Background  | Description  |  Topics  |  Target Group  |  Benefits

 Background

One of the critical factors responsible for the slow uptake and implementation of e-Government Projects in many countries, including Sri Lanka, is the lack of government champions who have the right skills, knowledge, attitude and leadership qualities, occupying decision making and managerial positions. This, in turn has lead to the under-utilization of the exciting opportunities offered by e-Government for improving quality of services to the citizens and businesses. The situation is further complicated by other problems like failure to conceptualize and design the appropriate financial, technical and business models, and lack of Project Management skills and capabilities within the government.

There are quite a few civil servants who are enthusiastic in implementation of the e-Government initiatives. They also have some of the skill sets needed. However, it is a question of chance that such enthusiastic officers come across the right e-Government opportunities and have the mandate and tenure to implement projects that can make a significant impact. It is necessary for the Governments to ensure that success in e-Government does not happen by accident, but by design.

The logical conclusion is to develop a core group of e-Government Champions from among the civil servants who have the right attitude and basic knowledge and skills required for success in e-Government and to make them responsible to champion and implement major e-Government initiatives. 

There are 600 appointed Chief Innovation Officers in Sri Lanka, of which some 50 are already actively engaged in this role. These need to be further empowered to take on e-leadership responsibilities in their respective central and local government agencies.

To meet this large training challenge, ICTA has developed a unique ‘ICT Skills Framework’ identifying the skills and competencies needed at the different staff levels, namely, Senior Managers, CIOs, Project and IT Managers and General Staff. At the higher end of this framework are ICT Strategy and Leadership skills, which will be developed through a variety of methods. 

Against the above background, under its ICT HR Capacity Building Programme the ICTA  implemented a VC-based component for developing 30 e-Government Champions from different government agencies over a period of 1 year beginning May 2006.  These “e-champions” may or may not all be CIOs but will essentially be the key people in the government who can drive e-services implementation from within. These kinds of individuals will likely be responsive to a knowledge sharing exercise where they share experiences and learn from their peers who have implemented similar projects in other comparable countries. Learning from the international experience may help speed up implementation of e-government projects and avoid costly mistakes and failures.

List of Topics and Schedule for VCs:

1. May 25: The Vision of Joined-Up Government: From Many Agencies to One Government 2. June 29: Lessons Learned, Critical Success and Failure Factors in e-Government Projects 3. July 25: e-Government Champions/CIOs: Roles, Skills and Success Factors 4. September 26, 2006: Project Management for e-Government. 5. October 31, 2006: Business Process Re-engineering for e-Government. 6. May 8, 2007: Open Systems for e-Government in Sri Lanka: Open Standards, Open Source  and Open Document Format. 7. May 29, 2007: National E-Government Portals The Tip of the Iceberg, or a Tool for Citizen-Centric Transformation of Government? 8. June 18, 2007: Designing and Implementing e-Government Strategies: Lessons Learned and Critical Success Factors. The VCs brought at the same time e-leader countries who have much to share in terms of lessons learned and best practices as well as peer countries who maybe just a little ahead of Sri Lanka in terms of e-government and are facing similar issues and challenges as Sri Lanka and can share their relevant experience on how they deal with the same. E-leader countries to feature were : US, Canada, UK, Australia, Singapore, Korea. Several peer countries were engaged in peer-to-peer dialogue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

30-35 Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs) and other key staff in the government agencies who are likely to champion e-government projects in their respective agencies as well as ICTA staff and other stakeholders as appropriate. Ministry Secretaries and other key e-leaders were invited to attend, especially the first Videoconference and other less technical sessions.

The 30-35 core participants have been nominated by their respective agencies for participation in this program. The total participation is expected not to exceed 50 people.

A core cadre of CIOs and other e-champions fully informed about international best practices in e-government who will be actively engaged in re-engineering government, driving change management and citizen-centric e-service delivery within their respective ministries and departments.