Minister Solly Malatsi: United Nations e-Government Index 2024

South Africa's significant improvement in the United Nations e-Government Index 2024

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies notes and welcomes the great news of South Africa's significant improvement in the United Nations e-Government Index of 2024.

South Africa has improved its ranking from 65 in 2022 to 40 in 2024, out of 193 countries in the UN eGov Development Index. This places the country among well-established economies. South Africa is now leading in Africa, followed by Mauritius (ranked 76) and Tunisia (ranked 87). South Africa and Mauritius are the leaders in e-government development in Africa. For the first time, these countries are part of the very high EGDI group - a reflection of the advancements achieved in digital government skills, services and infrastructure.

The United Nations E-Government Survey is a biennial project and publication created by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) starting in 2001. The Survey evaluates the e-government development status of all 193 United Nations Member States.

Over more than two decades, it has accumulated a rich body of data sets, analysis, and insights regarding the e-government performance of governments all over the world. The Survey aims to facilitate the global achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the vision of leaving no one behind and offline in the digital age.

The UN conducts a United Nations E-Government Survey (UN E-Government Survey 2024) every two years and South Africa participates through providing inputs by national stakeholders, coordinated by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies.

E-government development is monitored by the United Nations E-government index (EGDI) which measures progress at the national level. The EGDI is a composite calculated from weighted average of three normalized indices.

One-third is derived from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index (TII) based on data provided by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), one-third from the Human Capital Index (HCI) based on data mainly provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and one-third from the Online Service Index (OSI) based on data collected from an independent online assessment, conducted by UN DESA, which assesses the national online presence of all 193 United Nations Member States, complemented by a Member State Questionnaire (MSQ).

The great performance by South Africa and Mauritius underscores the region's growing commitment to implementing digital government initiatives aimed at enhancing services delivery, increasing transparency, encouraging e-participation, and strengthening both digital infrastructure and human capital.

Figure 1: UN e-Government Development Index (2024)

The great improvement in the rankings by South Africa is attributed to the multi-stakeholder approach in the implementation of the National e-Government Strategy. The 2019 - 2024 Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) of government's 6th administration, made provision for the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) to ensure the implementation of the National e-Government Strategy and Roadmap in the Public Sector to realise digitized government services for whole of government by 2030.

The DCDT assisted by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) as an execution arm, have jointly developed the National e-Government Portal. From the onset, the key aims were to develop a solution which provides Government with a single view of the Citizen and vice-versa and ensures that Government services are available 24/7 with minimal human interaction. A solution which provides Citizens with Convenience through a single point of access to Government services, reduced turn-around times, which minimizes duplication and loss of documentation.

One which eliminates queuing by Citizens and business operators, which increases accuracy and reduces waste, one which encourages more Citizens to consume Government services that are available. The objective was to automate the interface between government and those whom it serves by creating seamless, easy-to-use digital touchpoints along the journey of this interaction.

A total of 255 government services have been identified for digitization in consultation with Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), with the aim of modernizing the government business processes for improvement of efficiencies in the public service.

The National e-Government Portal currently allows access to 134 e-Services ranging from Agro processing, Exam queries, e-Recruitment and various types of Licensing. It is hosted by SITA and this mobile friendly e-Gov portal can be accessed on the SITA cloud infrastructure via https://www.eservices.gov.za 

The other key contribute to South Africa's impressive ranking is the drafting of the Data and Cloud Strategy, and the National AI Plan. Since 2018, the Survey has also assessed selected city portals of UN Member States using a largely similar methodology, leading to the creation of the Local Online Service Index (LOSI) to measure the advancement in e-government development with comparable features at the city level.

Key South African cities such as Tshwane, City of Joburg, City of Cape Town, etc have also developed portals to offer e-services to citizens. The Survey measures the e-government performance of countries and cities in comparison to one another, as opposed to being an absolute assessment of a certain country and city. This method recognizes that each country and city should be able to decide upon the level and extent of its e-government initiatives to achieve national development priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Survey serves as a benchmarking and development tool for advancing digital transformation, allowing national and local governments to learn from each other, identify areas of strength and challenges in e- government, and shape their policies and strategies for future improvement.

In welcoming this great improvement in the rankings by South Africa, Minister Solly Malatsi highlights that, "as the digital economy gains rapid momentum around the world, South Africa needs to accelerate her National e-Government Programme.

The intention is to see less queues for ID's and passport documents and make the application process more seamless for our people. Our elderly should not wait in queues from early hours of the morning in healthcare facilities to obtain medication. Licenses, permits and many more government services should be paid online.

We strive to continue our efforts to digitally transform our public service to ensure that this vision is achieved. Our continued collaboration with the United Nations on e-Government is therefore critical to ensure that we continue to contribute to the UN e-Government Development Index, but also share knowledge on global policy and technology trends that South Africa can leverage on."

Media enquiries:
Media Liaison Officer
Ms Tlangelani Manganyi
Cell: 060 886 4670
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.dcdt.gov.za 
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