Our Role

ICT must be used in the goal of sustainable development. ICT has become a vital tool in the fight against world poverty. ICT provides developing nations with an unprecedented opportunity to meet vital development goals such as poverty reduction, basic health care, and education, far more effectively than before. Those nations that succeed in harnessing the potential of ICT can look forward to greatly expanding economic growth, dramatically improved human welfare and stronger forms of democratic governance. Citizen can utilize ICT to share pertinent information that may otherwise not be transferable. The blogs created in this course is a great start. Besides my own research, I have learned way more than I expected from my fellow classmates and their blogs. Even when the course is over, students should continue to build on their blogs and add additional information that would be publicly shared with anyone who has access to read it. If everyone played a small role using ICT, the world could look forward to a brighter future.

MDGs and Global Issues

ICT can be used to raise awareness, for example, Nigeria is rich in oil but it is not being used efficiently to develop and sustain the country due to government corruption. Bill Clinton made a good point when he said if citizens of a county have a right to vote government leader in office, they also have the right to vote them out. Citizen may not be aware of what’s going on due to lack of media attention on the subject or lack commercial advertisements which would subsequently allow citizen to be knowledgeable as to some of the reasons why development is not being sustained and would encourage them to vote. I also believe that if systems were in place in each country, the developmental goals can be accomplished in a reasonable time frame. Imposing taxes on air flights, and having the tax used to aid in each sector of the developmental goals can also aid countries. Even if travelers do not fly to certain countries, if they fly into near by countries, the taxed funds should be used for the purpose of the development goals where most needed. With the use of advanced technology, each country could have a team of dedicated leaders to maintain these systems in aiding in the developmental goals.





Reference(s):
[1] http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/82
[2] http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Sustainable Development

Understanding Data

Understanding data is extremely important. It can affect how a person makes certain decisions. Data tell you when and how. Like the African girl in the video, she wanted to be in school so that she would be able to count change and would not be cheated when she goes to the market to purchase an item. As Hans Rosling pointed out it would be helpful if the world had access to a full database on the stats of the world’s development, but if a person does not understand the data, it would be meaningless.

Sustainable Development

I have read many definitions of sustainable development which all deal with the same aspects which are social, economic, and environment.

www.census.gov/ipc/www/wp96glos.html defines it as achieving economic and social development in ways that do no exhaust a country’s natural resources,
tpc-ptc.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/tpc-ptc.nsf/en/hb00422e.html defines it as achieving economic and social goals in ways that can be supported for the long term by conserving resources, protecting the environment, and ensuring human health and welfare and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development defines it as social-ecological process characterized by the fulfillment of human needs while maintaining or increasing the quality of natural environment indefinitely.

In Han’s Rosling video<Hans Rosling>, he mentioned a very important analysis comparing the sustainable development of Asia and the US. He stated, while Asia’s economical progress was slow, their health stats increased and while the US economy progressed, their health stats were low. Also, it took the US 30 year to catch up to the health rate of Asia. I found this to be very interesting. It seems that both countries did not have a sustainable development because one aspect affected the other. Therefore, to me, sustainable development means improving and/or maintaining the economy, environment, and social well being without hindering each aspect.

Measuring Sustainable Development

It is clear that you need accurate data and stats to measure sustainable development. Overall it is a difficult task but as Hans Rosling optimistically states in his video “The seemingly impossible is possible”.
To move to sustainable development, decision-makers need information. They need information about where they are at the moment. . . information on developing trends and pressure points . . . information about the impacts or effects of interventions or policies put into place. They need feedback on which adjustments to make to speed up or slow down the effects of their interventions. They need information about milestones achieved or about failures that frustrate progress.

Indicators of Sustainable Development (ISD) Progress from Theory to Practice Copyright 1997 United Nations.

MDGs and Sustainable Development

Han’s Rosling made an good point in regards to Africa, people need to look back to where Africa was in the last century and consider where they are now. Proper measuring tools can indicate what has happened in the past and what needs to be done to ensure improvements for the future.

Globalization and Collaborative and Social Networking Technologies

Openness is a form of transparency describing ways companies network, share, and encourage external resources and not rely solely on their internal resources. Being open promotes trust from customers. For example, airline companies like Jet Blue and American Airlines always promote their airline fares and deals. While many of Jet Blue’s fare are higher than American Airline, they are open about it and typically promise customer enhanced quality services. In any case, by Jet Blue and American Airlines being honest and open about their services and prices, customers trust and loyalty are greatly enhanced.

Peering refers to a group of people collaborating openly to drive innovative and growth in their choice of interest(s). Currently, in my database course through blackboard, the professor requires student to complete and present a term project and a final project. Professor posted term papers and final projects examples from her previous course and she always requires that we post our individual papers and project on blackboard for everyone’s viewing pleasure. While some Professors may believe this give student the competitive advantage, the Professor believe it will enhance future projects and papers and create innovative ideas.

Sharing refers to ability to access another persons resources and/or innovations. Sharing involves open collaboration of shared intellectual properties. A major issue with sharing information is avoiding copyright infringements and not breaking the copyright law. An example of sharing is the Clinical Skills Online(CSO) project, which was developed by the Educational Technology Unit in London. CSO provides online videos demonstrating core clinical skills common to a variety of medical and health-baded courses in Higher Education. The videos are available for free to anyone to use for educational, personal, and non commercial purposes. Licensed under Creative Commons, a non for profit organization devoted to expanding the amount of creative work available for others to legally build upon and share, CSO is relatively important for those who cannot access such information and education otherwise.

I believe acting globally means bridging the gaps between nations for the purpose of providing economic growth and enabling global interdependence. I have seen such acts when I book a flight or hotel and I call the service centers and the person I am speaking to is located in another country. Companies that are based in the US may have outsourced sectors of their business in other countries. Both counties are benefiting from one other is some way, shape, or form. I believe these four collaborative technologies address some of the global issues and is an excellent initiative towards the global issues but we can build on these technologies and come up with more creative ways to ensure that such global issues can be sustained or even eradicated.

Reference:
[1] Tapscptt, D., & Williams, A. D. (2006). Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York: Penguin Group.

Role of ICT in Building Sustainable Development

Information Communication Technology (ICT) can very well accelerate and promote sustainable development. With adequate systems and reliable partner to manage these systems, ICT can make a major impact on sustainable development and the growth of many countries. Many leaders are recognizing the benefits of ICT.

In Lebanon, the knowledge networks project is an effort to introduce technological tools to women in rural Lebanon through the establishment of access points, or call centers equipped with computer and technology. A unique training system development by the Center for Research and Training of Development-Action (CRTDA) aims to ensure the sustainability of the project. Abou-Habib, executive director of the CRTDA states that “ICT is a powerful tool, used well; it can be an economic option; a vehicle for learning; a force multiplier and a way to move virtually beyond restrictions”.

In the Ugu region of South Africa, ICT has been identified as an important part government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA). They believe that ICT provides the means for economic growth and development which can also facilitate the sharing of this growth. Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin is pushing for affordable broadband access to be accessible to all South Africans and not only the privileged so they everyone can participate in the growth of the country. He states “This growth, if not shared by all South Africans, is meaningless”. The development of ICT sectors in the Ugu will also impact on the agriculture and tourism, which are currently the key industries for growth and development in the Ugu region.

Reference(s):

[1] Crile, Suzan. “Knowledge Networks project uses ICT to empower Women” Lebabon – Daily News. November 11, 2007
<http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=86695>

[2] Masango, David. “South Africa: ICT Key for Economic Growth, Development” BuaNews (Tshwane) October 23, 2007
<http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=86695>

Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP)

"There is great diversity among our group, but we know that we will be more effective when we work together. We do not endeavour to reach absolute agreement on detailed policy, but we want to pressure governments to eradicate poverty, dramatically lessen inequality, and achieve the Millennium Development Goals."[2]

The demands:

• Public accountability, just governance and the fulfillment of human rights

• Trade justice

• A major increase in the quantity and quality of aid and financing for development

• Debt cancellation

• Gender equality

The campaign demands that gender equality be recognized as a central issue for poverty eradication. The campaign further demands that upholding the rights of children, youth, women and other excluded groups, as well as ensuring their equal participation, be recognised as fundamental to the achievement of these goals.

POVERTY AND HUNGER FACTS

• Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day with nearly half the world’s population (2.8 billion) living on less than $2 a day.

• From 1990 to 2002, in sub-Saharan Africa, although the poverty rate declined marginally, the number of people living in extreme poverty increased by 140 million.

• More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day... 300 million are children. Of these 300 million children, only eight percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micro nutrient deficiency.

• Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation and the large majority are children under the age of 5.

• An estimated 824 million people in the developing world were affected by chronic hunger in 2003.

• In the early 1990s, the number of hungry people in Eastern Asia declined, but again it is on the rise.

• Every hour more than 1,200 children die away from the glare of media attention. This is equivalent to three tsunamis a month, every month. The overwhelming majority can be traced to a single pathology : poverty.

• In 2001–03, FAO estimates there were still 854 million undernourished people worldwide: 820 million in the developing countries, 25 million in the transition countries and 9 million in the industrialized countries.

• Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.

Reference(s):

[1]http://www.whiteband.org/about-gcap/what-is-gcap
[2]GCAP - Wikipedia
[3]http://www.whiteband.org/resources/issues/did-you-know

December 1st - World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005, of which more than half a million (570,000) were children.

The concept of a World AIDS Day initiated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.

World AIDS day Themes Since 1998
1988 - Communication

1989 - Youth

1990 - Woman and AIDS

1991 - Sharing the Challenge

1992 - Community Commitment

1993 - Act

1994 - AIDS and the Family

1995 - Shared Rights, Shared Responsibilities

1996 - One World. One Hope

1997 - Children Living in a World with AIDS

1998 - Force for Change: World AIDS Campaign With Young People

1999 - Listen, Learn, Live: World AIDS Campaign with Children & Young People

2000 - AIDS: Men Make a Difference

2001 - I care. Do you?

2002 - Stigma and Discrimination

2003 - Stigma and Discrimination

2004 - Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS

2005 - Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise

2006 - Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise - Accountability

2007 - Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise - Leadership



A 67 m long "condom" on the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of an awareness campaign for the 2005 World AIDS Day


ABC of HIV


HIV/AIDS FACTS

-Everyday HIV/AIDS kills 6,000 people and another 8,200 people are infected with this deadly virus.

-TB is the leading AIDS-related killer and in some parts of Africa, 75 percent of people with HIV also have TB.

-In 2005, more than 2 million children aged 14 years or younger were living with HIV.

-By 2005, nearly half of the 39 million people living with HIV were women.

-UNICEF predicts that the number of children who have lost one or both parents due to AIDS will rise to 15.7 million by 2010.

-By the end of 2005, 12million children across sub-Saharan Africa had been orphaned by AIDS.

-Globally, as of 2005, an estimated 15.2 million children under 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS; about 80 per cent of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa.

-In South Africa, the country with the largest number of orphans due to AIDS, more than 7.1 million children under 14 living in poverty were benefiting from a government child support grant by April 2006.

-In 2005, a total of US$ 8.3 billion was estimated to be available for AIDS funding; this figure is estimated to rise to US$ 8.9 billion in 2006 and US$ 10 billion in 2007. But it falls short of what is needed -- US$ 14.9 billion in 2006, US$ 18.1 billion in 2007 and US$ 22.1 billion in 2008.

-The number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment in low and middle income countries has tripled since the end of 2001.

-The number of children orphaned by AIDS has risen, from one million in 1990 to 15 million today; by 2010, the number could exceed 25 million.

-Every minute that passes another child under 15 dies of an AIDS-related illness and another four young people aged 15–24 become infected with HIV. (Children, the missing face of AIDS - UNAIDS- UNICEF- 2005).

-Each day, 1,800 children become infected with HIV, the vast majority of whom are newborns.

-Through the expanded provision of antiretroviral treatment an estimated two million life years were gained since 2002 in low- and middle-income countries.

Reference(s):
[1]http://www.kdkfactory.com/abcofhiv.htm
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_AIDS_Day
[3]http://www.whiteband.org/resources/issues/did-you-know

Recommendation List:

The eight UN Millennium goals are: (1) Eradicate extreme poverty. (2)Achieve universal primary education. (3) Promote gender equality and empower women. (4) Reduce child mortality. (5)Improve maternal health (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (7) Ensure environmental sustainability. (8) Develop a global partnership for development. The government promised that these goals will be accomplished by 2015. The governments face many difficulties and obstacles that may hinder accomplishing these goals by 2015. Below is a list of recommendations that should be taken into consideration:

MDG, Global Issues

1.UN Volunteers - Access to services and service delivery for disadvantaged groups and communities is identified as the first of three areas of distinctive contribution that UNV makes to development. UNVs strengthen the functioning of volunteer-involving organizations to ensure that they represent the interest of local stakeholders, provide information to communities, and encourage the sharing of knowledge. The use of UNVs creates a greater understanding of local needs and effective delivery processes as well as facilitating dialogue and coordination between institutions. In addition, the use of national volunteers improves long-term sustainability, as they can better integrate into the community and the capacity developed remains within the country. For example, in Ethiopia, national UN Volunteers with expertise in water and environment, nutrition, and education are also contributing to enhancing involvement of communities in development planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of progress.[3]


2. Engaging Partners –Experience has also demonstrated the importance of effectively engaging the civil society and the private sector in planning, implementation and maintenance. In Guatemala, community organized groups enhance women's participation and facilitate the establishment of a community's group administration and maintenance of the systems that are provided.[3]

3. Reduce Governmental Corruption­ – This never ending issue of government corruption is one of the main reasons why the 8 goals may be delayed. It affects many sectors of the goals especially when it comes to the economy and it is a road block when trying to sustain development in underdeveloped countries. Citizens must be educated, empowered, and equality must be enforced in order to eradicate or minimize government corruption.


Sustainable Development

4. Use remote sensing technology and communication networks to ensure effective
monitoring and resource management, mitigation, and environmental risk. [6]

5.Facilitate knowledge exchange and networking among policymakers, practitioners, and advocacy groups. [6]

6. Leaders to manage systems – Powerful world leaders, politicians, teachers, business people, must get involved in the management of systems that will in the end build economy, provide accountable services, and aid in sustaining all system in underdeveloped countries. These leaders should be recognized as “Reliable Partners”

7. Educate community – Educate the community on how to use these systems or the minor sectors of such systems. This can promote employment and also allow to citizen to be involved in business functions that will ultimately give them the potential to start their own businesses.


Globalization/Collaborative and Social Networking Activities
8. Increase access to reproductive health information including information on HIV/AIDS prevention and make it available in all languages. [6]

Role of ICT in building Sustainable Development.

9. Use of E- government/governance to not only inform citizens of services provided and information on the world, but to promote relationships between citizens and government.

10. Increase monitoring/tracking on disease and famine. [5]

11. Deliver educational and literacy programs specially targeted to poor people using special technologies. [6]

12. Increase supply of trained teachers through ICT-enhanced and distance training of teachers and networks that link teachers to their colleges. Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education ministries and related bodies through strategic applications of technology and ICT-enabled skilled development. [6]

13. Increase access to market information and reduce transaction costs for poor farmers and traders. [6]

Your Role

14. Make a Personal Commitment - In the end, however, it comes back to us, as individuals. Individuals, working in one-accord, form and shape societies. Social commitments are commitments of individuals. Great social forces, Robert F. Kennedy once stated: "Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence . . . . Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."[2]

15. Join the campaign to end Poverty 2015 – The millennium goals may not be achieved if everyone does not play a role. We can write letters, start petitions, and reach out to any government to remind them that we expect them to deliver what they promised, which is that the eight millennium goals will be accomplished by 2015. Everyone’s voice counts.[4]

16. Promote Sustainable Development - While targeted investments in health, education, and infrastructure can unlock the trap of extreme poverty, the continuing environmental degradation at local, regional and planetary scales threatens the long-term sustainability of all our social gains. Ending extreme poverty can relieve many of the pressures on the environment. When impoverished households are more productive on their farms, they face less pressure to cut down neighboring forests in search of new farmland. When their children survive with high probability, they have less incentive to maintain very high fertility rates with the attendant downside of rapid population growth. Still, even as extreme poverty ends, the environmental degradation related to industrial pollution and the long-term climate change associated with massive use of fossil fuels will have to be addressed. There are ways to confront these environmental challenges without destroying prosperity (for example, by building smarter power plants that capture and dispose of their carbon emissions and by increasing use of renewable energy sources). As we invest in ending extreme poverty, we must face the ongoing challenge of investing in the global sustainability of the world’s ecosystems. [1]

References:
[1]http://www.undp.org.my/uploads/files/Strategies_basic_services_rural_


[2]http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=16311

[3] http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/


[4] http://endpoverty2015.org/about
[5] Tongia, R., Subrahmanian, E., Arunachalam, V., Information and Communications Technology for Sustainable Development Defining a Global Research Agenda, (2005), Chapter 1, Allied Publishers, Bangalore found at:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rtongia/ICT4SD_Ch_1--Introduction--Sustainable_Development_&_ICT.pdf

[6] Tongia, R., Subrahmanian, E., Arunachalam, V., Information and Communications Technology for Sustainable Development Defining a Global Research Agenda, (2005), Chapter 2, Allied Publishers, Bangalore found at:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rtongia/ICT4SD_Ch_2--ICT.pdf

Some Notes on Collaboration

A few months ago Sandor P. Schuman, Research Associate of the Center for Policy Research, University at Albany, SUNY, and President of Executive Decision Services LLC, came to the organization that I work for and conducted a training about collaboration based on the book he edited “Creating a Culture of Collaboration: The International Association of Facilitators Handbook” (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2006). I will share some of the notes that were taken that day:

Collaboration is becoming more popular due to the fact that there are many changes happening in strategy in order to fulfill the requirements needed to accommodate this diverse, interdependent, and complicated world we live in today. Collaboration is being seen as the way to address problems, add value, and achieve desired outcomes in some of the most industries such as business, science, recreation, healthcare, social work, engineering, and governance.

Relationships are important, they provide social context in which we exchange information and make decisions and choices. Mr. Schuman stated that “Through our relationships, the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of each individual have the potential to contribute to greater shared meaning and choices that provide greater mutual benefits”. I agree with his statement, as the old saying goes “Two heads are better than one”, and in this ever changing world we live in, collaboration is necessary to tackle each issue that may arise and make it a better place to live in.

Mr. Schuman also emphasized the importance of making choices and decisions but in order to participate in decision making it is extremely important to have pertinent information. He states “A choice without information is hardly a choice at all”. This reiterates the importance of collaborative tools such as e-government.

Adapted from “A model for interdisciplinary collaboration” by Laura R. Bronstein. Social Work, (2003)48 (3), 297-306

Collective Ownership of goals refers to shared responsibility in the entire process of reaching goals which may include designing, defining, developing, and achieving goals.

Interdependence refers to the occurrence of and reliance on interactions among individuals where all are dependent on the others to accomplish their goals and tasks. – Working in a Quality Assurance dept in my organization, my position is always dependent on the quality of work produced by the staff.

Flexibility refers to the deliberate occurrence of role blurring. A characteristic of flexibility is the ability to reach productive compromises when faced with adversity and/or the alteration of your role. In my organization, some people are willing to embark in tasks that are outside of the job description to support collaborative problem solving.

Collaborative activities refer to acts, programs, and structures that amount to more than what is expected when the same individuals act independently which ultimately increases the expertise of each collaborator.

Reflection on process refers to collaborators’ attention to their process of working together.For example, Are individuals talking to each other about processes that need to occur to complete a task? Are individuals building relationships around processes?

This course and the training that was conducted have opened up my eyes to the new ways of collaboration. I will definitely invest in the book “Creating a Culture of Collaboration: The International Association of Facilitators Handbook” to obtain a even broader understanding of this new technique of working in a collaborative manner. I expect it to be a good read :)

Reference(s):

Schuman, Sandor P. (2007, July).Creating a Culture of Collaboration/ Strengthening Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Training conducted at Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families, New York, NY

E-Government

Each day it is becoming more apparent that information is very important towards the goal of advancing and developing the world. It is even more important that such information is made accessible to all citizens. The term E-government (electronic government) refers to the adoption of e-business (electronic business) practices in the government with the use of Information Technology. To make pertinent information available to the citizens across the world is extremely important, it increases empowerment through information, more accurate analysis can be made, more data driven decision are made, many lives can be saved by building awareness about health, AIDS and HIV, and education can be obtained in countries where there is a lack of teachers.

It can be said that the vision of E-government is a means of engaging and enforcing citizens to become more responsive, efficient, and to build a more accountable government. Some of the major goals of E-government include satisfying customer service expectation, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of governmental operations; provide effective access to information, and increasing government participation. In July 2002, President George W. Bush stated in a presidential memo to the Executive Heads of Departments and Agencies, “Effective implementation of E-government is important in making the government more responsive and cost effective”. Since then, there has been an increasingly amount of government generated information systems that are available directly through the Internet. Information Technology is being used exponentially to deliver government services in many ways such as; assisted citizens service centers, call centers, automated self services stands, digital television, mobile portals, and web portals.

Web portals are widely used to access government information. Web portals are multi-functional information systems which provide a single point access to relevant information services via the Internet. Such Web portals promote administrative reform as well as the elimination of corruption across the world. For example, “U.S. Consumer Gateway” portal was created by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the FTC continues to maintain it with the participation of many other governmental agencies. The site is designed to ensure that users can locate government consumer-related information by different categories such as food, health, product safety, money, transportation, and so on. Each category has further subcategories to direct users to areas within individual federal websites containing related information. For instance, the product safety category includes links to product information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, and the FTC, among others. More information about U.S. Consumer Gateway can be found at http://www.consumer.gov/. The Cape Gateway Portal in South Africa provides information about all government department services via the Internet. Information such as health, housing, licensing, transportation, and education are made available. The Cape Gateway portal provides easy access to government information, resources, and services that were not accessible prior to the implementation of this portal. Also in South Africa is the Judicial Inspector of Prisons Online Report System (JIP). JIP uses an online system for reporting on prison issues such as the treatment of prisoners and their living conditions. Due to the fact that Africa’s prisons are extremely overcrowded, this system can help to quality control certain issues that may arise. Through independent prison visitors that visit and interview prisoners, information is collected and monthly reports can be generated through analysis and made available to the public. Besides increasing empowerment of people and efficiency, this system can track and monitor if people are being treated humanly and justly.

E-government is not a tool that is limited to the more privileged countries, in fact some of the most developing countries of the world, where accessible, are taking advantage of E-government. More than ever, Information Communication Technologies (ICT’s) are being used to build awareness, empowerment through information, educate people where physicals teachers cannot, and to render efficient customer service. The results of E-government should be an improvement in business practices, a more streamline government, and a more knowledgeable and sophisticated public.

Reference(s):

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020710-6.html
http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan023997.pdf
http://www.worldbank.org/