United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Dr Ahmed Darwish was the pioneer of the e-government initiative in Egypt that was launched in 1999 by the Egyptian President. The goal of this initiative is to reach a new level of convenience in government services, offer citizens the opportunity to participate in the decision making process, and greatly improve efficiency and quality. Dr Darwish was also the one who drafted the strategy of this initiative, he put the IT policy plan for five years in Egypt and he was the director of the e-government program in the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) 2000-2004.

Dr Darwish was appointed as the Minister of State for Administrative Development(MSAD) in July 2004 when MSAD was given the full responsibility of implementing the e-government program.

During the past four years, MSAD has achieved many success stories, among these stories was the launching of the first version of the Egyptian Portal “BAWABA” (citizen-centric service delivery through one stop shop) www.egypt.gov.eg and availing 53 online governmental services. The portal is considered the first step towards establishing an Egyptian e-government that levels with the international governmental systems worldwide and is supported by the latest technologies. It provides 24*7 access to government services. The portal offers a variety of services to citizens, businesses and foreigners ranging from simple queries and submitting forms to full transaction services that require integration among service providers.
Second, the deployment of an ERP financial module in the various ministries and government agencies that is based on the simplification of the workflow required providing the services. Thanks to this project, the efficiency in these governmental entities has increased and the expenditure has been reduced.
Third, the simplification of the procedures at the local government that is based on the establishment of a strong backend system and thus supporting the online delivery of governorates services. Due to this project, the transparency has been improved as long as there is a separation between the service provider and the service acquirer

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
MSAD undertakes the mission of delivering high quality services to citizens; to achieve such a goal the development of different governmental entities offering these services is crucial. Thus MSAD is currently executing a number of projects which aim to upgrade the governmental entities in terms of structure, infrastructure and HR. These projects are: Development of Basic infrastructure, creating and linking national databases, upgrading local governmental services delivery, ERP and back office automation, HR development program and Organizational development. Each of these projects is divided to several sub projects. MSAD launched the Egyptian Governmental Portal in 2003 which offers today more than 50 governmental services and this number is still increasing, several investment services are available online in addition to an online registration of companies and Quiz services. About 494 services offices are all over Egypt, post offices. MSAD works as well on the simplification of procedures and work cycles, organizational structures in order to offer better services. The One Stop Shop reduced the necessary time of procedures of a company establishment from 55 to 3 days. In addition to modeling o the work flow in the Sales Taxes Uni, the development of the subsidized services and the goods delivery by using Smart Card. Another measure undertaken by the government is the outsourcing of some services performed by the government to the private sector.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
In 2000 the launching of the Egyptian Information Society Initiative(EISI). In 2003 the first prototype of the full governmental ERP (Enterprise resource planning). In 2003 the first pilot of the local government development in Safaga. In 2004 approvals of the e-signature law by the parliament In 2004 the first version of the Egyptian portal "BAWABA" In 2004 the first pilot of the local government in Alexandria In 2005 the investment portal In 2005 the foreign affairs portal In 2005 the full deployment of the local government in Alexandria In 2006 the establishment pf the National Administrative Institute. In 2006 extending the local government program to Hurghada, Marsa Mattrouh, Elkosair, Suez, El Maadi, Abo Rawash In 2006 the implementation and operation of the 1st phase of the Financial Units Automation (61 units). In 2006 the implementation of the Governmental Inventory Management Pilot Project (20 warehouses) In 2006 the establishment of a Citizen Relation Management (CRM) System in four ministries In 2006 the implementation of the QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zone) providing fully automated services.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
MSAD was established in 1976 to take suitable measures to enhance the efficiency of the governmental administrative machinery and achieve an efficient modernization of the public services in order to deliver high quality governmental services to the citizens, quickly, accurately and efficiently. The governmental entities should also be capable of delivering these services to citizens wherever they are at their convenience. Thus the ministry implemented the E-government project as part of the EISI launched in 2000.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Deliver high quality governmental services through new channels by several payment methods. Upgrade the organizational structure and HR of different governmental entities. Reducing the time and cost of the purchasing of the governmental services.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The governmental entities delivering governmental services must be flexible & versatile; its agencies do not oppress or patronize citizens but give them the chance to actively participate with the administration. The ministry looks forward to the establishment of a good governmental environment to monitor and control governmental resources/expenditures efficiently, interacts continuously with the society, and be capable of providing high quality services to everyone “Government Now delivers…”

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Over 50 services are now available over the portal, e-payments, employees salary cards,494 service centers, several investment services are available over the portal and several procedures simplification has been made. Quiz services are also available online.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The most important e-government projects are funded by Public Private Partnerships where there is a shared approach to the provision of services, and to the risks and rewards involved. The transformation to e-government begins with agencies embracing the Web, which leads to a fundamental rethinking of government’s structure and role. The citizen will be in charge, with public services and information provided when, where and how people want them. Successfully implemented e-government services are open and pervasive, customer-oriented, integrated, and involve Public Private Partnership. They not only attract those citizens who are already connected to the Internet, but also move people online who are not already there. To achieve this, it is key to provide value added services to citizens and businesses. Governance issues also arise with the increasing incidence of public/private sector partnership arrangements in connected government. Partnering of this type is playing a major role across all levels of government to improve performance and responsiveness in service delivery and coordinated policy responses. The major challenge is maintaining accountability for the expenditure of public fund where there may be many parties (from both the public and private sector) with different responsibilities”. The e-government center (eGC) will provide government services to different entities (Citizens, Government and business). The center will also look after readiness of government entities and will make sure that any services backend is ready in terms of people and processes. The center will also make sure that partners involved in any type of work are delivering high quality work through highly skilled people. The eGC organization is a mix between the government and Microsoft services. Both parties are working on processes and procedure which will make sure that the center is running properly and producing the best results while meeting its goals and objectives. Its strategy is to continue enhancing and growing the current e-Government portal and gateway (BAWABA) by adding more services and developing a number of strategic government portals while adding and enhancing different services and delivery channels. The second part is to help in and support the readiness of all government entities (Processes and people). and its goals are: 1- BAWABA: Grow and enhance e-government portal and Gateway (Including service connectors and web services interface currently developed for Mobility government). 2- Services: Add more government services (GTC, GTG and GTB). 3- Portals: Develop and launch a number of strategic portals. 4- Readiness: a. Define and run engagement model for services backend readiness. b. Define and run skill transfer program/s for e-Government team as well as end users. 5- Partners: Define and run engagement model and programs/s for partners engagement. 6- E-Gov toolkit: Develop, use, maintain and market e-Government toolkit. (This toolkit is mainly to minimize the required replicated efforts in all projects which will save time and cost). 7- Productization: Define and run program/s to help and support partners in productizing their work. 8- Establish and run a showcase setup for e-Government engagement. 9- Define and run a marketing program/s for e-Government engagement.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Through the implementation of the E-government program, several lessons have been learned and modified the way of implementing the program. The most important lessons learned are as the following: a. Set a global objective and get the highest level of support. A roadmap for the implementation of the E-government should be drawn, and expected outcomes should be exactly set. On the other hand, to ensure proper implementation and full cooperation of all relevant parties, it is extremely important to get the full support of the highest ranked official in the government. Even within the same organization, it may be difficult to get two departments interact with each other!!! b. It is not about computers, it is about processes. It should be clear that the use of ICT is just a tool for better performance, i.e. E-government and automation do not represent a goal by themselves, and rather they are our vehicle for improved process execution (improved accountability, transparency and efficiency) c. Think about the citizen, in terms of accessibility and creating value. Criterion for services selection for implementation within the E-government program should be defined properly. Services implemented should represent an added value to the citizen (less effort, shorter time, and/or accurate service). Whenever a service has been selected, re-engineered, and implemented using ICT, it is strongly advisable to think about citizen accessibility and not consider the INTERNET as the sole delivery channel. Other delivery channels should be considered (kiosks, call centers, community centers,…) according to culture, economic level and geographical distribution. Another aspect of accessibility relates to the scope of the service itself, i.e. the population of citizens that can access the service. This aspect is very important in determining the best way for implementing the service itself. d. Selection of committed partners. A successful E-government program includes many partners like ICT experts, governmental service providers, ICT companies and of course, citizens as the primary beneficiary. The selection of the right partners is very important to ensure a successful implementation. e. Think strategically while decentralize implementation For some projects, a proof of concept is important however can not be used afterwards as a full fledged system. In one of the projects, the implemented pilot system was successful but can’t be deployed to 240 locations. Thus, a new model designed to ease deployment and re-engineered processes has been drafted and currently under implementation with complete cooperation of the end user. f. Awareness at all levels (employees/ citizens/ investors/…). g. Basic and advanced training of employees


Institution Name:		Ministry of State for Administrative development
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Ahmed Darwish
Title:		Minister of State for Administrative Development
Telephone/ Fax:		+202-4000100
Institution's / Project's Website:		+202-2628003
E-mail:		darwish@ad.gov.eg
Address:		13 Salah Salam St., Nasr City
Postal Code:		117889 Cairo
City:		Cairo
State/Province:
Country:		Egypt

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information