Korean Journal of Policy Studies

Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University

Korean J. Policy Stud. 2015; 30(1):147-184

pISSN: 1225-5017, eISSN: 2765-2807

Article

E-Government Transformation in Tanzania: Status, Opportunities, and Challenges

¹, ²

¹Emmanuel Constantine Lupilya is a government official working in the Office of the President of Tanzania. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, a Master’s of Science in Information Technology obtained from Finland, a Master’s Degree in e-government and e-policy from Seoul, Korea. He is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University. His research interests include e-government, e-government policy, public policy, technology inequality, and e-government transformation in developing countries. E-mail: elupilya@gmail.com.

²Kwangho Jung is a Professor of the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University. He is also a Research Affiliate of the Korea Institute of Public Affairs of Seoul National University. His research focuses on health policy instruments, cabinet ministers, and government trust. Dr..Jung is the corresponding author of this article. E-mail: kwjung77@snu.ac.kr.

Â© Copyright 2015 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Feb 12, 2015; Revised: Mar 21, 2015; Revised: Apr 08, 2015; Accepted: Apr 16, 2015

Published Online: Apr 30, 2015

Abstract

This study examined the status, challenges, and opportunities for egovernment transformation in Tanzania. The study begins by examining the status, challenges, and opportunities of e-government as a potential driver of government transformation. Expert survey results and a SWOT analysis were applied to analyzing the current challenges critical to the initiation, development, and implementation of e-government in Tanzania. Data were collected from Tanzania from May to June 2014 using a focus group discussion and field observations as well as a documentary review. The three factors of technology, social e-transformation, and institutional docility were discussed to see whether they positively or negatively affect e-government transformation. The study found that (1) a reluctance towards transparency and accountability, (2) an avalanche of technology, and (3) an illusion of innovation and technological misfortune led to a stagnant e-government process, yielding more corruption and conflict of competing interests in the whole transformation process. These problems substantially affect technology and social e-transformation whereas institutions become more docile. From the e-government Master Plan to technology policy instruments, including IT/ICT infrastructure policy, information and data privacy and confidentiality, and cybercrimes policy were amongst the most critical challenges. An implication for the successful institutionalization of e-government transformation is that leadership should strategically embrace developing sustainability, planning, coordination, optimization, and integration of IT/ICT infrastructure projects for the betterment of e-government transformation.

Keywords: e-government; ICT Technology; Social e-Transformation; Tanzania; institutions