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 Issue 10: March 2005
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DOT-COM HOME https://dot-com-alliance.org/index.htm
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ICTs, Decentralization and Local Governance: Exploring the Potential (dot-ORG) From January 30th to February 3rd, 2005, USAIDs Bureau for Asia and the Near East, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs, and Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade, organized a workshop in Cairo on Supporting Decentralization and Local Governance in the ANE Region: Fostering Multi-Sectoral Approaches. dot-ORG participated in the workshop and presented in a panel on IT and the media, focusing on the role of modern ICT in supporting local governance (see the presentation). As a follow up to this workshop, this article provides an overview of the range of ICT interventions that can have critical pay-offs for local governments and when applicable, highlight dot-ORGs ongoing projects in this field. e-Government has received a lot of attention by governments around the world. Applying modern information and communication technologies to the delivery of government services has a great deal of potential in developing countries. What has received less attention, though, is the potential of modern and traditional ICTs to support decentralization and local governance. In a context of decentralization, local authorities face increased responsibilities, limited resources, and at times, limited human resource capacity. In such environments, strategic investments in ICTs can really pay off. Facilitating community participation in decision-making ICTs can facilitate access to information critical to the local populations understanding of how locally available resources are spent. Citizen access to the local governments budget information can help. Budgets can be easily published on web sites or disseminated through other means to ensure that citizens are equipped with information to participate in decision-making processes even if these processes are still primarily face-to-face. ICTs can facilitate community participation in decision-making by giving citizens a voice. This may be done through a telephone hotline to report abuse or complaints, combined with radio dissemination of such reports of abuses and complaints. Increased efficiency of revenue collection and delivery services using ICTs ICTs can help to computerize and network local government units to facilitate faster delivery of services and improved capabilities for analysis of data and decision-making. In Romania, dot-ORG has worked with a number of county level governments in this area. In Sibiu County, dot-ORG has helped to improve the delivery of social services assistance (SSA) to local residents. In the past, communication between the local towns and the Countys administrative center in Sibiu were difficult and the process of applying for and receiving social services assistance was slow. Social services assistance employees handwrote most of the information provided by applicants, and the same employees were required to make time-consuming trips to the Social Services Center at the County level, in Sibiu. With the help of computers, Internet connections between local towns and the Countys administrative center, as well as additional training for local government employees, the efficiency of the SSA application process has greatly improved in the past few months. As a result, the low-income residents of Sibiu County are able to apply for and receive assistance much faster than in the past, at a time when they need it most. In the City of Giurgiu, dot-ORG implemented a tax and document management system. The previous paper-based system was laborious and time consuming. The new system improves efficiency in processing the payment of taxes owed to the city. The new system also emphasizes process transparency to ensure that taxpayers only pay what they owe and are able to request tax information quickly and easily. Other benefits from implementing an electronic solution include increased understanding in computer literacy for administrators working in the tax department. Reducing local administrative corruption and improving transparency using ICTs ICTs facilitate access to reliable and consistent information for citizens to make it less likely that they will be taken advantage of or that simple processes will take longer than necessary. For example, if you are required to obtain a permit or license, it is important to know exactly what is required, to know that everyone is required to provide the same information and to know exactly what the process is. If that information is not widely available, applicants have to rely on local officials to tell them what to do and where to go and what to pay. When such information is widely disseminated via a range of ICTs, the chances of delays and abuse are reduced. Supporting local economic development Local governments hoping to increase their revenue base and to supply quality services to their constituencies will also want to pay attention to how attractive they can make themselves to local businesses and how they can provide the necessary local infrastructure for businesses to flourish. This may involve promoting the locality with a web site highlighting its strengths and the availability of services. On the other hand, it may involve ensuring that the locality has sufficient access to ICT and related services to be attractive to businesses. Networking & knowledge sharing across local governments ICT can facilitate communications and networking across local government entities and facilitate the development of local associations of municipalities that can in turn increase knowledge sharing and coalition building among local government units. In Central America, dot-ORG worked with the local municipalities to create such a network in the Connecta Project. ICTs to support decentralization in education and health Decentralization is a cross-sectoral issue and ICTs are cross-sectoral tools. ICTs can play an important role in facilitating decentralization processes in education and health for example. This may involve facilitating communications, data collection and data transfers between local governments department responsible for health and/or education to their respective central government ministries. Lessons and challenges to be aware of Based on dot-ORG's experiences in this field, a number of key lessons emerge:
In short, ICTs have great potential to support decentralization process and local governance and any effort to help this potential materialize will likely have to tackle some or all of the key challenges listed just above. |
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