IIIT Hyderabad MHRD Conceptualising E- Government initiatives

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 2 LEARNING OBJECTIVES To understand how government functionaries conceptualise e-Government initiatives To understand the role of evidence based planning To understand how e-Governance is intertwined with the domain of public policy

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 3 Collector example Dissatisfied with the state of affairs of the functioning of the community health workers in his district, the collector visualizes a major overhaul. In his opinion that there was no place for paper based record generation and record keeping by the health workers in the age of the 3G / 4G networks, smart phones, short messaging services, the social media and the broadband

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 4 Collector example Taking the help of a local software vendor, the Collector goes about developing an android based mobile application.

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 5 Collector example This change from paper based functioning to an electronic one is non-trivial. The work schedules of the health workers will be driven by information available on- line. The beneficiaries – pregnant women and young children – will have their services controlled by electronic means. The workers themselves will be required to become trained in technology.

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 6 What gives the confidence to the Collector? What gives the confidence to the Collector that such a move is a well-advised one? At least for a period of time, both the electronic version and the paper based need to co-exist and this will add to the workload of all concerned. How can S/he be confident that the morale of the health workers will not be negatively impacted? Might there be demand for increased pay accompanying the increased workload?

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 7 What gives the confidence to the Collector? It is true that new technology brings it new promises – promises of different ways of working, promises of new learning etc. But there is a yet bigger question. Who wants to benefit from new technology?

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 8 Who wants to benefit from new technology? Women? Children? Community Health Workers? The District Collector?

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 9 eGov projects and development This session is concerned with project analysis for development Implied in this are views on what is development? What a project is? AND What belongs in project analysis All these are open to wide range of interpretations and hence we need to have some clarity on them

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 10 Development The process of improving human welfare Focus on Gross Domestic Product [GDP] etc  a narrow economic view Health, Educational Status, Environmental sustainability, Gender equality etc too can serve as indicators

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 11 Development Development is a process ….an improvement over time of the level and distribution of various kinds of resources Can there be a single measure of development?

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 12 Project Investment of scarce resources Expectation of future benefit Planned and implemented as a unit Specific start and end time frame

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 13 eGov projects and major events Many projects are initiated in response to or in anticipation of major events. For example “eGov projects launched as part of digital india”, projects launched as part of “National optical fiber network” etc when a project is motivated by or connected to an event, the project is placed in a certain context and is delimited in certain ways relative to this context.

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 14 Egov projects and “labeling” Often use of labels yields project ideas. Labels such as when a region is described as “underdeveloped/ backward etc” Or labelling a department as less eGov savvy than some other department

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 15 Even if the future could be predicted, planning is complicated by the absence of a single, precise objective. The planner has to distinguish between maximizing benefits now, and maximizing benefits later

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 16 The opportunities for development are unequal Let us say that there are two sectors – health and education. Let us assume that the health sector in a particular district is in a better shape than the education sector. What should the collector do – when he has limited resources? Invest the district’s resources to further strengthen education – since this might have better chances of success or try to bring the education capacities to be at par with health?

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 17 A citizen facing effort or an internal improvement project? An egov project which involves the citizens or businesses – the G2C and G2B type projects – bring with them one more type of complication. Should the project first aim to clean up the Government’s own internal processes and structures or should it focus on ICT enabling the services to the citizens? Or should both go hand in hand?

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 18 The answer to all such questions lies in Project analysis

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MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 20 Project Spiral

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 21 Role of evidence in conceptualising egov initiatives Governance and Public Sector Management (GPSM) programme at the World Bank emphasise (i) changing mindsets, or the way problems are seen and goals defined; and (ii) developing leadership, the capacity to motivate people to achieve a common goal. The GPSM recognises that local, regional and central governments, the private sector, NGOs and citizen organisations have a key role in this.

MHRD IIIT Hyderabad 22 There is evidence and there is evidence Of course there are problems in adopting an evidence based approach to egov project conceptualisation –There is too much evidence –The evidence may not apply –Evidence can be misleading –Managers themselves may try to mislead themselves through selective use of evidence