Bridges.org

The Cape Gateway Project centres on developing an information resource which will be accessible to the public through an online portal, a telephone contact centre, and a centrally located walk-in resource centre in Cape Town, South Africa. Bridges.org was engaged to conduct an independent evaluation of the Cape Gateway Project, specifically to assess whether the portal element employed "best practice" in e-government and delivered "real access" to online government information to citizens.

Executive summary

"The Cape Gateway project is the first step in the staged introduction of e-government in the Western Cape. The establishment of Cape Gateway and its information portal are central to the Provincial Government of the Western Cape's (PGWC) efforts to introduce e-government to the Province. The term "e-government" focuses on the use of information and communications technology (ICT) by governments when applied to the full range of government functions. In particular, the networking effect offered by the Internet and related technologies has the potential to transform the structures and operation of government. The impact of this transformation is felt in improved levels of service delivery, increased efficiency, reduced costs and greater government/citizen interaction. It is generally accepted that a staged introduction of "e-government" practices is the best way to achieve success and overcome resistance to change in what has hitherto been a bureaucratic and cumbersome process. The Western Cape Government has begun a process that will eventually give citizens better access to information by means of a portal, contact (call) centre and walk-in centre where people will be able to access information anywhere and anytime. It established the Cape Online Programme in December 2001 as a vehicle for achieving this.

A key focus of the Cape Online Programme of projects is the delivery of information and services through a networked environment. These are crucial to the establishment of the information society in the Western Cape. Numerous e-government and portal initiatives are at varying stages of formulation and implementation at national, provincial and local government level in South Africa. The PGWC undertook an e-government e-readiness assessment to ascertain how existing national e-government initiatives would interrelate with provincial government attempts to coordinate e-government service. The overall vision of Cape Gateway is to provide access to government services within a clearly defined and executed e-government strategy. It does so via Cape Gateway Operations (which comprises a walk-in centre and a contact centre operational during office hours) and Cape Gateway Development (comprising the portal, operational 24/7/365). E-government is not just about service delivery through another channel, it is about improved service delivery. Also, it is about more than just the introduction of technology to the process, it is about an underpinning approach to the way(s) in which people have access to information. These are attempts to improve the efficacy of public administration service delivery; however these changes all take place within broader attempts at public sector reform which include steps to improve internal efficiencies, processes and begin adjusting processes and perspectives to take into account the manner in which information technology is changing the way the public administration is being run.

The overall objective for the bridges.org evaluation was to gauge the effectiveness of the project to provide information to citizens, business and government customers with Cape Gateway as a single point of access via the following channels, a portal, walk-in centre and contact (call) centre. This evaluation looked at two main questions:

• Best practice. Did the Cape Online Programme implement accepted best practice principles in the Cape Gateway portal? If not, what is needed to put the portal in line with international best practice?
• Real access. Will the Cape Gateway portal give the citizens of the Western Cape Province Real Access to online government information?

The evaluation found that the Knowledge Economy & E-Government (KEEG) Branch of the PGWC has consistently tried to adopt best practice in their work, and to take full cognizance of the needs of the citizens of the Western Cape. Their methodology has been externally focused and driven by customer demand. They have met all of the Real Access criteria set by the evaluators, and are committed to passing on the fruits of their work to others engaged in this kind of work, and at little or no cost. They have encountered a number of obstacles, the majority from external bodies and out of their control. Wherever possible they have overcome these obstacles and the lessons learned will be invaluable for the later stages of this project and others that KEEG and the PGWC will undertake in the future. Principally, the need for more flexible and informal structures in the Provincial Government, the removal of bureaucratic hurdles, and increased awareness of the benefits that ICT and e-government can bring for all citizens and members of government are all issues that need to be addressed.

The main findings of this evaluation are that the Cape Gateway Portal project will achieve its objective of delivering government information to the public and that the project adopted best practice wherever possible. There were a number of valuable lessons learned from the project that can be applied to further deployment of government portals in developing countries. A number of obstacles to technology use have also been identified which will need to be overcome in order to promote the efficient implementation and widespread adoption of the portal.

Even with a short timeframe and despite several setbacks, largely outside the control of the implementing team, the project has achieved a number of key deliverables. The walk-in centre and contact (call) centre will be launched in June 2003. The portal itself is expected to go live in December 2003. The project has been an overall success in that it accomplished its goals to provide the citizens of the Western Cape with better access to accurate, up to date information about government. The government has also gained the benefit of experience, which has been documented through this report. It is important that the project now complete its final stages by building on the lessons learned. In addition, the valuable lessons learned from this experience should be disseminated outside the Western Cape so that others can benefit from the KEEG Team's experience."