Experiences in E-Governance from an ICT4G Perspective: Case Studies and Lesson Learned

In a world characterized by rapid change driven by globalization, an ICT-based economy transformation poses some challenges and opportunities for the private sector and the government sector alike. ICT has for some time been at the core of government tasks, inseparable from strategy, planning, consultation and implementation to improve citizen’s life in different ways. Nevertheless, indications are that the government sector has been falling behind in these practices (mostly in developing countries), compared to the private sector. This realization has prompted some governments to put ICT high on their policy agendas, with the aim of introducing ICT-based solutions to improve their public administration processes, and thus deliver ‘quality public services’. We define ICT for Good (ICT4G) as the use of ICT to addressing critical problems in societies characterized by low ICT penetration in a way that life is impacted for the better. Along this line, we have been working on the design, development, and evaluation of ICT solutions that directly require the involvement of citizen on the usage of the developed system itself and/or on the decision-making processes. In this chapter, we discuss our experiences and lessons learned in this holistic approach to e-Governance projects from the ICT4G perspective and the role it can play for developing countries.