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Direct Interventions
 

Introduction

In addition to regional workshops, establishing REGI, and creating the e-Government Portal, ICTDAR supports e-Government efforts in the Arab region by direct interventions in various countries. Through these interventions, ICTDAR provides technical and management expertise to countries implementing e-Government projects, and often becomes the partner most actively driving the process.  

In the first cycle, ICTDAR had direct interventions in Bahrain, Djibouti, Sudan, and Somalia. Some of these projects have been completed while others are ongoing, and interventions in additional countries are under discussion.
 

Bahrain

An e-document management system was created for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in Bahrain. The intervention went beyond the IT component to include supporting MoFA in business process re-engineering as well as in providing IT Training of Trainers to MoFA staff. An IT platform was customized for mail and document management. The implementation was divided in four phases:

Phase I: Business Process Reengineering (BPR). This phase included 4 activities:

  • Activity 1: Project Planning and Team Selection (team composition, team selection criteria and TOR, team size consideration, team time commitment, time table and outcomes,..)
  • Activity 2: The Learning Process ( BENCHMARKING AND LEARNING FROM OTHERS, Getting Grounded (Today’s process and business issues), Outline of the Learning Process, analyze of the workflow, identification and codification of documents, assessment of business processes,..)
  • Activity 3: BPR Design (Process Modeling and Design), simplification of procedures, knowledge management system, e-document management procedures (identify, acquire, organize, preserve, and disseminate all forms of recorded information which are pertinent to classification, indexation, information retrieval, storage, scanning,..), re-design of the workflow,
  • Activity 4: Preparing for executive presentations and approval

Phase II: IT Platform and Solutions. This phase also included 4 activities:

  • Activity 1: Refine IT system & architecture design within selected option(s)
  • Activity 2: Technology design
  • Activity 3: Draft/review high level technical design product, interface, screens, ..

By definition, this solution will implement the total integration of the various applications, which will lead to standard data definition, data integrity and most of all provides the building blocks for data mining.

  • Activity 4: Documenting the solution and preparing for executive presentations and approval

Phase III: Prototype and training. Following development of Phase II, a pilot stage to monitor usage of the system in a controlled environment over a limited period of time was done. During this stage, the IT system was used in the form that is proposed for field implementation, allowing the integration of the system with the business processes, and with the implementation and training approaches, to be effectively tested. This took place in one pilot office which was typical of real work environment.

During the piloting phase, the following activities were undertaken:

  • rework rate on software modules completed
  • systematic capture of lessons learnt and application of the knowledge to future activities
  • tracking time spent on non-project related work
  • tracking lines of code generated in each module, or function point counts and requirements satisfied
  • tracking database calls made in each module, as well as estimated bandwidth required and throughput expected (important for performance tuning and resolving performance issues). Early prototypes can simulate loading factors and allow earlier attention to performance problems;
  • tracking memory utilization
  • tracking sign-offs by internal clients as modules are declared complete.

Phase IV: Roll out

The piloted system was rolled out in phases. This allowed for changes to be made to reflect the experiences of small groups of users, which also increased the acceptance of the system by MOFA users.

 
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Djibouti

ICTDAR provided direct support to the Government of Djibouti for creating an e-Government Strategy. The proposal defined needs, requirements, and prioritized needs for implementation. The Strategy was completed and endorsed at the highest governmental levels. Specifically, ICTDAR commissioned an assessment study that:

  • Determined existing initiatives
  • Conducted a needs assessment
  • Developed the e-government strategy
  • Prioritized projects
  • Recommended the implementation strategy
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Sudan

ICTDAR is working with the Government of Sudan and the UNDP Sudan CO towards the creation of an e-Government Strategy. As a first step, the scope of an e-Readiness Assessment (ERA) has been defined and the TORs completed. The ERA is currently underway, with completion expected in the first quarter of 2006. The next step is to organize a national e-Government workshop aimed at practitioners and policy makers, in preparation for the full national endorsement of the Strategy.

In addition, ICTDAR is assisting the government in evaluating its first initiative: e-archiving, using the model of the project implemented in Bahrain.

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Somalia

The intervention in Somalia is just beginning, and aims at creating an e-Government Strategy that enjoys widespread endorsement from the various state and national government bodies, as well as the other sectors. Work had already begun towards planning for an introductory workshop.

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