In this chapter, e-service or electronic service is used to refer to the generic government services provided through ICTs, particularly the Internet to citizens, businesses, and other government agencies
Published in Chapter:
E-Government Issues in Developing Countries: An Analysis from a Digital Divide, E-Skills, and Civil Conflict Theory Approach
Gohar Feroz Khan (YeungNam University, Republic of Korea) and Junghoon Moon (Seoul National University, Republic of Korea)
Copyright: © 2012
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0324-0.ch021
Abstract
Electronic government, or e-Government, is the practice of providing public services to citizens, businesses, and other government agencies where government services can be accessed through the Internet, mobile phone, fax, mail, telephone, and personal visits (MGAHA, 2005). Developing countries, utilizing the late comer advantage, are mimicking trends of paperless governments with the expectations to reap the same benefits enjoyed by developed countries. However, e-Government initiatives have not always been successful in developing countries. According to the study conducted by Heeks (2003), the rate of e-Government success in developing countries was only 15 percent. The authors believe that such failures are mainly due to certain unique social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges faced by e-Government in developing countries. For example, some major issues include digital divide, political instability, and skills-related issues. However, the research dealing with these problems is limited. Therefore, in this chapter, the authors discuss these challenges.