E-Government Rankings show Major Shifts in Provision

A study of digital government finds that the 198 nations around the world are making steady progress at putting services and information online, but movement forward has been slowed because of budget, bureaucratic, and institutional factors. Taiwan and Singapore lead the table, followed by the United States and Canada. Britain, which ranked seventh last year, is down to a sorry 14th.

The fourth Annual Global E-Government Study undertaken by researchers at Brown University shows that 21% of government agencies around the world are offering online services, up from 16% in 2003, 12% in 2002, and eight percent in 2001.

Conducted by Darrell M. West and colleagues at the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, the research evaluated government websites on two dozen different criteria, including the availability of publications, databases, disability access, privacy, security, and the number of online services.

This year's study reviews 1,935 government websites in 198 countries during June, July, and August, 2004. Among the sites analysed are those of executive offices, legislative offices, judicial offices, Cabinet offices, and major agencies serving crucial functions of government, such as health, human services, taxation, education, interior, economic development, administration, natural resources, foreign affairs, foreign investment, transportation, military, tourism, and business regulation.

Researchers find that 89% of websites have online publications and 62% have links to databases. Only 14% (up from 12% in 2003) show privacy policies and 8% present security policies (up from 6% in 2003). According to automated software provided by the company Watchfire, government websites also are lagging on disability access. Only 14% of sites provide some form of disability access, such as assistance for the vision or hearing-impaired. That figure is unchanged since 2003.

In addition to looking at particular features, researchers also rate countries for overall e-government performance. Using an assessment of number of services plus access to information, disability access, privacy, security, and foreign language translation, each country is rated on a 0 to 100 point scale. Taiwan has shot up from fifth last year to knock Singapore off the top spot, to be followed in unchanged order by the United States and Canada. Then comes Monaco (previously 166th), China (previously 11th), and Australia (fallen from 4th). As indicated, some countries had sizeable moves up from last year based on new features added to their websites. Togo and Germany have both made sizeable gains in the year, while Iraq has claimed 10th place, from a position of 185 last year.

Britain's steady progress has not been sufficient to keep it in the top 10. It shares its 14th slot with Dominica, Liechtenstein and Bahrain. While other surveys have Scandinavia at the top of European 'e-readiness', here the figures were poorer: Denmark slid from 13th to 31st, Finland down to 41 from 13, Iceland to 52 from 21 and Norway down to 71 from 34. Only Sweden rose, to 35 (from 62nd).

Other substantial falls saw The Vatican go down to 86th from 9th, and Turkey from 6th to 62nd. Big falls also included Colombia, Nepal, Tunisia, South Africa, Syria, Somalia and Tajikistan (the last down to 160 from 24), but falls can be accounted for by the rise of other countries as much as a slow-down or reversal of progress at home.

Big jumpers included Liechtenstein, now 14th but formerly 151st, Myanmar rising from 119 to 54 and nearby Laos at 98th, from 196th.

Researchers found that well-developed websites help users explore and learn about the country. The biggest impediments to investigating a government's site were lack of organisation, cluttered portals, technical difficulties, and language barriers. The report suggests that governments undertake several steps to reach their full potential in terms of accessibility and effectiveness. For example, sites for some nations include links that don’t work. Other nations have links that take an incredibly long time to load or lead users to incorrect sites.

Many sites have not been updated for long periods of time. Furthermore, while many sites offered links to email addresses, several such links connected the visitor to an address of a webmaster as opposed to an actual government official.

Websites that were bilingual or multi-lingual were helpful to facilitating accessibility, as long as the link actually took the user to the intended language. Links which automatically reverted back to the original language frustrate those who use the translation service.

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