E-GOVERNMENT and PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS for Better Public Service Delivery and MDGs Implementation
 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
21 May 2009, 9:00 - 17:30
ITU Headquarters, Room B2

Draft Agenda

• Background

  Currently, e-government initiatives in developing countries are constrained by a lack of financial resources, a low level of skills and capacity within governments, and the absence of incentive structures for rewarding performance. Yet e-government can contribute significantly to the process of the transformation of a government towards a leaner, more cost-effective government. It can facilitate communication and improve the coordination of authorities at different tiers of government, within organizations and even at the departmental level. Furthermore, e-government can enhance the speed and efficiency of operations by streamlining processes, lowering costs, improving research capabilities and improving documentation and record-keeping. However, the real benefit of e-government lies not in the use of technology per se, but in its application to the processes of transformation. Against this background, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in e-government can help overcome many of these constraints, while at the same time increasing opportunities for the private sector.  

  A public-private partnership is a collaborative effort whereby the public sector of a state uses its influence on the private sector in order to form a partnership to achieve some economic and developmental goals. At the United Nations World Summit in 2005, leaders outlined a vision for a people-centered and inclusive information society, putting the potential of information and communication technologies at the service of development and addressing the new challenges of the information society. The onus to come up with new initiatives for Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-led development, which ensure that everybody, regardless of their socio-economic background has an equitable playing field, lies collectively on national governments, the private sector and the civil society, on the one hand, and on international organizations and the donor community on the other hand.

  PPPs are complex in both their execution and in the issues they raise, especially because they are in many cases an alternative way to obtaining goods, services, expertise and capacity building that might otherwise be acquired through traditional procurement processes. PPPs raise critical issues not only of implementation but also of legal frameworks, concordance with procurement rules and anti-corruption efforts, principles of selection (including the relative priority given to local and international partners), and methods for assessing public costs and benefits in both the short and long term. E-government projects, in short, themselves raise governance issues that must be thoughtfully addressed.

  An important mission of the United Nations is to support consensus-building and the efforts of Member States to build effective ICT strategies and programmes to achieve their development goals, in general, and to enhance and support citizen inclusion and empowerment, in particular.

  What is most needed for practitioners in developing countries is a starting point for addressing these opportunities and challenges -- where to begin when it comes to PPPs in e-government, and what experiences may be most relevant for particular circumstances and needs. A study has been recently commissioned by infoDev on the potential for, and constraints to, the implementation of PPPs for e-government initiatives in developing countries that is directed towards developing a knowledge map, training material and a toolkit on e-government.

  There is a need for government officials, the civil society and the private sector in developed and developing countries to address the opportunities and challenges of PPPs in e-government and to derive experiences and best practices that can be drawn upon to address particular circumstances and needs.

  Towards this effort, UNDESA and ITU will organize a multi-stakeholder Expert Group Meeting on ‘E-Government and Public Private Partnerships for Better Public Service Delivery and MDGs Implementation’. The Meeting will review and analyze approaches and best practices in understanding what constitutes e-government and PPPs and how to characterize e-government and PPPs in countries worldwide in order to assess the issues and challenges countries face as they advance in developing their e-government programmes for an accelerated e-service delivery, as well as to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Meeting will focus on the transfer and exchange of ideas from multi-stakeholders to further discussions on e-government and PPPs, as well as address issues of e-service delivery within the ambit of e-government. This Meeting will provide an opportunity to bring together a multidisciplinary international group to further evolve the holistic framework for the assessments of e-government and PPPs worldwide.

   

• Objectives

  The  goal of the Meeting is to further the thinking of the United Nations and multistakeholders on how e-government  and PPPs could accelerate and underpin public service delivery and contribute to up scaling MDGs implementation.. The Meeting will explore and identify issues and challenges facing both governments, citizens and the private sector in their quest towards achieving MDGs..   

  The Meeting is expected to identify the major issues and trends in e-government and PPPs towards effective and efficient public service delivery and revamping MDGs implementation by reviewing existing approaches worldwide and analyzing the structural and process changes associated with PPPs and e-government development. The experts will present papers on the themes outlined above, as well as participate in the discussions at the Meeting. 

  The Meeting has the following objectives:

• review current research, including concepts and approaches of e-governance and PPPs for better public service and MDGs implementation;

• assess existing  e-governance/PPPs endeavours for better public service and MDGs implementation in various regions  and countries;

• explore the challenges and barriers to effective public service delivery for the citizens and MDGs implementation from a governmental and private sector  perspective;

• map innovative approaches, best  practices and lessons leaned of e-governance/PPPs engagement for better public service and MDGs implementation  and  explore reasons for their success and failure.   

•  Output

The Meeting papers and discussions will lead to a publication on the way forward for e-government and Public Private Partnerships which would transform and accelerate public service delivery towards scaling up MDGs implementation.

•  Proposed programme

The two-day Meeting on ‘E-Government and Public Private Partnerships for Better Public Service Delivery and MDGs Implementation’ will commence on Thursday, 21 May 2009. The agenda will include the plenary and four thematic sessions over the two days on selected topics on e-government and PPPs. Each session will include presentations followed by general discussions. Thematic areas for presentation include the following:

The last session on Day 2, Friday, 22 May, will be dedicated to a two-hour brainstorming session by experts and participants on the above thematic areas in order to identify key issues and recommendations for follow-up to the United Nations agenda on e-government and PPPs and to discuss recommendations and solutions for utilizing e-government and PPPs to improve the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions towards up-scaling MDGs implementation.

Participants

Participants at the Meeting will include senior policy makers, experts on e-government initiatives and representatives from academia, the private sector and international organizations.  

Organization and management

The Meeting will be conducted in English. All documents and papers presented at the Meeting will subsequently be posted at: http://www.unpan.org

Venue

The Meeting will be held in Room A, International Telecommunication Union, Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Geneva, Switzerland from 21 to 22 May 2009.

Draft Agenda

Meeting Documents

 

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