THE ITALIAN INITIATIVE on E-GOVERNMENT for DEVELOPMENT CONTENTS Page
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INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION WORLD TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT INF/20-E CONFERENCE (WTDC-02) 20 March 2002 Original: English Istanbul, Turkey, 18-27 March 2002 Ministry for Innovation and Technology, Italy INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS OFFICE THE ITALIAN INITIATIVE ON E-GOVERNMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT CONTENTS Page 1 Background ........................................................................................................... 2 Objectives of the Italian Initiative "E-government for Development".................. 3 The Italian Initiative: A joint government, non-profit and private sector effort ............................................................................................... 4 Working in partnership with developing countries............................................... 5 Deliverables of the Italian initiative...................................................................... Y:\APP\PDF_SERVER\ALL-USER\IN\WTDC-02\INFO-DOCS\020E.WW9 (140890) 20.03.02 15.05.02 - 2 - CMDT02/INF20-E 1 Background At the last G8 Summit in Genoa, leaders endorsed the DOT Force Report entitled "Digital Opportunities for All: Meeting the Challenge", which contains a forward-looking Action Plan with nine priority areas as a basis for developing countries to achieve sustainable ICT-enabled development, both economic and social. G8 leaders also agreed to continue supporting the DOT Force process and encouraged all stakeholders to build on their successful cooperation and develop concrete initiatives to deliver on each of the nine elements of the Action Plan. Together with the endorsement of the DOT Force Plan of Action and Report, the G8 leaders in Genoa, upon the proposal of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, encouraged in their Final Communiqué "... the development of an Action Plan on how e-government can strengthen democracy and the rule of law by empowering citizens and making the provision of essential government services more efficient ..." (Genoa Final Communiqué, paragraph 22 "Digital Opportunities"). The DOT Force is now at the implementation phase of the mandate of the G8 leaders deriving from the Communiqué, which comprises the implementation of the nine actions of the Action Plan and the development of the Action Plan on e-government. In the first post-Genoa meeting held in October in Montreal, one Implementation Team was constituted for each of the nine Priority Areas of the Genoa Plan of Action. Chairs and co-chairs for each implementation team were identified. Italy assumed the joint chairmanship with Canada of Action Point 1 "Help establish and support developing country and emerging economy e-Strategies" and assumed leadership for the initiatives on e-government relative to the Action Plan and to the Genoa Final Communiqué. 2 Objectives of the Italian Initiative "E-government for Development" The objective of the Italian Initiative "E-government for Development" is to provide an effective and original contribution towards the: – awareness; – planning; – implementation and establishment of e-government also in those countries that have not or have only partially exploited the potentiality of this important tool for bridging social and economic divides. In this initiative, e-government is defined as the use by government agencies of information and communication technologies that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses and other arms of government. This transformation goes in the direction of empowering citizens through access to information, improving interactions with business and industry, facilitating better delivery of government services to citizens and more efficient government management. The dedication to this task reflects the belief of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, that e-government offers unique opportunities of enhancement of efficiency of the economic system, increased transparency and less corruption, leading to increased possibility for countries to attract foreign investments and, with particular regard to developing countries, multilateral and bilateral financial assistance. Y:\APP\PDF_SERVER\ALL-USER\IN\WTDC-02\INFO-DOCS\020E.WW9 (140890) 20.03.02 15.05.02 - 3 - CMDT02/INF20-E 3 The Italian Initiative: A joint government, non-profit and private sector effort Given the complexity of the task, Italy has decided to join the strengths of its three stakeholders: government, non-profit sector and private sector. A task force of about thirty members from the three stakeholders was created at the beginning of October 2001 and is working under the leadership of the Italian Minister for Innovation and Technologies, Lucio Stanca, and his staff. Three sectors of the Italian public administration are represented in the task force (Ministry for Innovation and Technologies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Function), together with two non-profit organizations (Alisei, Movimondo) and thirteen firms from the information and communication sector (Canal Plus, COS, Enel, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Finsiel, Getronics, IBM Italia, Microsoft Italia, Sogei, Tele+, Telecom Italia, Telecom Italia Lab, TIM) and with the support of Federcomin, the Italian Associates of ICT Industries. A team of consultants has recently joined the task force to act as project manager. The Italian Task Force is now finalizing the development of a "reference digital model" of functions and services of the public administration, adapted to meet specific countries' requirements (see Section 5 a)). 4 Working in partnership with developing countries The Government of Italy has established a partnership with four initial countries - Albania, Jordan, Mozambique and Tunisia (see Section 5 b)); recently Nigeria joined this initial group of countries. Three experts from each of the four countries will join, during the month of March, the works of the Italian Task Force. The working interaction with the country experts, through a two-way knowledge sharing process, will tune the digital model (see Section 5 a)) to the countries' specific needs and realities. 5 Deliverables of the Italian initiative In particular, the action of Italy is directed towards the achievement of five deliverables: 1) development of a "Reference Model" of digital functions and services of the public administration, adapted to meet specific countries' requirements; 2) establishment of a partnership with four initial countries - Albania, Jordan, Mozambique, Tunisia - for identification and implementation of a first set of projects in priority areas defined by those countries. The implementation of these projects will be co-financed by the Government of Italy; 3) creation of a dedicated portal on e-government for development; 4) organization of an International Conference on E-government for Development in Palermo (Sicily), 10-11 April 2002; 5) formulation of a draft proposal to the DOT Force of an Action Plan on how e-government can strengthen democracy and the rule of law by empowering citizens and making the provision of essential government services more efficient. The first three deliverables - the Reference Model, the partnership for its implementation and the portal - will be presented to the outer community at the International Conference (fourth deliverable). At the same time this event will offer a unique opportunity to access, during a dedicated session, the wide platform of key stakeholders that will attend the conference, in order to finalize the draft proposal of an Action Plan on e-government, the fifth deliverable of the Italian Initiative. Y:\APP\PDF_SERVER\ALL-USER\IN\WTDC-02\INFO-DOCS\020E.WW9 (140890) 20.03.02 15.05.02 - 4 - CMDT02/INF20-E The five deliverables will be presented in detail in the next sections. 5 a) Development of a "Reference Model" of digital functions and services of the public administration, adapted to meet specific countries' requirements One of the main problems and sources of delays in the digitalization of public administration functions, processes and services in developed countries, and in the implementation of e-government strategies, is the presence of resistance and legacies due to previously established processes, systems and technologies. Such resistance is proving to be a relevant obstacle to the re-organization and re-engineering of p.a. functions and services. This situation is less present or absent in several developing countries, therefore creating a comparative advantage. In these countries the digitalization of the systems can be planned and implemented, according to the most efficient design and most suitable technology and applications. This is the rationale underlying the decision by the Italian Government to develop a Reference Model of digital functions and services of the public administration. The model is now being finalized by the Italian Task Force, which owns expertise in the field of p.a. innovation and reform as well as in the field of development and integration of p.a. IT systems. The Reference Model, as a whole or in its modular components, has the potentiality to support increasing complexity of e-government tools and processes. The Reference Model is independent from countries' institutional/constitutional form, from government organization, from country size and local ICT infrastructure. The model covers a set of modular functions of the public administration which are offered to citizens and business sector through suitable interfaces and channels, adaptable to meet specific countries' requirements. The definition, planning