A Systematic approach to designing and implementing E-government systems in the developing world
Abstract
With the widespread deployment of e-government systems in developing countries, and as
well as the high failure rates, it is important to understand the complex processes that
underlie successful design and implementations of large-scale e-government systems. This
dissertation therefore was motivated by a desire to leverage e-government lessons already
learnt in the developing world to maximize the chances of success for future e-government
projects. A number of successful and unsuccessful ICT projects were critically studied. This
dissertation looks at how these projects were designed and implemented (planning, development,
communication, integration and management). The study therefore developed a
systematic approach for designing and implementing e-government in the developing world.
The study realised that it is important to have a nuanced reading of stake holders in the
e-government systems domain to understand the origin of conflict and resistance to such
systems. Funding from the government and other stake holders is highly essential. Sensitisation
of all the stake holders and especially the users is inevitable. Corruption and bribery,
resistance to the system, lack of trained staff, lack of trust in the system and lack of political
will/interest were seen by the research as the greatest challenges faced during the design and
implementation of e-government in the developing world. The practice of ”cut” from Europe
and ”paste” in the developing world must be avoided because these are two different worlds