usage. Before an e-government system can be put in place,
government must be reorganized, innovative policies administered, a legal
framework for ICT established, and the citizens must be educated and
trained.
It is necessary to build awareness among national and local government
policy makers and rural communities on the benefits that e-government
can provide, and most importantly, to address the inequality in access
to ICT. In support of that goal, the specific objectives of the Workshop
were as follows:
• To provide an opportunity to share experiences of implementing
e-government for the poor in participating countries
• To examine issues in implementing or planning e-government
for the poor
• To design e-government portals
• To draft project proposals to introduce or improve e-government
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