Measuring e-government: key policy instrument for information society development

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which leads the Task Group on e-Government, recently developed a framework document and a manual to support country efforts in producing high-quality and internationally comparable e-government statistics by providing a set of indicators and associated standards. This policy brief is based on the manual. It recognizes the series of challenges that African countries face in implementing the indicators and encourages African governments to adopt the set of e-government indicators on the view that they provide the basis for assessing their status compared to other economies and enable them to identify gaps in the undertaking of appropriate policy measures are aimed at contributing to improvements in public service delivery to their citizens. The challenges can be surmounted if there is political and widespread recognition of the contributions better measurement can make towards improving decision–making and the development of sound e-government strategies and plans with potential benefits to citizens.