Ghana gained independence in the mid-20th century and thus inherited the colonial pattern of centralized administration.
This has caused the development and implementation of public policies to not be very effective, however election 2024 presents an opportunity for Ghana to open a new chapter of GovTech.
Africa, as a developing continent, has great potential to reap the rewards of GovTech implementation. GovTech will be useful in transforming the government operation in Ghana.
With GovTech implementation, the next government will be able to enhance the efficiency of their public institutions. The use of digital technology will make it easier to collect data, which can be analyzed to produce the desired information. This information will then be used as the basis for formulating public policies.
With the implementation of GovTech, the public policy process can be conducted through better stages of programming, networking, implementing, and adapting the policy. This is due to advances in digital technology often necessitating changes in the policy. A good policy programming takes into account all potential changes and amendments to the policy.
Bawumia’s digitalisation drive has been vindicated – Franklin Cudjoe
Digital technology will also enable networking of policy to be conducted in a more integrated manner and it is easier to monitor the success of a policy when it is implemented. Lastly, a policy that is formulated with data derived from digital technology is easily adapted to its changes.
GovTech concept has been around for several years. It is often perceived as the use of technology to improve the delivery of government services to citizens in the area of enhancing the government operation and the process of democratic governance.
GovTech is particularly useful in contributing to the growth and reform of a country’s public sector. It helps to promote and support economic development through the implementation of information and communication technology both in the government operation and also for the citizens. This is also in line with the fourth goal of sustainable development where countries need to build an efficient, effective, and clean government administration.
This will ensure that the administration is able to develop policies and implement development programs that can provide optimal benefits for the country. This will also indirectly enhance the trust of citizens in the government and increase the rate of civic participation in the democratic process.
The GovTech concept can be viewed as the use of Information Technology and of more recently, Open Source Software and Information Sharing Mechanisms, to improve or develop public sector organisations and government processes. This improved government service aims to enhance the welfare of the public, either through direct contribution to the public or by developing the government sector as an agency of social change.
The model has been successfully implemented throughout the 1990s and the early 21st century and the best practices have been emulated worldwide. At present, the most successful implementation of GovTech is done in the United States and in the European Union where it has proven to be a success. However, the enthusiasm for the United States model is waning, due to political instability and questionable foreign policy, whereas the European Model is still highly regarded.
GovTech encompasses a broad spectrum of issues and viable IT policy and strategy may involve a plethora of methods to achieve the same end. This includes better decision-making, improving European identity through policy building and consensus with other countries, and in terms of Eastward enlargement, aiding candidate countries on their path to prospective membership. A priority area includes electronic delivery of information to EU citizens enabling better access to the Community’s open decision-making and law-making processes, and there is a strong will to bridge the gap between the technological ‘haves and have-nots’.
I appreciated role of digitalisation in nation building very well from Bawumia’s address – Gyampo
This is all done by means of utilising information technology in the public sector. A simpler definition can be the systemic IT application to exchange of information between government and its citizens, other government agencies, private/public sector organisations or other governments to enhance the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the public sector. This is more evident in the methodology behind GovTech implementations.
Often times governments will seek to reengineer a process for better results in which case their IT application will automate, inform, or sometimes change the process and this is done both on the intra and interorganisational level. The outcome of this is general improvement in the targeted process and it is an effective approach if government IT systems have not met the needs or expectations of the public sector.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB) annual report 2023, the importance of technology-based strategic planning and management, or GovTech, which allows government to better design and employ policies and to link various public sector initiatives is attracting more attention in the international development community.
ACDT recognises that there are both push and pull factors behind this trend. The growth of infrastructure and affordability of IT has made e-government increasingly practical for low and middle-income countries. At the same time, policymakers are looking for new ways to solve age-old development challenges.
They are increasingly aware of the need to learn from the experiences of countries in similar situations and avoid duplication of efforts. Good governance is a cross-cutting issue in both developed and developing countries. The concept of good governance holds that an efficient, effective and clean government is the cornerstone of development.
High-quality governance institutions are essential to providing public services that enhance citizens’ trust and confidence in government. It is well known that the public sector in many African countries faces daunting shortages of skilled personnel, and has been weakened by systems of patronage which allow political appointees to displace qualified civil servants. At the same time, there is an emerging consensus that aid programmes intended to build capacity have had limited success.
E-governance is particularly attractive given its potential to leapfrog stages of development, avoid costly mistakes, and take advantage of the global knowledge economy.
While only a handful of African countries have implemented large-scale e-government initiatives, there are many interesting cases that there is much to learn from. GovTech strategies are not only about automating existing tasks but about re-engineering how government works in ways that take advantage of new technologies.
One striking example of this is the Government of Mauritius, which has set out to make the island a cyber-island and to transform the country into an efficient, transparent, and fully connected Knowledge Hub.
In the process of developing the Mauritius Internet Exchange Point (MIX), the government learned some hard lessons about the process of public sector innovation and the challenge of spearheading new initiatives in an environment of uncertainty.
An interesting West African case is the GovNet project in Ghana which has sought to leverage new technologies to overcome low Internet and computer access in the country and better link Public Sector Organizations in ways that help the government better interface with the private sector and civil society.
To liberate the upcoming countries from underdevelopment, massive attention should be paid to the deployment of new technologies in the public sector.
Using technology and its various forms to improve the way of life for others is an important step in achieving a more equitable society. A wide range of different types of information technology is being used to such ends, varying from simple database processing to more complex management decision-making support systems.
A relatively new concept in developing countries, especially for nations in Africa is GovTech (short for Government Technology); the use of Information Technology in its various forms to improve the effectiveness of the public sector. Governments in developed nations are already heavily reliant on information technology, and it is believed that the infrastructures that developing nations may be able to leapfrog the system older generations of tech and move into the newer forms, increasing efficiency and bypassing a costly change from newer technology.
This article seeks to explore the impact of GovTech in Ghana – West Africa, if a new chapter is opened post the elections 2024 where new technological processes can be utilized to great effect. The case for such technologies is strong and the potential for Africa to exploit them is considerable, through various case studies the potential benefits will be outlined with an analysis of the implications and obstacles to implementation.
ACDT seeks to argue that while the nations of Africa may currently be using outmoded processes in their public sectors, there is considerable potential for improvement through the use of newer technologies.
The prevalence of the Internet in the modern age means that much of the technology described here is more available to Ghana than ever before, not only this but globalization has made the world of technology vastly more competitive.
The resulting implications are that there is pressure on suppliers of technology to provide cheaper and easier solutions and because the world of technology competition is meritocratic, Africa, specifically Ghana can exploit its competitive advantage through various processes if a starting point can be made.
By Kwesi Atuahene
Head of Communcations, Africa Center for Digital Transformation.