DSG e-Government conference ends on strategic high note for Arab e-Government initiatives

The conference, organized by the Dubai School of Government in partnership with Harvard University's renowned John F. Kennedy School of Government brought together an elite audience of Arab and international academics, policy makers, and government officials, including five Harvard University experts, to discuss the coming paradigm shift in e-Government toward the dynamic new dimension of Information Government (I-Government).

Mr. Nabil Ali Alyousuf, Dubai School of Government Executive Director said, "The interaction between regional decision-makers in e-Government and international thought leaders has been beneficial to all parties. By sharing our experiences in the Middle East we can at once educate and learn. The ongoing efforts by both the conference discussants and guest speakers from around the world to shed light on the importance of e-Government in government-public dialogue are deeply appreciated."

Professor Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger, Harvard faculty and leading intellectual on e-government, summed up the conference, saying the transitional phase of e-Government toward the development of public-centered strategies that will improve the flow of information and enhance public engagement in policy making poses a strategic rather than an operational challenge.

"Current incentives for e-Government are resulting in traditional electronic government implementation, but fail to stimulate the comprehensive activities that will foster true information government. For this to take hold, governments must now accept responsibility for implementation at a strategic rather than operational level to ensure the full development of quality information flows and a strongly interactive public sector."

Regional discussants adjudicated the conference and were positive about the value the international exchange of experience added to Middle East initiatives. Mr. Salem Al-Shair, Chairman of Dubai e-Government, said that in sharing experiences from around the world at this DSG conference, it was important not to just talk about successes, but to talk about failures as well. "It is vital to pass on lessons learned and to impart tips on how to avoid these failures. Today I have talked about the failures and the lessons learned in our experience with e-Government and hope that it helps other countries in avoiding potentially costly mistakes."

"In particular, as e-Government we have faced problems with technology and 'techies'. Techies tend to think they can change the world with technology. The approach is tech-centric whereas this is a people business. E-Government must be customer-centric - we should look at our implementation through the people's eyes. Failure can come through the implementation of technology that is inappropriate or beyond what the customer actually wants or needs," he concluded.

Dr. Nagy K. Hanna, the World Bank's senior advisor on ICT strategy, said he hoped the sharing of experience from around the globe will result in a dialectic between the experience of the West and its adaptability to the needs of the region. "This is vital when we take into consideration the very individual challenges the regional countries face - issues of culture, hierarchy, local content, style of management, leadership. These are the individual issues that are really at the heart of e-Government, not technology."

Another discussant, Mr. Khaldoun Naffa, Head of Jordan's e-Government, said, "E-Government is such a large concept, it is very difficult to measure its effectiveness and performance, so the nice thing about a conference like this is that it allows us to connect with and resonate to some of the ideas and challenges at an international level that we might face in our regional implementation. It provides an opportunity for verification and realignment on key success factors around the world."

Other discussants included Mr. Sameh Bedair, Director of Egypt's e-Government Programme, and Dr. Raymond Khoury, Director of the Technical Cooperation Unit at the Ministry of State for Administrative Reform in Lebanon.

In addition to regional case studies, international thought leaders presented e-Government stories from around the world, including specific case studies on The Swiss Electronic Government Barometer, by Kuno Schedler, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland; E-rulemaking at the Environmental Protection Agency, by Rick Otis, EPA, USA; and The Singapore Experience, by Chong Yoke Sin, Chief Operating Officer, NCS Ltd, Singapore.

"At the end of the day, e-government is not about technical innovation: it's about government reform," said Ghazi Atallah, Cisco Systems General Manager Middle East . "Technology is the key enabler, but those delivering public services through new channels also have to work differently, breaking down inter-departmental silos and working seamlessly across interoperable networks. This way, they can deliver information and services that are easy to use, cost effective and, above all, relevant to people's everyday needs and interests."