E-government adoption and synthesis in Zambia : context, issues and challenges

Ph.D.Electronic government (e-Government), implemented towards transformation of public service delivery, aims to contribute to effective information management practices between the government and citizens and/or businesses. E-Government is not a panacea to problems associated with government service delivery and issues such as corruption, but it may go a long way in mitigating its existence in the public service delivery value chains. Many studies have documented the benefits associated with successful implementation of e-Government initiatives: it facilitates interactive, vertical, collaborative and participatory engagement of citizens, businesses and other governments, reducing the cost of service delivery; encourages global participation of citizens in the decision-making processes; provides an opportunity for governments to rethink and reformulate their administrative praxis and provides a framework where governments continuously re-engineer their business processes to retain currency and relevance to best practice. E-Government may further be utilised to mitigate corruption levels in the public sector. For example, the introduction of e-Procurement and e-Tendering can greatly reduce corruption in tendering processes. Zambia has started putting in place initiatives to aid e-Government implementation in the public delivery frameworks. Despite this being the case, there are no strategic initiatives to propagate e-Government. The motivation for this study stems from the fact that, apart from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) global e- Government assessments (at macro or global levels), little has been done to assess e- Government interventions and development in Zambia at the community, household, and individual level (that is, at micro levels). This being the case, factors to embed into the development of strategic initiatives for e-Government development in Zambia may not come from the present state of affairs on the ground. The UNDESA and other generic e- Government assessment models mostly assess e-Government readiness considering global metrics; in general, assessment is approached at a national level rather than at the micro level (such as a public organisation, community or individual level). With such generic e- Government assessment frameworks, the role of the private sector and other potential consumers of e-Government (such as citizens) is sometimes overlooked