e-Government in Africa: Promise and practice

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Heeks, Richard^a

Affiliations: [a] Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, Precinct Centre, Manchester M13 9GH, UK. Tel.: +44 161 275 2800; Fax: +44 161 273 8829; E-mail: richard.heeks@man.ac.uk

Abstract: e-Government has already arrived in Africa, though it is essentially an imported concept based on imported designs. There are growing numbers of e-government projects, some of which are contributing to public sector reform and delivering gains of efficiency and/or effectiveness across a broad agenda. However, this positive picture must be set alongside significant challenges. e-Government is only slowly diffusing within Africa because of a lack of 'e-readiness for e-government' that can be charted along six dimensions. There is widespread recognition that this challenge must be met by strategic building of national infrastructure. Where e-government projects are introduced, they mainly end in failure; either partial or total. To address this tactical challenge, stakeholders must be sensitised to the large gaps that often exist between project design and African public sector reality. These large `design – reality gaps' can be seen to underlie failure. They arise particularly because e-government concepts and designs have their origins in the West; origins that are significantly different from African realities. Some best practices are outlined that may help to close design – reality gaps and, hence, may help to improve project success rates. This will only happen, though, if they too are appropriate to African realities.

DOI: 10.3233/IP-2002-0008

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 7, no. 2-3, pp. 97-114, 2002