Dubai School of Government

e-Government

The Middle East and North Africa e-Government Research Initiative Partners Electronic Government is a rapidly-growing socio-technical phenomenon. Broadly defined, it is the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the public sector to provide government services and share information with society through electronic means. This phenomenon strongly affects relations between the public authorities, civil society and the business community. It is widely accepted that the key objectives of e-government initiatives are promoting good governance by creating a more responsive and efficient government through cutting red-tape and decreasing the negative effects of bureaucracy in public agencies; reducing the level of corruption and therefore reducing the costs of government transactions and the costs of doing business both between the public and private sector and on the intra-government level; promoting a more participatory and transparent government model, increasing the levels of trust, satisfaction and interaction of citizens with the government; and, ensuring a public sector that supports overall development of society.

The Middle East and North Africa e-Government Research Initiative

In order to study e-government development and its impact on reform and modernization of public administrations in the Arab region, DSG established the Middle East and North Africa e-Government Research Initiative.

The initiative’s objectives, themes and intended outcomes are primarily driven from feedback from a network of e-government directors in 16 Arab countries through a series of forums hosted in DSG between September 2005 and March 2007. The importance of this research initiative for the MENA countries emerges from the following reasons:

International non-governmental organizations are increasingly recognizing e-government as an imperative approach for supporting good governance and the development of public administrations on the local, national, regional and international levels.
The Arab region is poor in academic research in the area of public administration in general.
Arab countries can potentially benefit from the provision of better public services by utilizing ICT, improving effectiveness and efficiency of government operations, decreasing costs and levels of corruption in public administrations and promoting citizens’ participation in policy and decision making.

Partners

The Dubai School of Government has partnered with leading academic institutions, nongovernmental organizations and private sector corporations. The initiative is open for partnerships with institutions that can support in pursuing its regional objectives. The current partners in the MENA e-Government Research Initiative are

John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
UNDP’s program of Information and Communication Technologies for Development in the Arab Region (ICTDAR)
Microsoft Corporation
Cisco Systems