Global Survey on On-line Governance: Final Report

This 37-page document, from the United Nations Education, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and the Commonwealth Network of Information Technology for Development Foundation (COMNET-IT), investigates the interaction between access, empowerment, and governance as facilitated by information technology (IT). It surveys UNESCO member states through a questionnaire to obtain an overview of international trends and practices regarding use of e-governance under three themes: electronic facilitation of services, information, and public input to the process of government. The report presents statistical trends and a set of recommendations on public awareness, funding, legislative standards, access, information and communication technology (ICT) empowerment, and involvement of private enterprises at the community and local levels.


The document concludes that "[I]t is not enough to have citizens interacting with their virtual government....This will only be fully addressed by fostering citizen to citizen interaction/communication within the broad content of an active civil society. Providing [g]overnment on-line services is not the answer to preserving democracy; ...yet more democratic information is available directly to citizens in electronic format than ever before....Even though the distribution of information has never been so widespread, this does not mean that governments do not have a proactive ongoing role to play. They remain duty bound to ensure the broadest possible access to formal participatory events. This means that online interactive events geared toward the general public should complement corresponding opportunities that are available to all regardless of their knowledge of or access to the Internet.


...Another important duty of Government is to provide its service in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. The use of on-line services can help Governments to improve their service provision and to make this process more use friendly and user dependent. This in turn should increase the confidence of citizens in the processes adopted by Government.


National [g]overnments should seek ways to engage their citizenry in the process of government. They can do this in many ways such as:

• making more information available online from government itself to ensure there is an informed citizenry;
• providing web sites that seek input from people on all manner of government programs and issues;
• developing list-serves and discussion groups on important national issues and other means to engage the citizenry;
• provide grants to organizations seeking online democratic activities;
• develop local community projects that embrace all levels of society from the academic world, to businesses, large and small, to non-profit and volunteer organizations."