What if governments actually worked for you, but with the efficiency of tech giants like Google, Amazon or Uber? Far away dream or possible reality?
Demand for improving service delivery and interaction between citizens and government through the adoption of modern technology continues to be an urgent matter in our context. Governments of countries such as the UK, USA and Canada have launched impressive agencies to “transform how government learns, builds, delivers, and measures digital services in the 21st century”. These include the Government Digital Services, 18F or DigitalGov, and Canadian Digital Service.
What are Government Digital Services (GDS)?
Government Digital Service(GDS) is usually a unit or body of the government mandated with the task of transforming the provision of government digital services. Their aim is to be at the forefront of digital, technology and data, through collaborating with various government Ministries, Departments & Agencies(MDAs) to help them with their own transformation & ultimately better service delivery.
One of the first of such agencies was in the UK. The adoption of Government Digital Services (GDS) since its inception in mid-2013 has promoted the concept of introducing ‘government as a platform’ to the people. This act introduces “a new vision for digital government; a common core infrastructure of shared digital systems, technology and processes on which it’s easy to build brilliant, user-centric government services”. Since then, this model has been adopted by a number of countries to drive digital transformation within government.
This requires bringing together teams that are specialists in product development, data science, user experience and geospatial technology, for example, who can then work with government agencies to build contextualised, personal services, supported by data and delivered in an agile, consistent and reliable way.
The African Context
Although Africa is the second largest continent with about a fifth of the worlds total land area and the second most populous (1.216billion), we still only have an Internet penetration of about 35.2 % on average across the continent. A piece by the Guardian this week reported a dramatic decline in internet access growth suggests digital revolution will remain a distant dream for billions of people.
Unfortunately, these statistics could mean that the move to adopt government digital services can only mean that the entire Africa is not ready to embrace these services and their full capacity because about 65% of the people might be left out, further widening existing inequalities. A majority risk being left out if a GDS is implemented in a particular country.
However, that doesn’t mean that there are no efforts being done towards achieving this much needed move. An analysis of relevant websites on the state of the art of e-Government Services in Africa reported that by May 2008, all African governments at some level (local,state or national/federal) had implemented e-government services. These ranged from website with static information about the government agency, to a website at the second (interacting) level allowing for the downloading of forms (for completion offline) and provides search functions. An e-government website at the third (transacting) level allows the completion of an entire task online without requiring citizens to travel to the relevant offices whereas at the fourth, and last (transforming) level, it is usually a single-point portal that integrates all e-government services by a number of branches of government at all levels.
Levels of e-Government Services
- Static
- Interacting
- Transacting
- Transforming
An e-government website at the third (transacting) level allows the completion of an entire task online without requiring citizens to travel to the relevant offices.
The Ugandan Context
In 2016, the Ministry of Information, Communications & Technology, together with the National Information and Technology Authority (NITA-U) and the Government of Uganda laid down strategies to implement the e-Government to among others improve the efficiency of service delivery. At the time, NITA-U defined e-government as the use of ICTs to deliver public services in a convenient, efficient customer-oriented and cost-effective way.
The main aim of this initiative is to support the government in providing a wide variety of benefits including more efficiency and savings for governments and businesses, increased transparency, and greater participation of citizens in political life.
Since 2011, NITA-U has apparently successfully completed over three phases of the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) with over 2400km of fibre laid across Uganda with a number of towns being connected.
With the emergence of the National Backbone Infrastructure, the government promised increased productivity & efficiency in government service provision to the general public and also increasing civic engagement because of the availability of more e-Government services provided in a bid to get more Ugandan citizens to get value from the strategic initiative of taking government services online.
Although these moves of having almost each and every MDA to incorporate a digital service that is aimed at bettering service delivery, few years down the road, some continue to grapple while others are flourishing. One of the major accomplishments of the these services include taking all immigration services online. Visitors to Uganda can apply for and receive an e-visa in 24–48 hours.
Other services required you to download forms online and file in person, which can be very prohibitive for people to live outside major cities given the cost of travel, while some other services still utilize handwritten letters and lack any form of digitalization.
This is especially important when we think about accessibility. Can people afford to travel to city hubs? Can people physically enter government offices? Can person with visual impairments fill out the forms? Can persons with limited hearing communicate at the government offices? Are the websites accessible with low speeds of connectivity? Are they user friendly? Is the information in a language that can be understood by target users?
A new law passed in the European Union states that all public sector websites and apps must be accessible to all users, especially those with disabilities. Some examples include “GOV.UK content should always be written in plain English, so a content designer helped turn some of the policy-heavy wording into simpler language” or “Using Basic Sign Language (BSL) in explanatory videos.”
Here a good example of an “easy to read” version for persons with learning disabilities to easily understand information, though it could be useful across the board:
How do our questions of accessibility weigh out for our example website below. Full disclosure, this was the first website we checked out and this was the first link we clicked (Date: October 19th, 2018 7:00am)
What’s holding us back?
As of March, 2017, the Uganda Communications Commission(UCC) revealed that Uganda has about 13 million Internet users which only comprised of 31.3% of the population. According to the United Nations Population Department, Uganda had an estimated population of 41 million persons as of 2017.
Even with everything beautifully mapped out on paper, one would continue to wonder, why would governments deliberately ignore the incorporation and adoption of GDS when they’ve presented themselves as lasting solutions to a majority problems. And if implemented in some sectors, why do they continue to be of little or no significant impact to the community they aim at serving?
There is a strong mentality of “We have alway done things this way”. Furthermore, many of the staff running government departments fundamentally believe that the “government as a platform” model takes away their power and authority, something that has continuously been wrongly perceived.
In our work in civic technology, we often quote “build with, not for’. Neglecting this basic tenet has continually put e-government initiatives in jeopardy. Implementing government digital services is not enough in the absence of deep digital leadership and ambition in any country. There is little consultation of the needs of citizens, especially those with disabilities, marginalized populations such as minority groups, women and girls, persons living in rural areas etc. For a solution to be truly inclusive, all groups must be brought to the table and allowed to give their feedback.
In the same narrative, there has to be a thorough enhancement in connectivity across the country if digital services are to work out. If the price of internet continues to be high, many people are going to be driven away from using government digital services. Repressive policies such as social media and mobile money taxation can also be a setback in attracting citizens to use these services.
GDS have often encountered obstacles in pursuing ‘government as a platform’: the provision of standardized digital services, such as identity verification, user communications and online payment, for use across government departments is still an obstacle. For example, there is a major disconnect between national IDs, passports and drivers licenses, all of which require similar documentation and are co-dependent on one another.
What Do Government Digital Services bring to the table?
A number of organizations today, whether in the public and private sector continue to embrace digital disruption — whether it’s using big data to their advantage such as Amazon or Uber, or the emergence of blockchain or artificial intelligence.
Digital services provide a new, more streamlined and accessible face for existing legacy systems. In countries such as Singapore where technology has flourished tremendously, GDS has done way beyond. Once put to use, the technology and data can be used to deliver a great digital experience, creating a more connected society. Experts also argue that it’s becoming the new normal for governments around the world to serve their citizens better.
If a government digital service that is effective is in place, whose digital interfaces such as road tax payment and ownership registration lead the way in providing accessible, convenient and user-focused services for the public, it tells of a better future rather than of broken, corrupt systems of governance.
There are private companies that work with the rest of government to make public services simpler and better, build platforms that ensure government data is good data, more usable for all and also help MDAs make better-informed decisions when they need to buy technology. There are many amazing people in the civil service who know the answers and solutions to government woes, but they’re not given the empowerment to go forward.
Government digital services can be a major source of cost-saving and efficiency in African governments, in a manner that’s easier to use, maintain and please the citizenry. Why spend hours in lines in hot rooms with rude civil service staff when you can fill out a form online, save your time AND free up some time for the overworked government staff?
There is a better way forward!
Written by Neema Iyer at Pollicy
