Information communication technology plays a vital role in countries' economic growth, and at the same time, it changes the form of traditional government to digital government. Digital governance is about having a competent and responsible government to deliver efficient, better, and 24/7 public services. It improves citizen participation, transparency, and overcomes administrative bottlenecks. Slackness of any government organisation in providing quality services will instantly become a topic of debate on print, electronic, and social media, forcing the political leaders to take corrective actions to save their own skin. However, for developing countries, this is going to be difficult to attain the same level of efficiency and flexibility. This study will examine the state of digital governance in developing countries particularly in the Pakistan government and will highlight the facts that through the implementation of digital governance in Pakistan (i.e., challenges and difficulties as well as opportunities that will help us to promote the application of digital governance).
TopIntroduction
These days’ internet is being used to provide the online services by the governments to its citizens (Layne & Lee, (2001). Due to ICT technologies and internet, governments can serve their citizens in better way (Misuraca & Viscusi, 2015). ICT technologies can be applied in different ways, for example, improved provision of public services to the population, improved cooperation with corporate organizations and industries, empowerment of citizens through access to information, or more efficient public administration (Khan & et al, 2010). Digital governance is a framework to establish roles, accountability and decision making authority for institute digital presence i.e. internal and external websites, mobile applications and social networks.
After the e-government model, public establishments all around the world are transforming from conventional to automated forms, as they realize the significance of creating services more efficient and reachable (Beardsley & et al, 2010). An uprising information communication technologies are not only altering the day-to-day life of public but also transforming processes of the collaboration among the governments and their people (Gil-García & et al, 2005). Now a days, digital governance is considered as standard tools of statecraft in developed country. E-governance is vigorous for development of economies and capacity-building for residents to contribute in ameliorating governance. The overarching goal of digital governance is provision of service and information to various stakeholders like citizen, business, government and employees, in an efficient and cost effective manner. These goals strengthen the Government by administrative reforms, employing technology, and new systems. The fundamental goals of digital governance based on e-Government, e-regulation and e-democracy. These fundamentals profoundly serves the object of delivering better services, overcome governmental bottlenecks, improve accountability, and enhance transparency and participation of citizen. Countrywide and native governments round the global have participated profoundly in introducing ICT based services since last two decades. However, till now the outcomes of these investments have not met the targets and give fruitful results as expected. This situation is particularly more observed in the public sector, where the take-up of ICT based public services has been comparatively less and conversion of the managements not as rapid and radical as it was anticipated (Misuraca & et al, 2010).
There are some good reasons to believe that transition towards an effective digital governance framework can be achieved by capacity building of government departments. The impact of transition is more evident when there is motivations and imperatives for adopting digital governance. To achieve success evaluation controls and strict monitoring system can also be employed in absence of capabilities and motivation. Moreover, organizational structure also adds towards or against the objectives of digital governance. Organization lacking digital literacy, adaptability to change, e-readiness and inextricably processes proved to be decisive hindrances. Stakeholders often lead to confusion by lack of consistency in rules, regulations and policies of government.
Today, in this era of information economy, stakeholders needs a highly responsive and dynamic role of government and its leadership. To instill a trust affiliation between the stockholders, a firm commitment of government became unquestionable. Establishing a sound strategy of digital governance can uphold the expectations of stakeholders. The strategy should be capable of managing the conflicting goals, complex regulatory environment and Digital Supply Chain system.
To improve accountability, efficiency and productivity while providing better public services, government institutions often emphasis only on capacity building, whereas, the citizen feedback is not considered. For improving the digital governance, feedback serves as a catalyst by emphasizing on organizational requirements. Another major factor of digital governance framework is open data. This key factor enables the stakeholders in decision making, formulation of policies and alleviation of services. While considering the aforementioned factors, digital governance can bring Simplicity, Morality, Accountability, Responsiveness and Transparency in governance.