Source: U.N. (2008)

According to the U.N. e-Government report (2008), Zambia’s web presence ranked 158th out of 192 member states in 2008. This is applausible progress from 2005 when Zambia did not have a web presence at all. In 2005  finding decent websites wasn’t as easy as today and if you did there were either for private companies or some individuals – there were no Government websites. But what is the situation like today? Has anything changed since? Of the 192 Member States, 189 were online in 2008. Only 3 of the 12 countries that did not provide any services online in 2005 were still in the same situation as of 2008. And guess what? Zambia was one of them. The other two were Somalia & the Central African Republic.

Source: U.N. (2008)

In 2008, according to the pie chart Zambia was in the 2% of the countries of Governments without websites.

Are you surprised? Well, I am not. Simply because not long ago (even as late as December 2009) the website of the Head of State of the Republic of Zambia read:

“website under construction”.

Apparently, this was picked up in the many circles of the Zambian communities from online forums, newspapers, weblogs to vast individuals wherever they met. Obviously, this does not set a good example for Government, which is supposed  to be transparent and engaging to its citizens. It’s nice that the website is up & running, but I wish the situation could have been treated as a matter of urgency by the concerned authorities!

Now, given these hard facts about Zambia and its lack of web presence; it doesn’t sit very well with the fact that Zambia is currently one of the leading advocates on ICT issues in Africa.  In fact, this year’s prestigious 5th International Conference on ICT4D will take place under the patronage of Zambia. Apart from such international commitments on ICT issues; Zambia enacted the ICT policy 3 years ago and is currently transforming the health, immigration and agricultural sectors using ICT technologies. At the same time, it is also pursuing the controversial Zambian vision 2030 to integrate its facilities to provide better access to information for its citizens.

Now ask yourself. With all these efforts Zambia is engaged in. How possible is it that we are being compared to Somalia (a country with an unstable Government) & the Central African Republic? How could that be? I mean, when you type the word ‘Zambia’ in Google or any other search engine you get millions & millions of search results with some decent websites? Is that all for nothing? Or could it be that Zambia’s web presence since 2008 has taken another huge leap like it did in 2005 from having no web presence to ranking 158th?

Zambia online

HOW THE U.N. CLASSIFIES COUNTRIES IN GROUPS OF E-GOVERNANCE:

• High e-government capacity [index 2.00-3.25]
• Medium e-government capacity [index 1.60-1.99]
• Minimal e-government capacity [index 1.00-1.59]
• **Deficient e-government capacity [index below 1.00]

Unsuprisingly, **Zambia is categorized as having deficient e-government capacity with an index of 0.76 below Zimbabwe, Congo, South Africa and Burkina Faso in the Africa category. These are really bad figures, but what can be done to improve the situation? I think as a people we are already headed in the right direction (especially in the blogosphere) and it is our hope that our Government will learn from this and get their act together.

HERE IS A QUICK FIX TO IMPROVE ON THE CURRENT SITUATION:

• Improve our National Homepage (currently it appears to be more of a news portal than linking those important Government ministries, departments, regional and local government offices.
• Ensure that all the national government websites and e-government policies are integrated and coherent. Appoint and put to account an e-government leader who should be responsible for implementing the national e-government policy, manage the risks involved in implementing e-government applications and services and to ensure that citizens have input in future e-government policies. Just 4 days ago, the President of the Computer Society of Zambia (CSZ) said that there is lack of implementation of ICT policies in the country. Given our current situation this is not acceptable!
• The Government should diversify how citizens receive information and e-government services through means such as e-mail, cellular phones and PDA’s. Of course, security is one of the major concerns citizens have in using e-government services; so as long as there is assurance that the information they enter online is safe, secure and remains confidential – people are likely to jump on board.
• Also those of you in the blogosphere try to link your blogs to some of these Government departments and spread the word if you think what you know is worth others knowing about.

In the next few weeks we shall follow up on this issue on e-government services in relation to the current blogosphere in Zambia for both individuals & companies.

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