In March 2001, at the Third Global Forum on Reinventing Government, participants from 122 nations congregated to share best practices, information and ideas related to e-government. The Forum was followed by the first attempt of UNDESA to benchmark e-government development through a research publication in 2001 entitled “Benchmarking E-government: A Global Perspective - Assessing 122 UN Member States,” which analysed the approach, progress and commitment of the UN Member States (MS) in e-government development.
The 2003 edition was the first one covering all MS with the aim “to be a tool at the disposal of the government, which, if applied effectively, can contribute substantially to promoting human development”. The Survey assesses the e-government development status of all MS of the United Nations, producing the e-government development index (EGDI), which is a weighted average of three most important dimensions of e-government, namely: (1) scope and quality of online services (Online Service Index, OSI), (2) development status of telecommunication infrastructure (Telecommunication Infrastructure Index, TII), and (3) inherent human capital (Human Capital Index, HCI). Since 2001 the methodological framework has remained consistent across survey periods while its sub components have been updated to reflect new trends in e-government as well as new indicators for TII and HCI. The year 2015 marked a milestone with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global level. The 2030 Agenda itself recognized that “the spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies”. Consequently, in 2016 the Survey was promptly updated to provide new evidence and analysis to reflect more on the tremendous potential of e-government to support the implementation of the Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The forthcoming report (2018) will mark the ninth edition of the DESA flagship publication in benchmarking e-government development achieved by 193 countries and will focus more on supporting transformation towards sustainable, inclusive, equitable and resilient societies. It will also focus on technologies that can have a far-reaching impact on the realization of the SDGS and on the way governments operate and interact with people. Seeing the SDGs as policy goals and looking at how ICTs accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, the Survey will focus more on outcomes and impacts rather than on inputs. How can the survey capture the use of digital technology by governments to support the 2030 Agenda will be one of the main objectives of the Survey in the coming years. Likewise, the fast-evolving technologies brings unprecedented and unpredictable development with the potential to drastically shape the future of government. MS will focus more and more on technologies that can have a far-reaching impact on the realization of the SDGS and on the way governments operate and interact with people. With the advances of converging technologies such as AI, deep machine learning, big data, blockchain, internet of things, cloud federations, quatum computers and robotics, governments will soon be able to utilize tools that can anticipate people demand, simulate reasoning, bolster predictive analysis, share knowledge and allow machines to monitor goals, moving closer to copying the human thought process. Many Governments are already studying how to use the most advanced technologies to guide and feed algorithmic governance and data-driven policy decisions and to shape effective service delivery. Government 4.0 is already a reality. So how must the survey evolve to reflect the use of emerging and latest technologies and their impact in development agendas? Will the Survey still be relevant 5-10 years from now? Using the view of the Survey as a tool for transformation and development and looking to the future, will it still make sense to publish the EGDI or will be possible to have other more effective and relevant (automated, AI-supported, self-generated) tools or indicators that will fit better for purpose?
The keynote, introducing these main underlying themes, will set-up the scene, for a fruitful discussion during the plenary, with the purpose to provide a platform for the distinguish panelists and experts to exchange views on challenges, emerging issues, methodologies and trends, relevant to the United Nations from a sustainable development perspective and reflect/review/update/advise about the future of the UN E-government Survey.
