The final version of this report does not have an Executive Summary. Plus we also discovered that the back cover had no text. So we decided to draft some text. I wrote the text below in response to an earlier draft prepared by Ruhiya.
While developing countries continue to make important gains in accessing new ICTs, the impact of such gains on development agendas and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) remains to be addressed. Part of the issue here is the predominant view that access to ICTs is the core challenge for developing countries, a view that is also shared by the MDGs
themselves as reflected on the content of Target 18.
While fostering access to new technologies is indeed a laudable goal in itself, developing economies need at the same time to focus on the traditional and long-standing development gaps that still persist today. And new ICTs have the potential of providing innovative solutions to existing economic, social and political challenges and thus transform the way development assistance is delivered
The programme countries assessed in this report are implementing critical e-governance initiatives that help to expand access to basic public services and information, and foster political participation. While many challenges still remain, these programmes have made important inroads in making catalytic use of ICTs to tackle key development national priorities.
This report provides insight into the role ICTs can play in achieving critical development goals, identifies core challenges and distils lessons and good practices for e-governance implementation. These case studies show how successful programming must be linked to existing national development priorities and targets. These cases help us consider what is feasible and necessary for
e-governance development in poor and middle-income countries, particularly when there is political will to promote democratic governance.
