News 80 of 193

Haiti, Organization of American States, and IDRC Connect to Talk e-government

2007-10

IDRC is exploring support for a pilot e-governance project with the Government of Haiti after recent meetings in Ottawa.

About two dozen international and Canadian e-government experts were at the two-day series of meetings on e-government and e-governance, co-sponsored by IDRC and the Organization of American States (OAS) in late August.

A Haitian delegation led by Frantz Verella, Haiti’s Minister of Public Works, Transportation and Communications, met with experts from IDRC, Africa, the OAS, the Network of e-government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean, better known as Red GEALC, and Canadian government departments. Canada is an acknowledged world leader in e-governance.

The challenge of e-governance
While the Haitian government is open to the concept of e-governance, said Verella, going online will first involve dealing with the underlying issues of creating basic workable government. Only after those issues are settled can e-government Web portals open.

“We need things that work, not quick fixes,” he said. “It’s going to be very interesting to implement networks, but the fundamental problem in Haiti is, nonetheless, a problem of governance,” said Verella.

“Therefore the governance problem must be resolved — and we must not exaggerate how valuable technology can be ... the fundamental problem in Haiti is not really related to technology, but to governance. We have to modernize the state so that the citizen is at the very heart of public action.”

Haiti’s e-governance plans start with Public Works linking outlying districts with uniform digital coverage to underpin a new, decentralized local government infrastructure, said Verella.

Building networks
To do this, Haiti is exploring partnerships between the state and its municipalities, and with private sector companies, non-governmental organizations, and notably with members of Haiti’s diaspora in North America and Europe.

Haiti is also scaling up training in its schools for informatics specialists to build and maintain new public and private sector networks, since training capacity in this area is weak.

These efforts would rely on an increased dialogue between Haitians and their government. This will require Haiti to create Creole-language Web content so as to enhance and extend the dialogue.

Haiti’s recently elected government sees security and political stability as its dominant theme, as it works to bring peace and prosperity to the fragile state.

Priorities for the next year are to improve basic services to citizens, such as potable water, road maintenance, and electricity, and to reduce endemic corruption, activities that could be better targeted using Internet applications and geographical information systems.

Key role for Public Works
Verella added he thought his department could play a key role in helping to link, strengthen, and co-ordinate its work with three other government institutions — the Departments of Agriculture, Finance, and Planning.

“If we want to reform the state, our vision is that Public Works should be at the very heart, because we are convinced that our [planned] networks will allow Internet technology and the territories to develop,” he said.

However, before the four departments can raise anything more than static Web pages, they need to build, then connect, internal databases and services strong enough to support interactive e-governance.

Extending access
A major issue is that close to two-thirds of Haitians live below the World Bank’s absolute poverty threshold. Computer ownership, and Internet access are out of reach for average citizens, and any e-governance efforts must take this into account.

One possible solution may be public–private sector arrangements offering e-government services over mobile phone networks.

Frantz Verella reported that a number of institutional-strengthening projects have already begun with support from a number of European and Caribbean partners. Haiti is constitutionally committed to decentralizing many services to bring delivery closer to citizens, he said, but many of these services do not exist centrally an must be built from the ground up.

Michael Clarke, Director of IDRC’s Information and Communication Technologies for Development program area, notes that IDRC’s experience of supporting projects that link technology to advances in health, education, and governance in Africa and Latin America could serve as models for potential partnerships with Haiti.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to bring Haiti into our network of e-Government projects, both regionally in Latin America and the Caribbean and globally,” said Clarke. “Haiti has real needs in automating government business practices and addressing these needs has real spinoff benefits, including a real impact on raising the level of transparency of transactions involving government revenues and expenditures. IDRC has much experience in these areas and we are hopeful that we can work with partners in Haiti to our mutual benefit.”

K.J. Shore is an Ottawa-based writer.

Top of Page

News 80 of 193