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

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Stakeholder participation in designing and
implementing e-government programmes
She emphasized that stakeholders need to be involved in all stages
of e-government development from the vision or planning process through
implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. In order to involve the stakeholders,
the first step is to define the problem to be addressed. The second
step is to identify and understand the interests of key stakeholders. A
meeting or consultation among stakeholders is critical in creating awareness
of the project, and defining the needs of the stakeholders. It is also
important to prepare a stakeholder involvement plan with a detailed project
plan. The third step is to establish effective two-way communication. The
fourth step is to develop options for mutual gain. The fifth step is to
disseminate information through the media and other networks.
In stakeholder analysis, it is important to determine what the stakeholders
want, and their expected return on the investment. For the private
sector, the project is primarily a source of revenues and a desire to
administer social responsibility. The government wants efficient, reliable
and robust services, and increased legitimacy and trust from citizens. The
citizens want a one-stop service centre, in order to reduce costs and save
time. Each stakeholder offers a beneficial advantage. The private sector can
share costs and co-finance a project; and provide expertise in technology
and project management. Government is the only body that can provide a
legal framework, make decisions on access and pricing, and make rules for
outsourcing and subsidies. Citizens’ strengths are to express their needs and
provide feedback on e-government plan.
The following factors are critical to the success of e-government
programmes:
• Clear vision, goals
• Process re-engineering
• Strategic investment (i.e. starting small and moving gradually
through stages, centralized vs decentralized system, open source
vs proprietary software)
• Adoption of established standards and protocols – minimize
customization
• In-house analysis and outsourced design, software development,
data preparation, and training
• Strong administrative and political leadership
• Awareness on the benefits of e-government among civil servants
and political leaders
• Awareness creation and training among citizens, senior civil
servants, project leaders, political leaders
• Technical training for project leaders, clerical staff, citizens