Speeding - up e-Government in Belarus: public interest and political will

Mikhail Doroshevich¹, Marina Sokolova²

Major developments of recent years prove that the ICT sector consisting of various sub-sectors is expanding in Belarus. But in spite of adopted E-Belarus state programme the comprehensive e-governance strategy hasn't been worked out in Belarus as the programme is oriented generally to organizational and technological upgrading of the public administrations.At that, electronic service delivery and managerial efficiency are the dominant rationales. Issues of wide public participation in democratic process are not mentioned in the programme and the place of citizens and CSOs is not defined. At the same time enhancing political will and publicizing e-governance issues should become priorities together with telecommunications infrastructure, human capital within the government (skills and knowledge), existing and expected budgetary resources, e-business climate and public servants' readiness to change.

Major developments of recent years prove that the ICT sector consisting of various sub-sectors (e.g., telecommunications, electronics, software, hardware, services, etc.) is expanding and infiltrating business, administration, education in Belarus.

A country's online presence begins to expand as its number of official websites increase. Government publications, legislation, newsletters become available to the public.

These trends have made Belarusian government to pursue an array of ICT-related laws and regulations. In February of 2003 the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus published its programme for the widespread introduction of information technology to government from 2003 to 2010. In 2003-2005 the government will allocate E15m (BYR32bn) for the implementation of the programme [1]. E-Minsk, Belarusian Development Portal, Online Municipal Payments are considered to be other strategic documents for ICT development in Belarus.

But, though bureaucratic structures become more and more aware of the role of information, information systems and information technologies in administrative processes, there is still the lack of understanding that focusing only on computers will not make officials more productive and that e-government is a reform process and not merely the computerization of government operations. As the result no comprehensive e-Government strategy has been worked out in Belarus. Thus, the priorities of E-Belarus programme are the following.

1. Creation of all-state information systems (IS) aimed at collection, storage and processing of information about the major elements of socio-economic and political processes on the basis of forming a unified national information system including the formation of departmental and regional information resources.

2. Improvement and development of the national information-telecommunication infrastructure with the access to the global information network.

3. Development and improvement of ICT and applied software and creation of information service market in the Republic.

4. Perfection of the legislative basis including the system of legal informatization and the system of state regulation in the sphere of informatization.

5. Perfection of the activities of the state bodies and local management bodies by means of using ICT and access to Internet.

6. Development of informatization processes in sector of real economy including the sector of real economy including the creation of electronic trade system.

7. Creation of the system of training and retraining ICT specialists and qualified users.

8. Promotion of the development of mass media by introducing ICT.

9. Perfection of the system of information security in the republic with regard for the Conception of national security.

In fact, the final result of the Program realization must be creation of the all-state automated information system, forming national IS and providing for information cooperation of the systems of different levels with the access to the global information network.

Thus the key focus of E-Belarus programme is the development of telecommunication infrastructure, widespread introduction of information technology to government in order to collect and process data and information security which are regarded as a step of transition to information society. The programme is oriented generally to organizational and technological upgrading of the public administrations, and electronic service delivery and managerial efficiency are the dominant rationales.

Issues of wide public participation in democratic process haven't been are not mentioned in the programme and the place of citizens and CSOs is not defined.

As the result no comprehensive e-Government strategy has been worked out in Belarus. Attention now is mostly focused on using ICTs to modernize the state which is problematic as technology may be implemented without references to governance or societal goals. At the same time the e-government programme is based on "government-as-business" model that prioritises getting services online, mechanistic e-service targets and applies to government improvements tools and techniques as the way to increase its business efficiency.

But, as Katherine Reily has shown, only in case a country strategy takes into account not only e-government but e-governance and e-democracy, it will more likely to respond to the needs of the society as a whole [2]. And for Belarus with its specific political culture it is very important to use an e-governance narrative which applies to a "citizen" or "inhabitant" (terms which connote notions of democracy and community, rather than market or business) to describe the people interacting with public organizations. Another important basis for a comprehensive strategy is the understanding by key actors that e-government is not just a programme but a process based on society's most urgent needs.

Thus in Belarus enhancing political will and publicizing e-governance issues are priorities together with telecommunications infrastructure, human capital within the government (skills and knowledge), existing and expected budgetary resources, e-business climate and public servants' readiness to change.

It has been noted that the bureaucracy appears to be increasing its influence through ICTs as it has the resources to enhance its synthesising and advising role [3]. At present 50 Belarusan governmental institutions have their web sites [4]. While Belarusian legislators have only four sites: the upper chamber of the parliament- the Council of the Republic (http://pravo.by/StateLaw/parliament.htm); Respublika - a deputy group at the lower chamber - the House of Representatives (http://www.dgrespublika.org/) and two personal sites of deputies - http://www.cherginets.by/(upper chamber) and http://www.morozov.by (lower chamber). Legislatures are squeezed between the general public and the executive power and their relations with the general public haven't changed much. At the same time not bureaucrats but legislators, as representatives of their voters, are the channel through which the public speaks to the government. We can add here that of 18 officially registered political parties only 7 have their websites[5] and only about 64 (of more than 1500) NGOs are represented online[6].

All these facts make us suggest that e-governance strategies implementation in Belarus depends less on technology and more on social and cultural development, on political will and on public interest. It is obvious that without active political leadership and without public participation no e-governance strategy could be developed and implemented.

In order to achieve that government must attach higher priority to opening the policy process and welcoming online dialogue on important issues; parliament should more actively interact with citizens and it is necessary that citizens manifest greater interest in participating in political life through greater penetration of the Internet and other digital transmission technologies.

Though, as Roberto Gualtieri has shown, even the potential impact of the increasing use of these technologies to further participation in the policy-making process should not be exaggerated, it is possible that as citizens, public servants and parliamentarians access to and use of the Internet continues to grow, politicians could become more motivated to take into account its growing political force and adjust their approach to policy development to better exploit the internet's potential for sharing of information and consulting with the public. Interactive policy fora and e-mail could come into greater use for communication on policy issues. They could become a new type of speedy, inexpensive, relatively easy, low-barrier, informal input which could spur the public's interest and desire to shape policy[7].

One of the initiatives launched recently by UNDP in Belarus is a mile stone in this direction. One of the main objectives of the UNDP ICT project is to raise the awareness and provide training to government officials and parliamentarians in basic IT literacy, information management practices, and ICT-related administrative and legal issues in Belarus. The project includes basic training in IT literacy, facilitation of mailing lists, webmasters, and information managers, as well as ICT policy issues such as electronic document regulations, information management, privacy and security considerations. The training of trainers on the basis of methodologies, curricular, delivery techniques, and content adapted to each level of trainees among civil servants, policy makers and civil society will improve ICT literacy of government officials and parliamentarians.

The other objective is to support the dialogue between parliamentarians and electorate. As the Belarusian parliament develops its role in the country, it is increasingly interacting with citizens, with government and other parts of Belarus society to determine legislation and influence national programmes. However, the ability of the citizen to influence this increasing role is limited by many of the traditional barriers between elected representatives and their electorate inherited from the Soviet period. Although the spread of ICTs in Belarus has provided opportunities for ICTs to be used in many new ways, they have so far been hardly used to narrow the gap between the parliamentarians and the people they represent. That is why it is essential to overcome these barriers impeding citizen's influence and interaction with parliamentarians, by increasing the understanding among deputies in the Belarusian Parliament of the opportunities new technologies can provide to improve democracy; and through providing them tools to start doing this.

The importance of such initiatives is also proved by the fact that politicians will rotate in and out of parliament and support from the citizens can help sustain interest and commitment to e-government when there is a change in political leadership.

One of the core activities in the framework of the project is a series of round table discussions of ICT and e-government issues (Information Society and Informatization in Belarus) by parliamentarians, government officials, representatives of the private sector and other stakeholders. The short term objective of round table discussions (ICT Market, Legal Aspects of Informatization Policies, ICT and Public Administration, Social Dimensions of ICT Applications, Development of ICT strategies) is to increase understanding of e-governance related issues among government officials, politicians, parliamentarians and other stake holders and make them "e-literate" so that they have some basic understanding of ICT potential. In the long run the combined activities of permanent working groups and round table discussions will help to overcome resistance of civil servants to e-government initiatives, to create realistic business models for e-government projects, to establish public-private partnership, to identify other counterparts and to develop comprehensive national e-governance strategy.

At the same time these series of activities intended for 2-5 years will sustain politicians' interest in e-government issues and motivate them to push ahead with at least modest e-government initiatives.

Though discussing e-government vision and ICT strategies in speeches, meetings and trainings is effective for civil servants, politicians and parliamentarians, it is necessary to communicate these visions and strategies to broader audience. Here comes the task 'to sell" the concept of e-government to a wider public in Belarus. Good will among citizens and civil society organizations increases demand for e-government and thus generates further political will among political leaders

Thus members of Parliament for the first time participated in 'BY 2003', Belarus' fifth annual internet forum, which took place in Minsk in March 2003. And in June members of "Fostering economic reforms'(a group formed by the deputies of Belarusian parliament) had an out session in Internet cafe and answered the questions of journalists and on line queries.

In order to publicise the ideas of information society and e-governance E-Belarus.org initiative has been launched. E-Belarus.org is a site about ICT developments in Republic of Belarus for information society improvement. ICT news and reviews, links to other sites give a broad vision of the present situation in Belarus and Belarusian ICT potential for e-government reforms. It is planned to place ICT legislation reviews, articles on various aspects of e-governance and e-democracy and information on new e-government initiatives in Belarus at the web-site. That will encourage stakeholders to participate in defining a general vision of e-governance and will ensure that the key constituents and communities will understand and support e-government programmes.

As the democratic environment for comprehensive e-governance strategy is generally incomplete it expected that all the activities listed above will foster sustainable political will among legislators and politicians and will encourage public interest in e-governance issues. And, in the long run, citizens, as well as parliamentarians will not only make suggestions or give feed back but will become agenda setters for e-governance strategies and CSOs will be recognized as having a role and contribution to e-government.

References

[1] E-Belarus. State Programme of Informatization of the Republic of Belarus for 2003-2005 (2010) adopted by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus 27.12.2002 N1819
[2] Reilly, K. 2003: Government, ICTs and Civil Society in Central America. Available at: http://katherine.reilly.net/e-governance
[3] Gualtieri, R. 1998: Impact of the emerging information society on the policy development process and democratic quality. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/puma/
[4] Doroshevich, M. Sokolova, M. Belarus: two dimensions of e-democracy "E-Democracy: Technology, Law and Politics"Report of the working group E-DemocracyNovember 2003 Available at:http://www.e-belarus.org/article/edemocracy2003.html
[5]Source:http://top.akavita.by/top.pl?category=Society_and_Politics&per=30days&what=visitors&by=by&lang=be
[6] Source: http://www.ngo.by/ru/monitngo/anlt/
[7] Gualtieri, R. 1998: Impact of the emerging information society on the policy development process and democratic quality. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/puma/

Eastern European e|Gov Day, Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Science, March 12, 2004

¹ GIPI CIS Technical Coordinator
² Ph.D. Senior Researcher National Academy of Sciences of Republic of Belarus

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