Overview
The results on the level of online availability of public citizen services in different economies are presented here. The "e-Citizen" services selected are based on the list proposed by the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development.[1] Ten services are identified in that framework (Table 1).
Table 1: Internet-based services for citizens
Service
| |
1
|
Enroll for the first time in Government elections
|
2
|
Complete and lodge personal income tax return
|
3
|
Obtain unemployment benefits
|
4
|
Obtain child allowance
|
5
|
Renew an international passport
|
6
|
Renew a driver’s license
|
7
|
Make an official declaration of theft to the relevant police
|
8
|
Obtain a copy of a birth certificate
|
9
|
Obtain a copy of a marriage certificate
|
10
|
Register a motor vehicle
|
Source: Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development.
Within each of those services, there are different levels of online availability (Table 2).
Table 2: Levels of online availability
Service level
|
Comment
|
Not Relevant
|
Service not relevant because:
1) it does not exist as a government program or service (e.g., countries that do not offer unemployment benefits or where there is no individual income tax) or 2) it does not require online access (e.g., automatic entry into electoral rolls or lifetime driver license). |
Level 0
(Not Available) |
The service exists but there is no information about it online, such as steps on how to carry it out even when it is a manual process
|
Level 1
|
Obtain the information from a publicly available website
|
Level 2
|
Request printed forms or download forms from publicly accessible website
|
Level 3
|
Fill in forms online
|
Level 4
|
Undertake the complete process via a website
|
Source: Adapted from Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development.
Quantifying the online availability of services presents challenges both with the services themselves and the level of sophistication. This impacts their relevance for international comparisons. The availability and relevance of different public services depends on the social and economic context of countries. There are services that do not exist in some countries. For example not all countries provide social assistance in the form of unemployment or child allowances. Other countries have no individual income tax.
Another issue is that security and other concerns sometimes inhibit the ability to provide fully enabled online services. This impacts the definition of what qualifies as a fully online service. Some services require a final visit to a government office for security or medical reasons (e.g., fingerprints or eye test). Some services also result in a hard copy product in the form of document such as a passport or driving license. It is rare that a copy made on a citizen’s printer would suffice.[2] In those cases, should a service be considered fully enabled if the citizen is sent the document by post since it does not require a visit to a government office? If the user has to go to a government office to physically retrieve the document does this not qualify as fully online enabled?
There are also issues with identifying levels of availability in regards to government forms. There are cases where forms are available online but with a warning that it is only a facsimile and the actual form must still be retrieved from a government office. The online availability level is not clear when comparing a form completed on screen but which must still be printed and dispatched to a downloaded PDF form but which is interactive.
The relevance of services varies across countries. The list proposed by the partnership is quite similar to the citizen services used to monitor e-government availability in the European Union.[3] As such they have a Eurocentric orientation. Specific issues with the proposed services include:
· Voting. The relevance of voter registration is doubtful for countries where there are no regular municipal, provincial or national elections. In some countries, citizens are entered into civil registries based on their address and there is no implicit requirement to register to vote. In other countries, the national ID card serves as voter identification without prior need to register.[4] Thus the online availability of obtaining or renewing national identification documents could be a relevant service to consider.
· Income tax. Where the filing of income taxes is available online, it tends to have a high level of being fully electronically enabled. Governments want to ensure that they receive revenues as efficiently as possible. Individual income taxes are not applicable in all countries (e.g., Bahrain, Qatar).[5] There are also different levels of taxation in some countries (federal, provincial, local). This analysis assumes federal. Note that some countries allow the use of specialized third party software, which automatically files tax returns with the relevant authorities.
· Social assistance (unemployment and child allowance). The relevance of social assistance programs varies widely according to social and economic systems. Social assistance for the specified services is not widely prevalent in developing countries. When social assistance is available for children, there are varying schemes (poor families, newborn children, assistance during maternity/paternity, child care support, etc.) or treatment through the income tax system (e.g., deductions). These services are interpreted as being relevant when they apply to the entire universe (e.g., all unemployed and all parents with children).
· Passport. Hardly any countries offer fully online enabled passport services due to security concerns and full completion of the service typically requires at least one visit to a government office. Relevance is uncertain particularly in many developing countries where only a small proportion of the population travels abroad. As noted earlier, the national ID card may be a more relevant service. On the other hand citizens that go abroad from some developing countries may have a significant economic impact in terms of remittances even if they only account for a small share of the population.
· Police report. The ability to report a theft online is rare since a crime usually requires the presence of police after it occurs. If a nation’s (or relevant provincial or local) police force has a website listing numbers to call, this is accepted as providing basic info online. Some police departments go further indicating the procedure to follow in case of theft. Few economies have implemented a fully online theft reporting system. One exception is Singapore where crimes can be reported online through the Electronic Police Centre (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Singapore Electronic Police Centre
· Civil documents (birth and marriage). Requesting copies of documents such as birth or marriage certificates is one of the most straightforward and comparable services. These should be possible to complete entirely online since there are less security implications. Nonetheless there is a range of online availability; in countries where these are not fully enabled it is often due to payment issues or a lack of digitization in the back end.
· Motor vehicle (driving license and vehicle registration renewals). These are services that are relevant to every country. However their relative impact varies tremendously. Take Bahrain where there are 54 vehicles per 100 inhabitants compared to Bangladesh where there is less than one.[6] Another issue is that there are other vehicle related services that may be more popular such as paying traffic violations. Driving license renewals can also be problematic in that some countries issue them for a lengthy period of time whereas others require periodic renewals including the need for a personal visit upon expiry for eye examinations or other reasons.
The relevance of public services varies from country to country. Take Qatar where the most popular online government service is paying for traffic violations (Table 3). Only one of the proposed public services (driver’s license) appears as a popular e-Government service in Qatar whereas others such as traffic violations, paying utility bills and renewing visas, health cards and residence permits are not considered in the framework used in this document.
Table 3: e-Government Services Used in the Past 12 Months for Non-Work-Related Purposes by Individuals in Qatar, 2010
Service
|
% of Individuals using e-Government Services
|
Settling traffic violations
|
68%
|
Paying utility bills online
|
49%
|
Applying for or renewing visas
|
27%
|
Applying for or renewing a health card
|
25%
|
Applying for a new residence permit, or renewing or cancelling an existing residence permit
|
17%
|
Applying for a driver’s license and viewing application status
|
10%
|
Source: Households and Individuals Survey (Qatar, 2010), n=336.
Despite definitional, methodological and relevancy issues, the proposed services are generally those that governments in all countries provide. Some services that are considered public in certain countries such as weather information or utility bill payment are handled by the private sector in other countries. Although there could be a wider sector inclusion in the services selected (e.g., health, education), this is affected by the mixed mode of provision in many countries. It is assumed that availability of the Partnership services is likely a proxy for overall availability of other services. Nevertheless, one area that is not represented and is quite popular in many countries is property related transactions. This would include services such as checking, adding or revising land and building titles. Some citizen portals list the most popular or accessed services. This can also provide an idea of what services might be relevant.
It is instructive to analyze the potential impact of different e-Citizen services in terms of considering relevancy. For example, what is the number of potential citizens that might use each service? In Singapore only one percent of the resident population would need to file a theft report whereas over half file tax returns and over 90 percent could theoretically request a birth certificate (Table 3).
Table 4: Potential users of different e-Citizen services, Singapore
Service
|
Population impacted (000s)
|
Percent of residents
|
Comment
| |
1
|
Enroll for the first time in Government elections
|
Name normally entered into the register of electors based on the national ID card so no need to enroll. There were 2.2 million voters in the last election. Voting is mandatory.
| ||
2
|
Complete and lodge personal income tax return
|
1,652
|
53%
|
Number of individual tax returns. Of those required to file, 80% are done online.
|
3
|
Obtain unemployment benefits
|
53
|
2%
|
Figure refers to September 2011 unemployment. Source: Ministry of Manpower, “EMPLOYMENT SITUATION IN THIRD QUARTER 2011.”
|
4
|
Obtain child allowance
|
Only relevant for needy families
| ||
5
|
Renew an international passport
|
657
|
21%
|
The number of Singaporeans that have a passport is not known. The figure shown is the number of passports issued in 2010.
|
6
|
Renew a driver’s license
|
No renewal of a driving license is required. The driving license is valid to age 65 after which a medical examination is required every three years.
| ||
7
|
Make an official declaration of theft to the relevant police
|
20
|
1%
|
Figure refers to the number of “Theft & related crimes” in 2010. Source: Singapore Police Force, “Crime Situation for 2010”
|
8
|
Obtain a copy of a birth certificate
|
2,912
|
94%
|
Figure refers to those born in Singapore. Source: Census of population 2010.
|
9
|
Obtain a copy of a marriage certificate
|
1,948
|
63%
|
Figure refers to married/divorced residents. Source: Census of Population 2010.
|
10
|
Register a motor vehicle
|
584
|
19%
|
Figure refers to motor vehicle population (cars) at December 2010. Source: Monthly Digest of Statistics Singapore.
|
Note: Based on resident population of 15 years and older (2010).
Source: Adapted from those shown in “Comment” and Statistics Singapore.
One factor to consider is that as governments move to reduce hassles for citizens, streamline processing and increase interoperability, there is less need for citizens to carry out certain processes. This is particularly relevant when there are national identification schemes and sharing of citizen information across the government. For example a number of countries do not require voter registration since this is captured from the national identification card and that is used as proof of citizenship in order to vote. Similarly in cases where one document was required to initiate the process for another document, this is no longer the case. Thus procedures that require copies of birth or marriage certificates are no longer necessary since these can be looked up in the national registry.
Three supplementary factors that are not considered separately but which have a bearing on the ability to fully enable citizen services so that all activities can be carried out online without a visit to a government office are:
· Payments: Some services such as passport renewal and birth or driving license renewal have a fee. Therefore the ability to fully carry out the service online requires electronic payment support.
· Postal services: Services that end up with a hard copy output require it to be retrieved or dispatched. Working under the assumption that a fully enabled online service does not require a visit to a government office, then these documents require a sound delivery service.
· Status checking: Some processes take time to complete after they have been initiated online by the citizen. Mechanisms that allow the citizen to check the status of the application or provide alerts via SMS or email can help alleviate concerns that the application may be lost.
Although not considered in the country ranking, the online user interface impacts the citizen’s access to public services. Related to this is the integration of public services that are typically provided by different government agencies. Some countries have created special portals with links to popular e-Citizen services.[7] They vary in functionality, integration and perspective. Some allow virtually all services to be carried out from within the portal whereas others provide a description of the service with links to the appropriate website of the government agency that provides the service. The easiest to use have a citizen perspective, organizing services by categories (e.g., employment, vehicles, etc.) while others presuppose knowledge of government agencies that provide the service. The administrative level of service provision impacts the degree of integration. Some governments provide all services at a federal level (e.g., Singapore) whereas others provide many services at a provincial (e.g., Canada) or even lower level.
Some e-Government performance studies include the availability of multilingual government websites as a criterion. However this should not be ground for negatively impacting a government’s e-Citizen online service provision when there is one predominant national language. In any case, multilingual government sites were available in several countries particularly those with a large number of workers from abroad (e.g., Gulf States) and countries with multiple official languages (e.g., Canada). Accessibility for disabled users is also important and some countries note adherence to national and international accessibility standards on their websites.[8]
Many countries have not achieved fully enabled online completion for most services. Even though they may not have full online capability clearly listing the process required is advantageous for citizens particularly in countries with a tradition of opaqueness and where even obtaining forms has been a hassle.
Methodology
A network of global “citizens” in different countries completed the surveys in January 2012. This network typically has ICT skills superior to the average public. The assumption is that ordinary citizens should be able to locate the various services and determine whether they can be accomplished online. Surveys were reviewed by at least one other person. In case of doubt they were submitted to the relevant e-government agency in the country for review. The link to the relevant web site for carrying out the service, the name of the relevant agency and any relevant comments were captured in the survey.
In cases where provision of some services are decentralized, the national capital local government website is used.
Values were assigned to the level of online availability (Table 5). The total score was summed and divided by the number of relevant entries. Services that were not relevant were not considered. A perfect score where all services were fully enabled would result in an overall figure of one.
Table 5: Values assigned to level of availability
Not Relevant
|
Not considered
|
Level 0
(Not Available) |
0
|
Level 1
|
0.25
|
Level 2
|
0.50
|
Level 3
|
0.75
|
Level 4
|
1.00
|
The example below shows how the index is compiled for the United States where many services are provided at the local level of government. In this case, Washington DC is used as the entry point to e-Citizen services.[9] The underlying data for all economies considered are available on the web.[10]
Table 6: Indicators for e-citizen services in USA (Washington DC)
NR
|
NA
|
Level 1
|
Level 2
|
Level 3
|
Level 4
|
Relevant agency
|
Note
|
URL
|
Score
| ||
1
|
Enroll for the first time in Government elections
|
X
|
DC Board of Elections and Ethics
|
Need written signature
|
0.75
| ||||||
2
|
Complete and lodge personal income tax return*
|
X
|
Office of Tax & Revenue
|
Can also use commercial software packages
|
1
| ||||||
3
|
Obtain unemployment benefits
|
X
|
Department of Employment Services
|
Can have directly deposited to bank account
|
1
| ||||||
4
|
Obtain child allowance
|
X
|
Only for low-income citizens
|
NR
| |||||||
5
|
Renew an international passport
|
X
|
State Department
|
Must send forms by mail
|
0.5
| ||||||
6
|
Renew a driver’s license
|
X
|
Department of Motor Vehicles
|
Some restrictions apply
|
1
| ||||||
7
|
Make an official declaration of theft to the relevant police
|
X
|
Metropolitan
Police Force |
Currently not equipped to process reports of crime via the Internet
|
0.25
| ||||||
8
|
Obtain a copy of a birth certificate
|
X
|
Dep't Health
|
Must print & send by mail or use www.vitalchek.com
|
1
| ||||||
9
|
Obtain a copy of a marriage certificate
|
X
|
Dep't Health
|
1
| |||||||
10
|
Register a motor vehicle
|
X
|
Department of Motor Vehicles
|
Renewal (in person renewals eliminated)
|
1
|
* Local.
Given the lack of relevance or greater interpretive issues with the voting, taxes and social benefits services, a second index was constructed of the six remaining services.
Demand side indicators
The level of online availability for e-Citizen services cannot be considered in a vacuum. They should also reflect potential reach and actual usage. Incorporating demand side indicators provides a holistic view of e-Citizen service and can help identify whether bottlenecks lay with service availability or user demand. Countries with high e-citizen availability but low Internet usage would focus on boosting Internet penetration whereas countries with high Internet usage but low online service availability might focus on enhancing the latter. Demand side data may also provide insight into the relevance of services that are available online.
Placing services online presupposes there will be citizens with Internet access to be able to use them. While citizen e-service availability reflects the supply-side, the number of people that can use the service reflects the potential demand-side. The logical potential demand indicator would be the percentage of citizens that use the Internet. This metric is compiled from household surveys. Unfortunately many developing countries do not carry out the necessary surveys and the data must be estimated, impacting the reliability of the figure.
A low proportion of citizens using the Internet would tend to discourage the development of online public services. Governments might argue that since so few people use the Internet, it does not make sense to put citizen services online. Nonetheless online services have benefits in terms of transparency and efficiency from reengineering the process flow. Citizens could also be reached through alternative channels such public access centers, mobile phones and “infomediaries” (friends, family, and others helping the citizen to navigate the online public services).
Several of the countries covered have implemented specific public centers and self-service machines for citizens without home Internet access or appropriate digital literacy skills so that they can benefit from online services (Table 5 and Figure 2).
Table 7: e-Citizen public access facilities
Country
|
Public e-service outlet
|
Comment
|
Bahrain
|
eServices Centers and eKiosks
|
15 eServices Centers and 35 eKiosks located throughout the kingdom. The service enables people to access various government services with assistance provided at the eService Centers to help carry out the transactions.
|
Canada
|
ServiceOntario kiosks and centres
|
ServiceOntario kiosks are located in major shopping centres across the province. In addition there are more than 100 Service Centres throughout the province.
|
Singapore
|
CitizenConnect Centre
|
Citizens can go to the one of 27 CitizenConnect centers for free internet access and assistance to use online public services.
|
Figure 2: e-Citizen public access facilities
Another promising delivery outlet is the mobile handset. Government e-services are aimed at users with PC-based Internet access. Yet mobile phones are much more prevalent in developing nations. In Bangladesh, households with a mobile phone outnumber those with a PC by a factor of 21 (Table 8). While this study examines availability of e-Citizen services from government websites, in the future it would be useful to analyze availability of such services from mobile handsets.
Mobile
|
PC
|
Mobile/PC
|
Source
| |
Bangladesh
|
63.7
|
3.0
|
21.2
|
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
|
Brazil
|
84
|
35
|
2.4
|
Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil
|
Canada
|
77.2
|
81.7
|
0.9
| |
Cape Verde
|
75.7
|
20.4
|
3.7
|
Instituto Nacional de EstatÃstica
|
St. Lucia
|
85.1
|
38.6
|
2.2
|
Central Statistics Office
|
Sri Lanka
|
60.1
|
12.5
|
4.8
|
Department of Census and Statistics
|
Individuals using the Internet reflect the potential base for e-Citizen services. However the number of people using electronic public services is the demand side measure since it reflects citizens who are actually accessing e-Citizen services electronically. Some countries compile this as part of Internet user surveys (Table 9). There are several comparability issues. Some countries report e-Government users as a percentage of the total population while others report it as a percentage of Internet users. The latter is preferable since it does not penalize economies for having a low number of Internet users. Terminology about how access is described makes it difficult to understand whether usage refers to any level or just to interaction, impacting comparability. The biggest drawback is that few countries track the percentage of people using e-government services.
Table 9: Population accessing government information and services over the Internet
% of Internet users using gov't services
|
Individuals using gov't services (%)
|
Year
|
Comment (Source)
| |
Australia
|
47
|
35
|
2010-11
|
Accessing government services at home (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
|
Canada
|
65
|
52
|
2010
|
Visiting or interacting with government websites (Statistics Canada)
|
Chile
|
20
|
8
|
2009
|
Online transactions with public institutions (CASEN)
|
Estonia
|
69
|
53
|
2011
|
Interaction with public authorities (Eurostat)
|
France
|
71
|
57
|
2011
|
Interaction with public authorities (Eurostat)
|
Qatar
|
29
|
24
|
2010
|
Used government e-services (ictQATAR)
|
Sweden
|
79
|
74
|
2011
|
Interaction with public authorities (Eurostat)
|
Switzerland
|
71
|
55
|
2010
|
Interaction with public administration (OFS)
|
Turkey
|
43
|
17
|
2011
|
Interaction with public authorities (Eurostat)
|
UAE
|
8
|
6
|
2010
|
Interacting with government agencies (TRA)
|
USA
|
67
|
52
|
2011
|
Visit a government website (Pew Internet and American Life Project Tracking)
|
Ideally breakdowns would be available that would allow mapping of demand side usage to the supply side levels. Data from Canada more or less correspond to the service level framework (Figure 3, left):
1) Accessing information on a government program or service (Level 1);
2) Downloading a form (Level 2)
3) Submitting a completed form (Level 3)
4) Filing personal income tax (Level 4)
The Canadian data also reveal some other online activities citizens carry out with the government but which is not reflected in this study (Figure 3, right). Such activities include:
1) communicating with government officials,
2) voting and
3) participating in online consultations.
Figure 3: Online e-government activities, Canada, 2009
Note: Internet users at home are individuals who answered they used the Internet from home in the past twelve months. Refers to individuals 16 years of age and older.
Source: Statistics Canada.
An alternative to demand side surveys is to use portal administrative data. The collection of such data is quite common across the Gulf States (Table 10). The number of unique visitors could be a proxy for e-government access if most e-service access is via the main government portal.
Table 10: e-Government portal statistics, Gulf States
Bahrain
|
Oman
|
Qatar
|
UAE
|
Saudi Arabia
| |
Portal
| |||||
Date
|
December 2011
|
December 2011
|
2011 (Full year)
|
April 2011
|
December 2011
|
Number of portal visitors
|
…
|
23,932
|
624,383
|
27,053
|
115,035
|
No. of payment transactions
|
14,968
|
8,013
|
…
|
…
|
…
|
Total value of e-Payment transactions
|
1,031,218
|
242,465
|
…
|
…
|
…
|
Number of visits
|
…
|
2,474,480
|
234,862
| ||
Pages viewed
|
825,523
|
…
|
35,697,515
|
111,668
|
…
|
Average time spent per visit
|
8:23
|
…
|
…
|
4:21
|
2m 38s
|
Source: Respective portals.
It is instructive to know how many people are aware of e-government services (Figure 4, top). It is also useful to know the total number of people who use some form of electronic service (Figure 4, bottom). This can be particularly relevant for developing nations where many people do not have easy access or do not use the Internet but could access e-Citizen applications through the help of an intermediary.
Figure 4: e-government awareness and usage, Qatar and Singapore, 2010
e-Citizen benchmark results
Figure 5 shows the level of online accomplishment for each service among the economies analyzed (full results are shown in Table 11). Services that have a high level of full online availability include birth and marriage certificates and filing of individual tax returns. Services with a low level of full online availability include first time voter registration and passport renewal—both activities requiring a high degree of identify verification. Voter registration, social benefits and income tax filing tend to be less relevant compared to the other services.
Figure 5: Number of countries by level of online availability, 2012
Note: Based on 32 economies.
Singapore is top-ranked with every relevant e-Citizen service but one fully enabled (Figure 6).[11] The only exception is unemployment assistance, which must be carried out at the citizen’s Community Development Council. Online services are integrated through the government’s eCitizen portal (www.ecitizen.gov.sg).[12] Singapore Personal Access (Singpass) is a password (used in conjunction with the National Registration Identification Card) that provides secure electronic transactions with the government. MyeCitizen allows users to sign up to receive email or SMS alerts to remind them when government payments or appointments are due. There is also a mobile portal with various mGovernment services available.[13] Over four out of five Singaporean residents transact electronically with the government either on their own or with help.
Brazil scores above average in e-Citizen service availability. Many of the services are carried out at the state level. A number of features facilitate government to citizen interaction. There are citizen portals explaining procedures for services and linking them to online processes (e.g., www.tudofacil.rs.gov.br). Citizens can track progress of online applications. If payments are required, they can usually be made online from the citizen’s bank account. Extensive use is made of online request forms for booking appointments for services that require personal presence.
Figure 6: Six e-Citizen service online availability score, 2012
Incorporating both supply and demand side information into a composite indicator provides a holistic view of e-Citizen service development. This can be interpreted as how close an economy is to making a core set of e-Citizen services fully enabled online and where there is a high level of citizens accessing such services. It is currently only possible to compile this measure for economies that carry out demand side surveys on e-Government use. Figure 7 shows the result of plotting the e-Citizen service score against the percentage of Internet users that access e-Government services. Economies that fall above the trend line are where there is a relatively high level of e-Government demand and where it may be beneficial to adopt measures to increase the number of Internet users. Economies that are below the trend line are where there is a relatively low level of e-Government demand; here it may be beneficial to increase the attractiveness of e-Citizen services.
Figure 7: Relation between e-Citizen supply and demand
Several interpretative charts have been compiled. One compares the 10-service e-Citizen score to the percentage of Internet users (Figure 8, top). One would expect that e-services would be more developed in countries with higher Internet penetration. However the relation is not so clear-cut. The United Nations compiles e-government rankings.[14] One of the components is the online service score. There is a stronger link between the 6-service e-Citizen score and the UN’s e-government online score (Figure 8, bottom). Differences might be explained by the use of different public services in the UN score since the methodologies regarding the levels of availability are essentially the same.
Figure 8: e-Citizen service availability, Internet use and UN e-government score
Future work
It would be useful to include a wider list of economies in the future and to consider adjusting the list of services based on feedback. e-Citizen features such as mobile access, public feedback mechanisms and social networking availability also merit greater focus as does deeper investigation of demand side information.
Table 11: e-Citizen indicators, 2012
10 e-Citizen services
|
Internet users (% of individuals) (2010)
|
6 e-Citizen services
|
Access government services (% of Internet users) (2010)
|
e-Citizen index
| |||||
Economy
|
Relevant services
|
Score
|
Rank
|
Score
|
Rank
|
Score
|
Rank
| ||
Australia
|
9
|
0.75
|
9
|
77
|
0.71
|
8
|
47
|
0.59
|
14
|
Bahrain
|
8
|
0.56
|
17
|
0.58
|
17
|
#N/A
| |||
Bangladesh
|
9
|
0.42
|
24
|
0.42
|
22
|
#N/A
| |||
Brazil
|
9
|
0.75
|
9
|
41
|
0.75
|
7
|
56
|
0.66
|
9
|
Canada
|
9
|
0.78
|
8
|
80
|
0.67
|
11
|
65
|
0.66
|
9
|
Cape Verde
|
8
|
0.44
|
22
|
0.42
|
22
|
#N/A
| |||
Chile
|
7
|
0.68
|
12
|
43
|
0.63
|
13
|
#N/A
| ||
China
|
10
|
0.28
|
30
|
34
|
0.29
|
30
|
#N/A
| ||
Dominica
|
8
|
0.41
|
25
|
0.42
|
22
|
#N/A
| |||
Estonia
|
9
|
0.75
|
9
|
74
|
0.71
|
8
|
69
|
0.7
|
6
|
France
|
8
|
0.81
|
5
|
79
|
0.79
|
4
|
71
|
0.75
|
3
|
Hong Kong
|
9
|
0.81
|
5
|
69
|
0.79
|
4
|
58
|
0.69
|
7
|
Ireland
|
10
|
0.68
|
12
|
67
|
0.63
|
13
|
59
|
0.61
|
12
|
Malaysia
|
6
|
0.67
|
15
|
40
|
0.67
|
11
|
20
|
0.43
|
15
|
New Zealand
|
10
|
0.80
|
7
|
80
|
0.71
|
8
|
54
|
0.62
|
11
|
Oman
|
7
|
0.32
|
28
|
0.38
|
28
|
#N/A
| |||
Philippines
|
8
|
0.50
|
19
|
6
|
0.50
|
18
|
#N/A
| ||
Qatar
|
9
|
0.44
|
22
|
69
|
0.46
|
20
|
29
|
0.37
|
17
|
Saudi Arabia
|
7
|
0.46
|
21
|
0.50
|
18
|
#N/A
| |||
Singapore
|
7
|
0.89
|
1
|
91
|
1.00
|
1
|
92
|
0.96
|
1
|
South Africa
|
9
|
0.50
|
19
|
18
|
0.46
|
20
|
#N/A
| ||
Spain
|
10
|
0.68
|
12
|
64
|
0.63
|
13
|
58
|
0.6
|
13
|
Sri Lanka
|
8
|
0.41
|
25
|
13
|
0.42
|
22
|
#N/A
| ||
St. Kitts and Nevis
|
9
|
0.11
|
32
|
0.13
|
32
|
#N/A
| |||
St. Lucia
|
9
|
0.25
|
31
|
43
|
0.21
|
31
|
#N/A
| ||
Sweden
|
9
|
0.89
|
1
|
91
|
0.88
|
2
|
79
|
0.83
|
2
|
Switzerland
|
10
|
0.58
|
16
|
78
|
0.63
|
13
|
71
|
0.67
|
8
|
Turkey
|
10
|
0.53
|
18
|
40
|
0.42
|
22
|
43
|
0.42
|
16
|
Uganda
|
10
|
0.30
|
29
|
0.42
|
22
|
#N/A
| |||
UAE
|
6
|
0.38
|
27
|
78
|
0.38
|
28
|
17
|
0.27
|
18
|
United Kingdom
|
10
|
0.88
|
3
|
83
|
0.83
|
3
|
59
|
0.71
|
5
|
United States
|
9
|
0.83
|
4
|
72
|
0.79
|
4
|
67
|
0.73
|
4
|
Note: Relevant services refer to the number of services that are part of government programs or where online availability is considered relevant (e.g., not all economies have individual income tax or social assistance programs). Scores are compiled by summing the availability level for each service (i.e., not available at all = 0, information about service on line (0.25), forms available online (0.50), forms can be completed online (0.75) and entire process can be carried out online (1)) divided by the number of relevant services. The e-Citizen Index is compiled by allocating a 50% weight to the 6 e-Citizen score and 50% weight to the percentage of Internet users who access government services.
[1] Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development. 2011. Framework for a set of e-Government core indicators. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/partnership/material/Framework_for_a_set_of_E-Government_Core_Indicators_Final_rev1.pdf.
[2] The legality of self-printed government documents (or digital versions on portable computers, tablets or smart phones) is an entire other area worthy of investigation. Self-printed documents or digital versions on mobile phones are allowed for boarding passes or ticketed events in a number of nations so the extension to some types of government documents might be feasible.
[3] Capgemini, et al. 2010. Digitizing Public Services in Europe: Putting ambition into action. http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/item-detail-dae.cfm?item_id=6537.
[4] For example in Singapore, "For the purpose of election, the address stated in your Identity Card will be regarded as the address at which you are ordinarily resident." See: http://www.elections.gov.sg/voters.html
[5] In some countries Muslims are expected to contribute a portion of their income each year or “Zakat”. A number of Gulf States have this procedure enabled on line. For example see: http://www.abudhabi.ae/egovPoolPortal_WAR/appmanager/ADeGP/Citizen?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=P3200260381296462750383&lang=en
[7] See for example the United Kingdom’s Directgov at http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
[8] See: Worldwide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at http://www.w3.org/WAI/
[9] For information about the implementation of e-government services in Washington DC see: “District of Columbia Capitalizes on Web Portal Update” at: http://www.opentext.com/2/global/successstories?sys_action=show&id=726
[11] Voter registration, child allowances and driving license renewals are considered not relevant in Singapore. The Register of Electors is compiled based on information in the electors' National Registration Identification Card. There is no universal child allowance but rather targeted schemes (working mothers) or tax deductions for children. Driver Licenses are valid to age 65.
[12] http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/brochures/eCIT_Brochure.pdf. At the time of writing a new alpha site was being tested that more tightly integrates online services and provides additional functionality.
[14] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2010. E-Government Survey 2010: Leveraging e-government at a time of financial and economic crisis. http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/10report.htm.
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