good governance

With the rapid spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), new opportunities have been opened for a revival of public discourse and improved governance efficiency. ICTs offer concrete opportunities for local and national governments to improve their performance in terms of transparency, participation and decentralization. The mainstreaming of ICTs within planning and design of development strategies helps to strengthen the establishment of efficient, effective and transparent governance systems. This paper takes a critical look at Democracy and Governance.

The objective of this analytical report is to support the strategic direction, focus, and action plan in governance reform by implementing ICT within the urban development framework of the Africa Region.

This study was conducted amongst 189 respondents in Papua New Guinea (PNG) using structured questionnaires distributed to different groups of respondents using stratified random sampling. The results indicate that e-governance has the potential to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction. It is also confirmed through the findings in this research that the expectations of citizens from public services are quite high, but experience has often been negative i.e.

The World e-Parliament Report 2012 documents the efforts of legislatures to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to support their constitutional functions. The Report is based on the Global Survey of ICT in Parliaments 2012 conducted by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament between February and May 2012, which is the third in a series of surveys that began in 2007. The number of parliaments responding to the surveys has increased over time, from 105 in 2007 to 134 in 2009 and 156 in 2012. These 156 parliaments represent a membership of 28,613 legislators.

In the fall of 2011, Danida commissioned a study with the objective of examining strategic opportunities for using ICT for promoting governance and democratization efforts within development assistance; and exploring opportunities for ICT in the present Danish portfolio of development programs and within the vision of the Strategy for Danish Development Cooperation. The study touches on a range of ICT technologies but its focus is the use of mobile phones, including voice calls, SMS Text, mobile internet, and social media.

In the developing countries, the technical and non-technical infrastructures are not as mature as those of developed countries. Requirements for local e-government also differ from those at the national level due to differences in technical, social and political factors, necessitating customized local e-government implementation models. In developing countries, local e-government implementation is also constrained by lack of information about its requirements, with the possible risk of duplication of national experiences and knowledge.

This position paper discusses the role of information and communication technologies in the governance of the transition process that urban areas will have to undergo in the coming years. The topic is analyzed from a value-oriented perspective and in the light of almost two decades of technology-driven innovation in both the private and the public sector. All this has been examined in an attempt to take stock of past mistakes and to embrace the opportunities deriving from some important paradigm shifts appearing on the horizon.

Communications technology has enabled new approaches to governance in which stakeholders across sectors and jurisdictions are engaged in consensus building and implementation processes. This paper explores some mechanisms through which online social networking may impact governance for sustainable development. Are social networking sites driving the transformation of the governance landscape or are they merely diverting vast amounts of time from addressing the difficult sustainable development challenges at hand?

This report explores the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) can contribute to efforts towards meeting child-focused development goals. The diffusion of ICTs has been highly uneven, and it is clear that digital divides not only trace but can also further deepen existing social divides, between income-rich and income-poor, between urban and rural dwellers, between women and men, and girls and boys. The report therefore supports UNICEF in efforts to further develop and disseminate good practice regarding ICT4D and children.

This paper reports the development of an assessment methodology that could be used in developing countries to justify investments in e-government, as well as to establish a performance benchmark for future projects. This framework identifies key stakeholders, dimensions on which the impact needs to be measured, and a methodology of measurement. Client value is measured primarily in two dimensions: 1) cost to the client of accessing services, and 2) perception by the client of quality of service and governance.