MENA › Fourth Regional Meeting of the GfD Working Group on e-government and Administrative Simplification in Tunis, Tunisia, 29 May 2008

Fourth Regional Meeting of the GfD Working Group on e-government and Administrative Simplification in Tunis, Tunisia, 29 May 2008

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The fourth regional meeting of the Working Group on E-government and Administrative Simplification took place in Tunis, Tunisia on 29 May 2008 at the invitation of the Prime Ministry of Tunisia and the Government of Dubai, in collaboration with the OECD. This event followed the 6th High Level Seminar on Partnerships and Frameworks for Collaboration on E-government organised by the Prime Ministry of Tunisia on 28 May 2008.

Participants

Twenty-three delegates from eleven Arab countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian National Authority, Tunisia, and Yemen) participated in the seminar and working group meeting. Seven experts from OECD countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Korea and United States) engaged in policy discussions with their Arab counterparts. Mr. Bruno Lanvin of INSEAD also actively participated in the discussion. The Working Group Meeting was chaired by Mr. Salem Al Shair, Director, Dubai eServices, Dubai e-Government and co-chaired by Mr. Vincenzo Schioppa, Minister Plenipotentiary, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prof. Byung-Chun Kim, Associate Dean and CIO, Graduate School of Management, and Director, Knowledge-based e-Government Research Center, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

Objectives

The objective of the working group meeting was to discuss the programme of activities for the next implementation period and in particular Joint Learning Activities and Joint Learning Studies. The working group allowed countries 1) to report on past activities and progress made in their respective countries in the area of e-government and administrative simplification; 2) to plan and discuss the activities (high level seminars, joint learning initiatives and data collection) to be inserted in the ToR for the working group and to be carried out in 2008/2009. The reporting showed that Arab countries are making progress in the implementation of their e-government and administrative simplification strategies and in using ICT as a tool to modernise their government administrations.

Outcomes

The Working Group meeting's outcomes were the following:

  • Arab countries confirmed the priority areas emerging from the 2007 priority stocktaking exercise as key thematic areas for the next round of activities on e-government and administrative simplification. In particular the following areas were identified: 1) Institutional arrangements for E-government; 2) E-services, sectoral initiatives, shared applications; 3) E-government strategy formulation and implementation; 4) Technical infrastructure for e-government; 5) E-government and administrative simplification; 6) E-Government training and capacity building; 7) Legislative infrastructure for e-government; 8) Measurement and Evaluation of E-government.
  • Arab countries agreed on the cooperation tools to be used in the next phase of WG 2 activities (2008-2010). In addition to traditional seminars, Arab delagates agreed on two kind of activities to be conducted within the framework of the working group: Joint Learning Activities and Joint Learning Studies. The “joint learning” nature of  these activites is that their methodology (featuring the participation of OECD Secretariat and invited experts from other Arab and OECD countries)  allows a close exchange of experiences between experts and mutual learning from opportunities and challenges linked to e-government and administrative simplification implementation.
    Joint Learning Activities are intended to bridge the supply with the demand of technical know-how in a specific area of e-government or administrative simplification through the conduct of ad-hoc capacity-building and technical knowledge learning initiatives. Joint Learning Studies are intended to help Arab countries to advance their e-government and administrative simplification agenda through accessing knowledge and experience from OECD and other Arab countries. The Joint Learning Study on E-government and Administrative Simplification is a mutual learning process culminating in the preparation of a report containing an overview of the status, main achievements, policy learning and suggestions for improvement addressed to the observed country on a specific e-government area or on a series of key aspects related to a country’s initiative (in this case the Joint Learning Study could take the form of an e-government and administrative simplification country review).
  • Delegates from Arab countries have expressed an interest to focus the activities for the period 2008-2010 on some of the above-mentioned priority areas, and in particular:

 

 FOCUS AREA

 TYPE OF ACTIVITY 

 1. Institutional Arrangements for e-Government 
  • High Level Seminar or Joint Learning Activity = e-government across levels of government   

 2. E-services, sectorial initiatives, shared applications 
  • High Level Seminar or Joint Learning Activity = Identify Cards (ID)
  • Joint Learning Activity = e-Procurement
  • Joint Learning Study = Electronic Driving License
  • High Level Seminar or Joint Learning Activity on eJustice

3. E-government for administrative simplification
  •  Joint Learning Study; e-Government and Administrative Simplification

 

4. Reduction of administrative burdens to enhance private investment, entrepreneurship, and international competitiveness
  • Joint Learning Activity = Administrative simplification strategies and burden measurement

 


Documentation

Presentations

Session 1 : Reporting on past activities, overview of current developments in Arab Countries and discussion of suggested activities on regional policy dialogue


Session 2 : Programme of work: joint learning activities and joint learning studies

 


Background documents