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

6
Organization of the Workshop
22. Recommendations.
23. Finalization of action plans and workshop evaluation.
24. Closing of workshop.
G. Recommendations of the Workshop
The Workshop recommended the following area for cooperation and
action:
(a) E-government is an important tool in improving the efficiency,
transparency, and productivity of government, and in providing efficient
services to its citizens. For e-government to become a reality, the dedication
and commitment of high level policy makers is important. To create
awareness on the benefits of e-government and to build capacity of
policy makers and government officials on the issues related to required
policies for the development of e-government, the Workshop requested
the international community to organize a high-level forum to share good
practices and build capacity of high-level government officials in this
application.
(b) The Workshop recognized community e-centres (or telecentres)
as effective facilities to provide access to e-government services to rural
and/or poor communities and urged the governments to establish such
centres to achieve inclusive e-government.
(c) International and regional organizations, including regional financial
institutions, play a key role in integrating the use of ICTs in
improving government processes and services. Therefore, the Workshop
requested these international communities to assist the countries in further
developing the project ideas and make available necessary resources for
developing e-government both at central and local levels.
(d) Governments, as well as private sector, civil society and international
and regional organizations have an important role and responsibility
in the development of e-government. In view of the fact that building a
citizen-centric e-government is a joint effort which requires cooperation and
partnership among all stakeholders, the Workshop recommended further
partnership among all stakeholders for future capacity building activities of
ADBI and ESCAP.
(e) Over 60 per cent of the population in the Asian and Pacific
region lives in rural areas and the majority of them are poor. Due to
techno-social and economic barriers, they are not well aware of the
opportunities that ICT can provide to improve their livelihood. There is an
urgent need to conduct extensive programmes for awareness creation on the
benefits of ICT and capacity building in the use of ICT to the rural poor.