“The Old Methods Of Government Have Not Addressed Poverty”
Dr. Paul R. Schapper
Dr. PAUL R. SCHAPPER is the team leader of Asian Development Bank technical team
on e-governance. Schapper, a New Zealander, came to Nepal in November 2006 and has been working at the High Level Commission for Information Technology. Schapper spoke to KESHAB POUDEL on various issues regarding the importance of E-governance in Nepal . Excerpts:
E-governance is about using modern technology to improve the management of public administration and the delivery of public services to the communities. It has many dimensions and tool as it is driven by need for greater effectiveness in service delivery, greater transparency of process and much greater need to increase community participation in the process of government. So, e-governance is not about only technology, which is one of the greatest misconceptions. It is technology but it is also about the transformation of the relationship between the communities and public
administration.
In virtually all countries around the world, there is increasing expectations of communities for improved services and greater participation in government affairs. These transformations cannot be delivered through traditional means of service delivery. This is the case for poor country like Nepal or even for well developed western countries. You cannot deliver improved services to remote communities, to village communities using
traditional service delivery methods. Technology must be incorporated in service delivery if people, in particular in remote areas, are to truly benefit from public administration.
In every country, quite often there is a similar reaction to the introduction of new technologies. Quite often people are curious to know about what it can do for them. They are also somewhat cautious particularly people in the government can feel that they are going to be replaced by computers. And also people are worried because they don't have the skill to manage this technology and they feel that they become marginalized. Firstly, in relation to concern about the people being replaced by computers, this certainly is not the case. This never happens anywhere in the world. Certainly, job gets redesigned because of technology but it is not the case that the e-governance replaces a lot of people in the government. People have to do things differently and much more effectively and by exploring technology they are adding greater values. So they are in fact securing their jobs more.
It is true that the people need to learn more skills as required by e-governance. But it is not difficult to learn them. You don't have to be a technical person or have technical background, you just need to be prepared to listen and understand what the issues are and everything will become very simple. So, an e-governance program is all about trying to develop new understanding and do away with fears people have. I think it is quite natural to have fears. But, generally when people come to understand, the issues more they become much happier with what is going on.
It is quite clear that to seriously address much of this poverty, the new technology must be brought to bear. The old methods of government have not addressed that poverty. Despite hundred or more years of traditional administration, poverty is there. The new ideas need to be brought to build new capabilities and that capability is to particularly use the new technology. Most poverty alleviation program world wide begins with the idea
that the best way to address many aspects of poverty is to give people knowledge and information- which are power of people how to do things differently and find a way out of poverty. Information technology is extremely good at bringing knowledge to people whether they are in the remote areas or in more developed areas. This is what it is all about. Information technology is about information and information is a key to alleviate poverty.
I am really enjoying Nepal . I have worked in more than 20 countries and Nepal is a very nice place to live as people are relaxing, and friendly to deal with. It is a good place to be.
Well, part of our proposal includes how to bring technology into areas where there is very limited power supply. We are concerned about that but we need to solve their problems and we have various ideas on that. I think that there would be proposals within our framework for investment into that area.
Most countries around the world engage, in one degree or another, in some aspects of the e-governance. A lot of governments are doing it in a small way and some of them have done it tremendously well like in India . A lot of things are happening in Bangladesh and a lot of things are happening also in Pakistan . Major investment is also going into Sri Lanka . In south Asia region, a lot of things are happening. This would be quite common world wide. Many countries are doing quite a lot in e-governance. E-governance is not
something which comes in a box. There are various ways of going about this. One thing is clear, there is increasing awareness world wide that if governments want to solve the
problems of their communities, old methods no longer can deliver. We really need to bring to bear new technologies as much as possible. These technologies bring information and knowledge to the communities and that is such a major aspect of poverty alleviation program.
Some of the ministries have already done a very good work. We hope in a program we will support those initiatives. In fact, we have been talking to those ministries where things have been happening and asking how we can help build on what they have already started. It is much more easier and much more effective to build on what people have already started and tried.
There are encouraging signs as there are people within the ministries with real initiatives who have started this program and many of them are very good programs and those are the ones which we are looking to single out and give additional support and additional investment. We have no interest in taking them over and we want the ministry and people to continue to take responsibility. So they can get the credit. We just want to see what else we can do to help them along with those initiatives. There will be a couple of areas where less is happening. We are giving a very serious consideration for the areas such as village connectivity at the moment - looking at what we can do for the remote areas.
So far as infrastructures are concerned, there are enough infrastructures in much of the country for us to make a good start. One thing is that you really need to try to build on infrastructures as well as build on e-governance at the same time. A lot more still needs to be done on infrastructure front and we are looking at infrastructure investment plan as a part of this program.
