Many of the Arab countries and Gulf States have started to invest more resources in developing electronic and mobile government solutions and services, to be more citizen-friendly by provide more online information and services. The use of mobile services in the Arab and Gulf regions has expanded tremendously over the last couple of years and thus the opportunity to link mobile to e-government solutions and services will be crucial to the transformation of these countries.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) is collaborating with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) on the organization of a three-day capacity building Workshop on "Electronic/Mobile Government in Arab States: Building Capacity in Knowledge Management through Partnership," during18-20 November 2008, at the UN-ESCWA Headquarters, Beirut, Lebanon.
The Workshop aims to explore regional knowledge on the issues and challenges of e/m-government development in the Arab Region, further explore the concept of the development of the UN Global Knowledge Repository, develop partnerships for capacity building and identify capacity building needs for e/m-government in the region.
The thematic areas of the Workshop include:
Session I: e/m-Government: An Overview
Session II: e/m-Government issues and challenges in Arab and Gulf States
Session III: Capacity Building for e/m-government
Session IV: Country presentations on e/m-government practices and lessons learned
Session V: Capacity building for e/m-Government: the UN Global Knowledge Repository through the UNPAN tools
The sub-themes of Sessions III, IV and V include:
(a) National e/m-government strategies, including official ICT-led development strategies (or policies, plans) and implementation plans;
(b) A legal and regulatory framework, which will discuss the laws and regulations that affect e/m-government development;
(c) ICT infrastructure and interoperability, including IT-security, privacy protection, information exchange among agencies, and back office integration; and
(d) Institutional structure and other enabling environments for e/m-government development.
This collaboration comes in support of the UNDESA initiative towards the establishment of a UN Global Knowledge Repository on Electronic and Mobile Government. The Knowledge Repository initiativewill address major shortcomings in electronic and mobile government research and knowledge transfer, and establish mechanisms for knowledge sharing and resource development on e/m-government.
The work of UNDESA on e/m-government is disseminated through the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) that plays an important role in knowledge sharing, as well as capacity building on e/m-government around the world. For accessing the UNPAN workshop page, please click on another page for the Workshop.
Contacts for the Workshop:
UNDESA:
Mr. Richard Kerby (kerby@un.org), Inter-regional Adviser in Knowledge Management and E-Government, Knowledge Management Branch (KMB), Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM), T +1-917-367-4332, F +1-212-963-0522
Mr. Wai Min Kwok (kwok@un.org) Associate Programme Officer, KMB, DPADM, T +1-917-367-3026, F +1-212-963-0522
Ms. Dolores Tanpinco (tanpinco@un.org), Information Management Assistant, KMB, DPADM, T +1-212-963-4108, F +1-212-963-0522
UN-ECSWA:
Mr. George Younes (younesg@un.org), IT Officer, ICTD, T +961-1978554, F +961-1981510
League of Arab States, Cairo, Egypt
