Strategic framework for the implementation of e-government: Nepal case

Abstract

E-Government is a tool and technologies for the use of information and communication to improve and development of government activities and their transformation. In the context of Nepal e-Government Index is very low as compared to other countries. Nepal has many challenges for the implementation of the e - government system in Nepal. Low literacy, low per capita income, poor ICT infrastructure, insufficient human resources, lack of leadership and leadership’s commitment and insufficient financial resources are the major constraints and challenges of e- Government implementation in Nepal. The main purpose of this research is to describe the main factors/issues/challenges of and their reliable solutions of e-Government implementation system in Nepal. The technologies make informatics governments on all levels using internet technology to disseminate information and services to citizens, employees, businesses and others levels with which they work. E-Government refers to the application of the internet and networking technologies to digitally enable government and public sector agencies relationships with citizens, business, and other arms of government. For government, more efficiency would be provided in addition to better services, less errors, less storage space, revenue generation, job placement, cost reduction, time reduction and many others. So, e-Government has become an important requirement for information dissemination for the citizens and businesses around the world. There is a big gap in implementation and readiness between Highly Developed Countries (HDCs), Developing Countries (DCs) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This thesis aims to describe problems, causes of problems and to suggest some solutions for implementing e-Government in Nepal, other developing countries, and SAARC countries about the effective e-Government system framework which can provide all kinds of government services to the citizens and stakeholders. This thesis is mainly focused on establishing the problems and suggesting solutions for the implementation of e-Government systems in Nepal within three to four years duration. The methodology of research were interviewed at different levels. The researchers were provided the validated solutions for the development and implementation of the e - government system in all the developing countries. Electronic Government Infrastructure (EGI) is an essential part of e-Government Implementation System, which is used to transform disseminate various services to the citizens. Because, it is very much citizen-centric services which helps to increased and developed all level citizens’ day-to-day required activities. For this, Infrastructure is a necessary physical part of the e - government system. EGI is used for providing a mechanism to coordinate work activities in the public sector. E-infrastructure directly reflects changing the way Government function in terms of the organization of the government, its relationship with its citizens, institutions and businesses & cooperation with other organizations. Basically, this study looks existing infrastructure of the e - government system of Nepal, which play a major role in the development and implementation of e-Government in Nepal, and also displays the result of infrastructure in the comparison of SAARC Nation’s e-Government infrastructure. It gives a good outcome or results to Nepal Government and other developing countries also. This investigation has also focused on existing infrastructure for the development and implementation of the e - government system. So, in this research thesis an e- Government conceptual model, and a conceptual framework and also a technical framework displayed for the effective and efficient e-Government implementation in Nepal. This study results can used by other developing countries also. It may be very fruitful in the real life situation in the context of Nepal. So, in this research explores and presented the challenges that Government agencies facing for implementation system and changing management. The research findings and conclusion are mainly based on the use of the primary and also secondary information and related sources: for primary information were gathered from the questionnaires through selected respondents and for secondary were gathered all e-Government related journals, articles, literature, reports, research thesis and government bodies. This investigated thesis presented the success rate of e-Government, which is very low in spite of latest technology and a huge budget. There are various factors for making low success rate. The implementation part is one of them. Especially, in least developing countries, it is one of the big problems. A vigorous research is done to identify the root cause of this problem. There are various reasons for this, but the core challenges such as system design, awareness, etc. are identified in this paper. Nepal, being at least developing country is considered as a case study in this thesis (research). And few major challenges are identified by conducting various research methodologies. The mathematical modeling using Fuzzy logic was used to verify and validate for finding challenges. This fuzzy centroid model was used for the verification of six findings for true or false results. At the end, this thesis also provides the frameworks as an outcome and recommendations with a conclusion.