African E-Government Research Landscape

Over the past decade, African governments have followed the worldwide trends towards establishing e-government with the aim of improving public service delivery to citizens through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). As a consequence, authors from academia, government departments and agencies, civil society, industry, non-governmental and international organizations have embarked into e-government research focusing on Africa. However, the state of the art of e-government research in Africa is poorly documented. This study analyzes the status of e-government research in Africa. A qualitative technique based on online searches and literature reviews is used to collect data that have addressed any aspect of e-government development in Africa. Thereafter, the content analysis of the reviewed literature is performed. The results of the study show: (1) the growth pattern of Africa e-government research within a period of 10 years from 2002 to 2012, (2) the issues addressed by the researchers on e-government development in Africa, (3) the African countries and regional participation in e-government research in Africa, and (4) the affiliation and expertise of authors undertaking research on e-government in Africa. These results provide useful insights that might be of interest to African governments, industry and academia for the future development of e-government on the continent. Also included in the paper is an annotated bibliography of e-government research

The Prospects of E-government Implementation in Chaotic Environment – Government and Citizens’ Perspectives - Case Study of Libya

yesUsing compulsory e-government services is increasingly difficult and challenging given the impact of corruption, political instability, armed conflict, and a chaotic environment. Post the 2011 uprising, Libya experienced serious and deep-rooted conflicts. The chaos destabilized and dismantled government institutions throughout the country. Utilizing the lens of institutional theory, this paper presents the pressures experienced by the formal institutions in the absence of law and safety, to implement the necessary e-government services and provide it to citizens all over the country. In addition, to explore the role of informal institutions in providing and using the compulsory services offered by the government and to what extent alternative services could be made available. Two qualitative pilot studies, conducted in 2015 and 2016, explored the feasibility of implementing e-government from both the government officials and the citizens’ perspectives, respectively. From the e-services provided during this time period, only the E-passport and National Identity number were found to be the only successful. Critical Success Factors - CSF of e-government implementation were defined from conducting an in-depth literature review; these were compared with our findings. Both the government officials and the citizens found corruption, infrastructure and geographical nature to be influencing factors. The social collaboration between citizens was found to be the driving factor in the success of the e-passport, despite the difficult geographical nature and the limited infrastructure all over the country

Grassroots community participation as a key to e-governance sustainability in Africa

This article explores the theoretical sustainability of e-governance in Africa by assessing the nature of participation of stakeholders. It adopts an explanatory critique, drawing on perspectives debated in scholarly literature and based on reviews of country approaches. The exploration takes into account historical antecedents to participation in e-governance in Africa, revealing that dominant stakeholder interests effectively lock out the majority of citizens from active participation in e-governance, except as consumers of public services delivered through e-government. It considers the nature of attachment of stakeholders to e-governance projects. Global stakeholders increasingly have a low degree of attachment, while there is a relatively high degree of enrolment of local actors. The concept of e-governance remains solid, but is dispensable, since although government agencies have “embraced” the message of e-government, certain local actors are weakly mobilised. The policy process has failed to nurture the heterogeneity of actors, specifically grassroots actors, that is required for effective e-governance.http://link.wits.ac.za/journal/journal.htmlam201

Broadening Civic Space Through Voluntary Action Lessons from 2011

This publication explores how non-formal voluntary action outside of formal organizations can lead to greater citizen participation in governance; serves as a resource to help civil society organizations (CSOs) explore the opportunities for engagement this presents; highlights recent examples of how socially-oriented volunteerism has connected to more change-oriented activism; and suggests how both non-formal voluntary citizen action and social activism within CSOs can be strengthened

Striving for the Impossible? Policing and Territoriality in the Age of the War on Terror

This article asks how variations of state territorial control have influenced police missions in the recent past, and illustrate how recent police reforms were based on the structure of a ‘western’ type state with clearly identifiable formal state institutions enjoying autonomy, that strive for a form of territorial monopoly over violence. The article argues for moving beyond such assumptions by adopting scenarios based on how territory is controlled, developing four scenarios that can enable foreign-backed police missions to adapt to local circumstances. The article draws upon the typology of territorial control developed by Hansen in 2017/2019, amending this model to be adapted for policing. It argues that each of these scenarios require different strategies and compromises in order to create functioning police forces

Striving for the impossible? Policing and territoriality in the age of the war on terror

This article asks how variations of state territorial control have influenced police missions in the recent past, and illustrate how recent police reforms were based on the structure of a ‘western’ type state with clearly identifiable formal state institutions enjoying autonomy, that strive for a form of territorial monopoly over violence. The article argues for moving beyond such assumptions by adopting scenarios based on how territory is controlled, developing four scenarios that can enable foreign-backed police missions to adapt to local circumstances. The article draws upon the typology of territorial control developed by Hansen in 2017/2019, amending this model to be adapted for policing. It argues that each of these scenarios require different strategies and compromises in order to create functioning police forces

Model for e-government initiative in public sector in Jordan

E-government has become a global interest since it extended the public services through information communication technology (ICT) to allow access to information, improve transparency and efficiency. Many governments are interested to implement successful e-government initiatives. However, e-government implementation is not a simple task since the developing countries cannot directly adopt the implementation of e-government model which is mainly built in the context of developed countries. Previous studies have shown that many egovernment projects in developing countries, like Jordan have encountered various problems after implementation phase. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop an e-government initiative model for the public sector in Jordan. In this study, unstructured interviews were conducted as a method for collecting the data. Thirty respondents involved in e-government projects such as managers, general managers and other levels of decision makers were selected from three Jordanian ministries namely the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour. The initial success factors for e-government initiatives in Jordan were identified and analyzed qualitatively. Delphi technique was also used to determine and validate the critical success factors (CSFs). Ultimately, a novel Ali, Syazwan & Ruzaini’s e-government initiatives model for has been developed in this research. The model has four stages: (1) Emerging and Information Dissemination; (2) Two-Way Communication; (3) Integration and (4) E-democracy. The findings also revealed seven CSFs that should be taken into account to implement the e-government model which include top management support, vision and strategy, funding, information technology (IT) infrastructure, user computer efficacy, awareness and resistance to change. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in Socio Technical Theory (STT) toward the development of egovernment initiatives model for public sector in Jordan. The empirical data from the study may provide input for government agencies to plan, design and implement future ICT projects in Jordan

Engagement of Citizens in e-Government, a Conceptual Framework Using Serious Gaming

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis study explores the challenge of low citizen engagement and participation in e-Government in terms of lack of knowledge, experience, trust in e-Services and government itself. The research addressed the issues of factors that influence citizens' acceptance and adoption of e-government services in Libya, how to overcome the barriers, and determine serious games can promote citizen usage. This study applied an integrated approach utilising the Technology Acceptance Model and Trustworthiness Model theoretical models in a focused framework of intention to use. This research applied mixed research methodology, with exploratory sequential case study (quantitative) and qualitative investigation of the Libyan e-Government project and barriers to its implementation by semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, a quantitative survey questionnaire was used to validate the proposed framework, and a post-test questionnaire was also used to evaluate the effectiveness of the serious game. A conceptual framework was developed for all factors that may affect users’ intention to use e-Services and determine the adoption needs: the two main factors are e-Government adoption issues (including citizen trust in government, e-Services and the internet) and knowledge and experience. Using serious games is of a great value in learning and expanding knowledge, practicing and training, building self-confidence, and increasing security and privacy mechanisms. It would build trust between users and agencies by experiencing e-Services’ reliability, dependability, efficiency and capability, thus promoting adoption and use

Adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning and Organizational Performance. A Conceptual Study on Public Sector

Organizational Performance (OP) and the Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) are two of the most significant studies to provide benefits to the organizations. There are different investigations on the ERP and OP in private and public organizations in developed and developing countries. This paper basically review the relationship between ERP and OP. Notably, as only a few studies have addressed the implication of ERP on OP in Arab countries such as in the Libyan context, it needs more investigation. The main objective to review and explore to which extent the Libyan public organizations are looking to improve their performance through the ERP syste