This document, from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) of the United Nations (UN), is a compilation of electronic (e)-government information and communication technology (ICT) strategies and applications from all geographical regions of the world. DESA's goal in collecting the data and publishing it is for countries to share in the global experience-derived knowledge pool on the topic of e-governance possibilities, thus reducing the costs involved in setting up completely new systems.

The following 3 paragraphs are excerpted from the Executive Summary:

"The main objective of developing the UN/DESA Compendium of Innovative E-government Practices as an ongoing project is to create a venue for promoting innovative e-government solutions, services and products developed and yet to be developed by governments. The Compendium also enables South-South and North-South information-sharing of their respective experiences and innovative practices. In both cases, the focus is on hastening innovation and creating public value for the citizenry.

As noted in the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society of the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005, advances in ICTs, and high-speed data networks are continuously enhancing the prospects for developing countries and countries with economies in transition to participate in the global market for ICT-enabled services on the basis of their comparative advantage...

The Compendium does not promote one solution over another but rather exposes e-government practices that place the citizen in the forefront. It...covers a wide range of innovative practices, such as creating a government portal, providing critical information on agriculture, sharing information on the human immunodeficiency virus and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), finding an innovative way of engaging in ecommerce in developing countries, enhancing public/private partnership and facilitating the interaction between government and its citizens."

The selected cases are organised by region, including Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America and the Caribbean, and Latin America. In this edition, there are 57 countries and 200 case studies, including such functions as service delivery to citizens, information access and sharing, education, e-democracy, health, government portal, e-taxation, e-participation, e-commerce, and e-procurement.