Developing countries were reported to have comparatively limited technological and human resources and potentially less efficient management skills of these resources, because of which they have to be more precarious during the implementation phase. E-Government offers a huge opportunity to find innovative ways to reach the need of the people. Innovation of new and modern technologies allow electronic services to be applied in e-Government. Governments worldwide are transforming their organization and function in order to move towards e-Government due to the mediation of ICT. Successful implementation of e-Governments can be a very crucial issue for these decision-makers among developing countries, Developing countries like Nepal need to develop an ecosystem for the growth of IT sector, effective implementation of polices provisions and strategies.
Government services are made available to the citizens in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner through e-Governance. Public participation plays significant role for the mutual relationship between government and public to improve government activities and form good governance. The key benefits of e-Governance include efficiency, improved services, better accessibility of public services, and transparency.
The important ethical issues relating to e-Governance are online communication legislation, e-commerce legislation, e-procurement legislation and database legislation (Sachdeva, 2008). The e-Governance effect should ensure that information exchange and transactions are secure and foster trustworthy use by the citizens. Trust in an online network is an important factor, once the communications networks enable unprecedented level of convenience in the workplaces and homes, it can improve the quality of life (Chung, 2007)
Public participation refers to the ICT-supported participation and processes which include administration, service delivery, decision making and policy making. E-participation is the use of ICTs to broaden and deepen political participation by enabling people to connect with one another and with their elected representatives (Macintosh, 2004). In a government-to-consumer context, various studies have found individual characteristics that influence attributes of e-government, such as quality of government websites, access to e-government, measurement and assessment of benefits infrastructure, intention to use e-government (Carter and Belanger 2005). E-governance allows people to communicate with the government and participate in the governments' policy-making process (Fang, 2002). In this context, e-governance has more implications than e-government. E-government has the ability to transform relations with public, businesses, and other parts of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends such as better delivery of government services to people, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The ultimate benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and cost reductions.
The UN E-Government survey 2012 found that many countries have put in place e-Government initiatives and ICT applications for the people to further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable development. Among the e-Government leaders, innovative technology solutions have gained special recognition as a means to revitalize lagging economic and social sectors (United Nations, 2008)
From :
Ethics in e-Government and Public Participation in Developing Countries
Gajendra Sharma - Xi Bao - Dalian University of Technology
