Development Of A Citizen-Centric E-Government Model For Effective Service Delivery In Namibia

ABSTRACT

E-Government is regarded as an important tool to help governments meet their goals. The theory of New Public Management arguably motivated the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in government with the idea of improving service delivery. However, e-Government use by citizens remains low. On the other hand, government’s vision of an inclusive e-Government has to still yield results, as many citizens are still not using the available e-government services. This challenge is common across Africa given the limited resources and other socio-economic challenges that are often given a higher priority over e-Government initiatives. This study used a public value theory to understand expectations of citizens from e-Government as suggested in the literature. The public value theory was adapted to the Namibian context using the available literature. Critical factors for attaining a citizen-centric e-Government were grouped into three main groups namely achievement of socially desirable outcomes, efficiency of public organizations and the delivery of public service. This study went on to identify key supportive factors for a government to achieve citizen-centric e-Government. This included access to ICT infrastructure, ICT skills, citizen’s attitude, creating local partnerships and understanding the citizen’s information needs. This study is a mixed method approach where qualitative and quantitative data (through questionnaires and interviews) were used as a data collection method. This study was conducted in seven (7) out of the fourteen (14) regions in Namibia. The participants are from seven (7) regional offices and one hundred and eighty-eight (188) respondents, and eight participants who took part in the interviews. The selection was done using the appropriate sampling procedures. Statistical analysis was used to carry out on the data gathered by use of a questionnaire while a content analysis was used on data gathered by use of interviews. The findings show that citizens are ready to embrace e-Government, though a lot still needs to be done in the area of provision of infrastructural facilities. At the end, a citizen-centric e-Government model for effective service delivery in Namibia was developed.

Key words: e-Government, Public Value, ICTs, Citizen-centric