United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

In the Sultanate of Oman there are 10 Charitable Organisations that are registered and supported by the Ministry of Social Development (MOSD). These organisations are authorised by MOSD to collect donation funds to aid the less privileged in the Sultanate.

Traditional, the collection of donation fund was done manually. Donors would have to travel to the charities’ locations or to the site where the charity collection box were located, usually in shopping areas or small outlets. Another way in which citizens and residence can make their contributions to these organisations would be to make a transfer via the local bank ATM machines to the accounts of the various charities. As most of the Charities’ helpers are volunteers who devote their spare time to the organisations, manpower support used to be a big challenge whenever donation drives were initiated. Often, due to the lack of marketing effort and support both in terms of manpower and financial resources, charities can only obtain donations from the local region in which the organisations are located. Oman’s 2.8 million population is spread across a total land area of more than 307,000 km2 in 8 different administrative regions. Hence, residents of other regions could not make their contributions effectively and efficiently as most of these charities are located within Muscat, the capital area. As much as those who are not from the capital Muscat wants to donate, they might not hear about or aware of the place that they can make their donations.

Administratively, it is also tedious for the charities, it is troublesome for them to consolidate the donated funds, separate and allot the funds for the different programmes. All account management and administration were also done manually. Different regions would have to consolidate the funds, bank it in and then create accounts and report to the head office for verification. The process can take hours or even days due to differing banking hours and schedules. Hence, the Information Technology Authority in close collaborations with MOSD developed the Donation Portal to eradicate the administrative workload associated with donations.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The purpose of the Donations Portal is to provide a one-stop- shop service for the local charities to collect charity funds for the less privileged and the people with special needs. The portal makes it easier for Omani and residents to donate to a charity of their choice with a single click of the button from anywhere and at their convenience. Leveraging on the payment services like using a credit card authorised by an Omani bank integrating to the e-payment gateway of Information Technology Authority. Most importantly, the donors do not need to travel to any of the charities’ physical locations. In recent donation drive, the system has attracted donors from all across the country. This no doubt enhances the amount of collection as it can now reach places where the donation box cannot. As the Donation portal automates the donation collection process, it also makes it easier for the charities to monitor and administer the collection process. Some of the key functionalities of the system includes, secured admin area specific to the particular charity, this allows the charities to print statements and different reports such as total amount of money they received during a specific period of time. They can also filtering of report on information like how much funds they have for particular programme. Most importantly, it has reduced the work on the charities, as mentioned, majority of the helpers are on a voluntary basis. Preparation of the reports and consolidation of the accounts were tedious work before, with the system, the various charities can now access and print these reports instantaneously. This cuts down the time for preparation of document drastically from hours and even days to matter of seconds. The Portal’s met it’s main objective that is to help raise the donation fund for the less privileged and the people with special needs in Oman. It also serves as a place where information about the charity organizations in Sultanate of Oman is readily available.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The online donation portal solution was proposed, implemented and administrated by the Information Technology Authority’s (ITA). The Information Technology Authority’s (ITA) in association with the Ministry of Social Development launched the official online donations portal www.onlinedonations.org.om on the 13th January 2009. This official donations portal is approved and supported by the Ministry of Social Development of Oman. The stakeholders apart from ITA and Ministry of Social Development, are all the various charities under the patron of the Ministry. Currently , the portal was launched with the first 5 charities (1st) Association of the welfare of the Handicapped, (2nd) The Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs, (3rd) Oman Association for Disabled, (4th) Al-Noor Association for the Blind and, (5th) the National Association for Cancer Awareness. In parallel, we are working with all rest local charitable organizations to become part of the online donations portal project with the vision of helping them collect donations online.

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.
The strategy for implementing the project was done in phases. In phase 1, 5 of the 10 charities were targeted and with the success, the next 2 were included. The last phase of the project will be extended to the reminding 3 organisations. From the users’ prospective, the strategy is to keep it simple. Donors do not want to spend a lot of time navigating the site. They just wanted something straight forward. Same goes for the charitable organisations, they do not and cannot afford the time to attend long trainings. Therefore special attention is spent to the user’s interface; it is specially design to ensure user friendliness. It required minimum training and eliminates the fear of users. However, in case there is a need for support, there are 2 staffs dedicated for the Charities and End Users. For public awareness, in conjunction with the various festive seasons, awareness programmes were launched to encourage the public to donate via the portal.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The following are the key development and implementation chronology 2007 July – Identified needs, contacted stake holders – Various charities were contact by the ITA team to understand their needs and requirement. During these meetings, processes for fund raising and procedures were discussed. 2008 Jan– Concept proposal and buy in from charity – After gathering the needs and understanding the requirement, a concept plan was drawn up to get the buy in from the various charities. Adjustment were made along the way to satisfy the different requirement. 2008 Feb – Development of the system based on requirement – Once the charities have approved on the concept, the development of the system started. It went through the typical process of creating prototype, production and actual live system. 2008 Nov– Ministerial meeting and approval – When the system was tested and readied, it was presented to the Minister for approval. However, the Minister was always kept in the loop on the progress of the system. 13th Jan 2009 - The Information Technology Authority’s (ITA) in association with the Ministry of Social Development launched the official online donations portal www.onlinedonations.org.om on the 13th January 2009 at the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM).

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main obstacle of the project is that according to the Omani law, charities are not allowed to collect donation from outside Oman. As such, the Donations portal only allows donors who are Citizens or Residents of Oman and who have an account in the Omani banks to donate online. The above leads to a technically issue, the default system accepts payment from anywhere, however due to the law, a customised module was developed to authenticate that donors are from Oman with valid credit card or bank account from Oman. Another related issue is on Online Transaction Security – The customised module needs to be certified secured for online transaction from international bodies. So the system has to acquire SecureTrust and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Compliant before it can go live. All the issues were resolved and as stated, it went live on 13th Jan 2009.

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
This portal was totally developed in house, ITA mobilised 10 resources internally. The team consists of 1 project manager, 7 coordinators for gathering of requirements, arrangement of meetings, creation and editing of content for the portal. 2 resources were dedicated in the design and development of the portal. For direct cost spent to third party vendors, ITA paid US$ 7000 for the setting up of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Compliant, US$ 1000 for SSL Certification and about US$5200 for the infrastructure hosting and domain registration.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
This system is highly transferable as it is built on a highly scalable platform. If there are any agencies which need to use the system, it can be easy customised to suite the requirement. This system is also highly sustainable as charity has always been a part of the Arab culture. There is always occasions and donation drives organised for helping the less privileged. Ramadan is a good example where Zakat and Fitra contributions are part of the duty of Muslim.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Currently, we have 6 charities integrated within our portal and we are working on integrating the remaining 4 charitable organizations. The portal is a success despite only being launched for the first year. One of the recognition that it received was the United Nations Word Summit sponsored Arab e-content Award this year. http://user1054379.wx17.registeredsite.com/aea/eng/e-Inclusion-Participation.asp One example of the portal meeting it’s main objective is that during Ramadhan this year (2009) we received donations from cities across Oman even as far as 1000 KM away donating to the charities located in the capital Muscat. Lesson Learned There are various lessons that we learned in this process. Online Security has to be of the upmost concern, we have to ensure that it also comply with the rules of law in the Country. Take our initiative for example, we will need to ensure that the system comply with the donation law of Oman. It states that no donation from outside the country is allow. Involving stakeholders like the various charities in marketing efforts and involve them early is important. Through these organisations, they can encourage more people to go online. However, donation is a very delicate issue, public awareness and education is important rather then enforcing it. This is very unlike other government initiatives. Public education on e-transaction needs to be enhanced. Public needs to be assured that online transactions are safe. More information on the Portal http://www.itu.int/wsis/stocktaking/scripts/documents.asp?project=1246272362&lang=en http://www.ita.gov.om/ITAPortal/MediaCenter/NewsDetail.aspx?NID=237 http://www.onlinedonations.org.om/DonationsPortal/Pages/Page.aspx?NID=2698 http://user1054379.wx17.registeredsite.com/aea/eng/e-Inclusion-Participation.asp


Institution Name:		Information Technology Authority
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Talal Mohammed Saleem
Title:		Web Developer
Telephone/ Fax:
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		talal.saleem@ita.gov.om
Address:
Postal Code:
City:
State/Province:
Country:		Oman

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