E-governance: super-services for citizens

Delivering public services digitally, often called e-governance, can help people to find jobs, improve their health and better their education. Mobile communications technology has the best potential for helping people in emerging markets to access government services easily and conveniently.

E-governance, which is the delivery of public services through information and communications technology (ICT), not only cuts costs for public bodies, but also helps to solve many issues in emerging markets. The welfare of people can be improved in many ways - from a basic lack of information, to eliminating the sheer inconvenience of people standing in long queues to access services.

A recent study commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks and Nokia to the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization revealed that the service that people found of most benefit was job opportunities. News, education and health also come high up the list, with the study giving examples of how people benefit from information about applying to schools in Ghana, banking and travel information in India and health information in South Africa.

Mobile devices are the best delivery method

When it came to identifying the best method of delivering public services, the report concluded that mobile devices are the technology with the most potential to stimulate the supply and demand of public services.

The promise of mobile devices is unequivocal. With about 90% coverage of the world's population, mobile technologies are already in place, unlike other initiatives such as low-cost laptops. Mobile devices are affordable and are bringing the 'internet experience' to more and more people, offering interactivity that other channels lack, such as radio and TV.

All stakeholders must fulfill their roles

The motivation for governments, companies and individuals to deploy and use new technologies is to drive up economic growth, boost employment and improve the wider socio-economic wellbeing. Achieving these aims means that operators and governments must understand which services citizens want and identify mechanisms to provide them over the long term.

Increasing the awareness of how mobile devices can be used to deliver social content is another priority. The private sector, mobile device manufacturers, operators and contentproducers must do more to educate policymakers, civil society and citizens about the ability of mobile devices to deliver services, with more examples of mobile content and service provision.

Remote rural villagers also have a right to receive public services and mobile devices can provide the necessary access to information. The report found that services were often more highly rated among urban residents and those with a higher level of education, pointing to the essential need to ensure service delivery and usage in rural areas and among the less educated. This raises the opportunity to use ICTs to improve education and stimulate the demand for services. It is important to support successful local content providers who can deliver e-education through websites and mobile devices. Strategic investment in education to develop skills and workforce training opportunities, as well as create digital inclusion initiatives, will help to ensure that technology can meet the needs of people more fully.

With five billion people expected to be connected by 2015, there is a great opportunity to help people gain more access to public services through mobile devices, and improve their livelihood in the process. Nokia Siemens Networks, for instance, helps to improve access to services by providing technologies such as Village Connection, which makes it easier to bring mobile services to rural communities.

Estonia leads the way

Few countries can match the success of Estonia in developing and using e-governance services. Over the last decade Estonia has built an advanced e-governance infrastructure that is enabling complex services that combine the information from several government databases.

Tasks, such as applying for social security benefits for new parents, now take minutes to complete online, not the laborious process of document filling and approval that traditional paper-based systems incur.

"The use of mobile systems for public services is growing but there are limitations," says Ivar Tallo, Manager of e-Governance Program at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and one of the early architects of Estonia's e-governance success. "M-governance is unlikely to replace e-governance, but it will add value. If lots of information needs inputting, then it is easier to use devices other than mobiles due to the restrictions of the small screen and small keyboard."