e-Government practice at the local government level Douglas Cohen South African Local Government Association (SALGA)

2 80% of G2C = LG  Around the world the overwhelming majority of citizen-government transactions takes place at the local level. Schmidt, Oliver Balanced E-Government: Connecting Efficient Administration and Responsive Democracy. Gutersloh: Bertelsmann Foundation.

3 Presentation Overview  Lo-Gov  State of South African Local Government online  Changing / Challenging the status quo

4 Lo-Gov Reported from the Civil Society Colloquium on E-government  What is e-Government?

5 Lo-Gov  What is Local Government e-Government? The closer to the ‘front end’ that decisions about service provision can be made, the closer they can reflect local needs. Decentralisation of government Collaborative-design and decision making Citizen involvement Overlapping, inter-related needs Partnerships of place Encouraging growth of e-business and associated opportunities. Providing access 24 hours a day, seven days a week Reducing the cost of delivery of some government services Reducing bureaucratic and jurisdictional demarcation to provide unified services based on user requirements Increasing efficiency- saving tax- payers’ funds Improving public access to a wide range of government services, especially by people who live in regional, rural and remote areas and people with disabilities

6 Presentation Overview  Lo-Gov  State of South African Local Government online  Changing / Challenging the status quo

7 State of South African Local Government online  It should be no surprise that not all of the 283 municipalities have functional, effective or active websites

8 State of South African Local Government online…  Buts it’s not just a nice to have…  Guiding legislation but who’s watching compliance?

9 State of South African Local Government online  The reasons?

10 State of South African Local Government online  There are huge disparities in the websites’ functionality, compliance, content and relevance  98% of websites are in English and none support disabled access  No up-to-date listing of Municipal Contact and / or Leadership Information  Publishing draft Municipal IDP’s and Budgets appears to be a nice to do rather than a must

11 State of South African Local Government online

12 State of South African Local Government online  Low Levels of ICT penetration in South Africa Source Data: Stats SA Community Survey 2007

13 State of South African Local Government online  Limited involvement of Local Government in National e-Gov Policy (and visa-versa)  No standardisation in terms of the local government domain  No single up-to-date listing of Municipal Websites

14 Presentation Overview  Lo-Gov  State of South African Local Government online  Changing / Challenging the status quo

15 Changing / Challenging the status quo  South Africa now boasts almost 100% mobile phone penetration.

16 Changing / Challenging the status quo  Expanding the use of Mobile / WEB 2.0 Technologies  eDemocracy  eParticipation E.g. Emakhazeni LM

17 Changing / Challenging the status quo  Stimulate demand  Acknowledge the role of Local Government as an key e-Government channel  Think of services (and service delivery) NOT eServices  Local language content  Increase access points

18 Changing / Challenging the status quo  Stimulate supply  Increase the strategic profile of LG  Drive 100% compliance with legislation  Generic standards, supporting guidelines, shared good practices and solutions and benchmarked costs  Reward performance

19 Changing / Challenging the status quo  Waterfall Models  What can we learn from the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?  Spiral Models Balancing Analogue & Heuristic Approaches

20 Changing / Challenging the status quo  User led approach to e-government  (NAO 2002)

21 Changing / Challenging the status quo "And thus, dear students, we have arrived at the formula for understanding local government e- Government practice ” But what is SALGA’s role?

Thank You