{"id":3772,"date":"2012-05-02T08:19:17","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T13:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=3772"},"modified":"2014-07-16T09:40:27","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T14:40:27","slug":"snapshot-e-government-update-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2012\/05\/snapshot-e-government-update-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshot: e-Government update 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post updates our 2010 snapshot of the development of e-Government across the Caribbean.<\/em><\/p>\n

In March 2012, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA<\/a>) published the results of its E-Government Survey 2012<\/a>. All 193 United Nations member countries were included in the exercise, which was last conducted in 2010. This post highlights the performance of the following 16 Caribbean countries: Antigua & Barbuda; Bahamas Barbados; Belize; Cuba; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Grenada; Guyana; Haiti; Jamaica; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Suriname; and Trinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n

Determining the EGDI<\/h3>\n

The United Nations e-Government Development Index (EGDI) measures the willingness and capacity of governments to use ICTs to deliver public services. It consists of the weighted average of three normalized scores on the most important dimensions of e-government. These scores, each valued between 0 and 1 and outlined in Table 1, measure: the scope and quality of online services; the development status of telecommunication infrastructure; and the inherent human capital.<\/p>\n

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Table 1: Summary of the measures that comprise the main indices that form the EGDI (Source: UN-DESA)<\/p><\/div>\n

How did Caribbean countries perform in the 2012 assessment?<\/h3>\n

Overall, the performance of Caribbean countries had improved relative to the 2010 results, as reflected in Figure 1, and generally, there has been a steady improvement in developing e-Government over the last four years. Within the Caribbean grouping, Barbados was the highest-ranked country at 44 out of 193 countries assessed with an EDGI of 0.6566. It was closely followed by Antigua and Barbuda at 49 with an EGDI of 0.6566; the Bahamas with an EDGI 0.5793 at 65, and Trinidad and Tobago at 67, with an EDGI of 0.5731 (Table 2).<\/p>\n

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Figure 1: Comparison of EDGIs for select Caribbean countries from 2008 to 2012 (Source: UN DESA)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Table 2: Top 10 ranked countries and ranking of select Caribbean countries in 2012 EGDI exercise (Source: UN DESA)<\/p><\/div>\n

As expected, the accompanying report recognised Barbados\u2019 performance and noted the user-friendliness of the national website. It also acknowledged the marked improvement made in Dominica\u2019s and Grenada\u2019s, ranking. Grenada was ranked 99th<\/sup> and Dominica 105th<\/sup> in the 2010 assessment, and the improvement in those two countries was attributed primarily to increased access to infrastructure, particularly broadband.<\/p>\n

A closer investigation of the sub-indices that comprise the EDGI for the Caribbean countries under review provides some interesting insights (Figure 2). With regard to the:<\/p>\n