This puts the country behind many of the developing nations in the old European eastern bloc, but ahead of all of its Southern African neighbours.
According to the report: “The Southern African region showed little improvement from the 2005 survey. Most of the countries surveyed had a lower ranking in 2005 than in 2008. South Africa continues to lead in this region followed by Lesotho. Botswana experienced a major drop of 29 places declining from being ranked 90th in 2005 to 119th in 2008.”
South Africa has also lost ground; it was ranked 58th in the 2005 survey, as have Namibia and Swaziland, dropping from 111 to 128 and from 108 to 127 respectively.
On the other hand, the report does note: “As a standout e-government leader in sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has a strong online presence. The Web site of the Department of Labour in particular, is an excellent example of a public agency Web site that is well tailored to the needs of its stakeholders. The Web site has a very attractive and simple design that allows users to quickly find what they are looking for... Add to this the various online filings/registrations available and the posting of online vacancies, and you have a full-featured site that is a one-stop shop for labour issues.”
Regionally, Southern Africa (and by implication South Africa) ranked top in the region, followed by Northern Africa, Eastern Africa, Central Africa and West Africa. The report notes that North and Central Africa have improved overall, while Eastern Africa has shown 'little improvement', and Western Africa has the lowest regional index in the survey.
The UN Global e-Government Readiness Survey 2008 evaluates the application of information and communication technologies by the governments of the 192 UN member states. This is the fourth edition of the survey. The first was conducted in 2002.
“It is worth noting,” says the report, “that in the 2008 Survey, there are no countries in the top 35 from the African, Caribbean, Central American, Central Asian, South American, and Southern Asian regions. In this year's rankings, the European countries made up 70% of the top 35 countries while the Asian countries made up 20%. A large part of the success of the European countries has been their investment in infrastructure and connectivity, most notably in broadband infrastructure.”
The report further states: “There were large differences between the five regions in terms of e-government readiness, with Europe having a clear advantage over the other regions, followed by the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Asia and Oceania were slightly below the world average, while Africa lagged far behind.”
This year's top country was Sweden, surpassing previous leader, the United States. Denmark and Norway came in second and third place, the US came in fourth.
The report is available for download here.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Samantha Perry
Quelle/Source: ITWeb, 08.01.2008
