Welcome to the United Nations
Main Expectations:
- Increased knowledge of e-Government policies, trends, solutions and best practices of countries, which will be showcased and shared with the Member States through UNPAN and United Nations Public Administration Country Studies (UNPACS)
- Recommendations and suggestions to provide guidance for the Member States to refer to and adopt them for realising Smart Government and Smart Society.
- Renewed commitment of policy makers to adapt their acquired knowledge and expertise for elaborating innovative e-Government development strategies fit for their countries.
Objective/Purpose of Project: The 2015 Astana Economic Forum comes at a time when governments are required to be more responsive, transparent, and accountable to efficiently respond to the challenges of sustainable development. Governments nowadays are being faced with much more complex problems, especially in terms of meeting sustainable development challenges, than in the past. Citizens’ demands toward their governments are becoming so diverse that the traditional role of governments as mere service providers cannot satisfy any longer citizens’ needs. Citizens now demand from their governments: (a) more citizen-centric services keenly customised to satisfy their expectations, (b) greater degree of transparency and accountability, and (c) greater citizen participation in public decision-making processes. The theme of this year’s Forum, which is on “Infrastructure: driver of sustainable economic growth”, is very timely and provides an opportunity to discuss how leveraging the potential of ICT tools, such as social media, can transform traditional forms of government financing into smart ones which can respond to complex needs and various challenges proactively. One of the ways that social media is playing that role is through crowd-funding, which allows citizens to provide funding of activities which they support. Citizen, government and even the UN have used crowd-funding to finance projects.
Session 1: Social media as a tool for financing and knowledge sharing for sustainable development Social Media in particular, crowd sourcing could be used as a tool for financing development, especially in municipalities, local government and specific projects that had a high social impact. Access to Internet is critical to developing an economy thus governments should create a connectivity strategy to get everyone connected to the Internet. For disadvantages section of the population government should think about providing access subsidies low-income population. Design digital literacy programs into curriculums for all levels (primary school, high school, university, job/vocational training, with special programs for elderly and low-income communities. Crowd sourcing as a tool for financing development: • use of social media as an appropriate tool to promote crowdfunding for small-scale municipal projects • for local crowd financed projects (debt or equity), financial benefits accrue to the community • municipalities and government projects should consider the social impact bond • create a crowd sourcing ecosystem for developing states Celebrate and promote people and organizations who are the champions of social networking to create economic opportunities through all media. Designate a week per year (Innovation Week) to celebrate innovation, invite innovation and entrepreneur thought leaders from around the world to give talks, meet with entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need access to capital, but government shouldn't be deciding which entrepreneurs to give it to. Therefore, one can create a fund that matches money raised in the marketplace (crowdfunding, venture capital, etc.) and ensure that entrepreneurs have access to these funds and the requirements for access are clear and straightforward.
Session 2: Open Government data: a pillar for sustainable development Government data mining through identification of government data resources and addressing an exhaustive state of existing government data. Political will, coupled with a strong legal framework were critical to the development of open government data. Data Accessibility & Usability: • Easy access to data via an open portal • Clear categorization of data to make it easier for users to understand what type of information is available • Use of common standards to facilitate reuse • Provision of simple and easy to use tools to enable all users regardless of technical ability to use data Political will coupled with a strong legal framework is indispensable for optiminizing the release of data and promoting the triangular relationship among the public sector, private sector and citizens. There is a need to create of data-mining software that will clearly categorize data for to ensure simplicity of data mining process. The public administration needs to have a clear understanding of the type of data and information that citizens want to have at their disposal. There must be a clear understanding and definition between data, big data and open data in management of governmental data.
Session 3: The role of private sector in supporting sustainable development Open government data increase transparency between government and civil society while reducing the resistance for Public Private Partnership. Public administration should develop templates that can handle standard situations between the private sector and public sector. This should include multiple models and step-by-step instruction in dealing with the private sector. This will allow civil servants to choose the appropriate template and/or model to use in specific cases. Capacity building in area of public-private-partnership should be strengthened at all levels of government. Governments should implement a completely transparent e-procurement system that instils accountability, transparency and trust between the public and private sectors. E-procurement information should be freely available for businesses, associations and individuals. It is Important to manage the transformation and expectation from classic to Private Public Partnership in e-Government. Governments in emerging and developing countries should recognize the importance of the growth of private sector in promoting ICT in ensuring the sustainable development. E-Government program, should be in line and committed to developing private sector and promote ICT for sustainable development. a) Encouraging entrepreneurship & innovation by providing financial and non-financial support to prospective entrepreneurs in the field of ICT. b) Introduced Open Government initiative enabling public app development. c) Facilitate knowledge exchange and ICT market development by conducting international eGovernment forums and IT Expo thereby providing an opportunity to bring together the ICT community for business building d) Involving NGOs and private sector in the ICT capacity building of citizens and government officials. e) Encouraging private participation in enhancing citizen engagement and participation f) Provides opportunity to private sector in enabling access channels to eGovernment services and support Green IT initiatives of the Kingdom. Create Knowledge repository: Create a knowledge repository on PPP and enable sharing of the success stories & lessons learnt to different PPP practitioners. This could provide vital improvements in enhancing the sustainability of the PPP initiatives in their respective organizations. The existence of a strong and mature legal framework is necessary for the successful PPP expectation that shall ensure simplicity, speed and reduce the bureaucracy. Efforts should be undertaken to utilize private sector capabilities in the commercial delivery of services to customers of the eGovernment system. Identify the areas where the Capacity Building is required in Government entities for partnering (e.g., identify, evaluate, select, execute, exit) with the private sector. For example, build capacity of Government entities in identifying & selecting the partners especially in the field of Information & Communication Technology.
Time Frame: August 2014 - December 2014
Funding:Development Account (DA)Proposed Budget: US$442,451
Division: DPIDG
Focus Countries: Kazakhstan
Comment: the project was concluded