New Technologies for Public Sector Transformation

This paper analyzes current e-government trends in Latin America and the Caribbean and discusses the challenges and opportunities of using new technologies as a tool to transform the public sector, enhance democratic governance, and prepare countries to compete in the networked, knowledge-intensive and fast-paced global economy. Among key findings, the region is falling behind others in government readiness and usage. Despite outstanding exceptions, e-government initiatives throughout the region have focused on front-end service transactions but little on process innovation and institutional transformation. This paper discusses the key policy challenges to progress. It points out that e-government is essentially a political, not a technical project. Recognizing the political and institutional change nature of e-government provides the key to moving e-government beyond ‘window dressing’ and towards realizing the transformational potential of ICTs for governance and public service performance. The paper suggests key measures to harness this potential for public sector reform, including informed and committed leadership, national consensus on ICT-enabled reforms, incentives for sustained institutional change and process innovation, ICT governance and institutional framework for interagency coordination, public-private partnership, and linking vision to implementation mechanisms, multi-year investment plans, and continuous monitoring and evaluation.