Electronic government is much more than computerized government. It is an open and adaptable government to better meet society’s needs. It should use information and communication technologies to broaden citizenship, increase the transparency of management and the participation of citizens in monitoring of government, and to democratize access to information technologies.

 The priority for Brazilian governments at all levels of the federation is to put all public services online, except those which require face-to-face personal contact. Furthermore, these services should be integrated at the national level through the Internet. Another essential element to create a financing mechanism for electronic government at the lowest level of the federation, the municípios (something between counties and cities), never losing sight of the fact that this program will certainly have to include elements to promote digital inclusion (bridging the digital divide).  

Digital inclusion has come to be the war on poverty in the information age. It can help reverse the mechanisms which perpetuate misery and open prospects of employment for millions of youth and adults. But it is not a solution for all social problems. With it, we will be in a position to compete in the global economy. Without it, we will not have a chance of competing and bettering the lives of our people. Information is a basic economic and social resource. Its production, storage and processing are products which add value. By fighting double illiteracy, functional and digital, it will be possible to create better jobs. Digital inclusion is one of the levers to promote economic growth and which should be integrated into a fundamental change in course: the resumption of economic development with better income distribution and social justice.

The Presient Lula’s Government Program sets goals in the area of information technology and explains clearly why this is an important area:

Information technology is the great phenomenon of the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. With the dissemination of computers, the Internet and mobile communication, societies gain powerful tools for spreading knowledge to the masses and for increasing productivity of nations, of their industries, of their services and more broadly of all economic and cultural activity. The challenge, in the information age, is to prevent information technology from creating divide between those who have, and those that do not have access to the goods and skills required in the digital era.

More than ever, sectoral policies should e integrated so that we take advantage of the synergy and productivity gains in meeting social demands. We have an historic opportunity to take advantage of the technological convergence in the digitalization of voice, image and data.

To explain the benefits that the use of information technology brings to different governmental sectors, the Government Program proposes three principal lines for orienting the information management:

·         Management and governability. To promote horizontal and vertical integration of government structures and coordination and monitoring of their actions.

·         Electronic Government. To stimulate the broadest delivery of quality services and information to citizens.

·         Democratization of access to information technologies. To encourage the creation of mechanisms and policies that permit learning, access and massive incorporation of information technologies, and that enable the sharing of solutions between different levels of government.

Our suggestions are intended to promote the achievement of these objectives, which we consider appropriate not only for the Federal Government, but also for the states and municípios in the economic, political and social context Brazil faces. Therefore we propose principles which can guide the actions of Brazilian governments. Then we proceed to suggest priority lines of action.

 Principles 

The principles we propose should serve as beacons to guide actions when intense work and inevitable conflicts could make us loose our strategic direction in the  smoke and noise of daily battles. The principles have a temporal and logical sequence.. 

Study national and international experience

They say that those who don’t study history are condemned to repeat it. A government can learn much from the experiences of other countries as well as of the federal, state, and local governments in Brazil. As our analysis shows, there are cases of undeniable success and also of partial and total failures. 

At the federal level there are many examples. But the experiences of the leading state e-governments – like Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, São Paulo, and Rio Grande do Sul – are worth study.  At the municipal level, interesting experience has accumulated in Porto Alegre, Santo André, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ipatinga, and Victoria, among many others.  

Brazil can aspire to enter into the first world in the field of electronic government. The experience of large developed countries with federal structures, such as Australia, Canada, Germany and the United States (all above Brazil in the benchmarking studies of the United Nations and Accenture[i]) suggests models which can serve as goals in the medium and long terms, once studied from a Brazilian perspective. 

There are also some emerging countries with electronic governments which warrant study; this is the case for South Africa, Chile, Israel, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. It should be emphasized that no relevant experience, from whatever country, should be excluded: Brazil is so diverse that even in the experience of much poorer countries there are parallels that can be established with regard to some Brazilian regions.  

Two works dedicated to problems of e-government in developing Countries – that of the Center for democracy and Technology and the InfoDev Program of the World Bank (2002) and of the Working Group for e-Government in the Developing World of the Pacific Council for International Policy (2002) – are especially interesting sources and offer many lessons derived from a large number of national experiences. Brazilian specialists participated in both these studies.

Develop strategy and priorities

Since resources are finite and scarce, we have to define a strategy that, without losing flexibility and creativity, helps in making tough decisions. The demand for resources will always be greater than the supply. A well-designed strategy, attuned to the priority objectives of the government in other areas, facilitates choices as well as helping set priorities for the general objectives of e-government. We suggest some priorities, but the final selection should be made thorough a participatory process organized by the government, perhaps in the contest of the Executive Committee for Electronic Government.

Create new programs

Creativity is a characteristic of the Brazilian people. After studying national and international experiences, gaps or failures in existing programs will be visible as well as possibilities for creating new alliances, designing new programs, or perfecting existing ones. It is worth while remembering how important incentives are for mobilizing more resources and ideas – above all positive incentives, such as financial resources, and human ones such as professional recognition.

Start new programs with pilot projects

Because of the lack of resources, new programs and projects should not receive large amounts of resources without previously being tested and evaluated in pilot projects. After the tests, it is necessary to broaden the scope of pilot projects, thus a rule of e-government is “Think big, start small, scale rapidly”.

Join forces with successful programs

In Brazil, as in many other countries, there is a tendency to create new projects and programs even when others already exist, but organized by other governments, institutions, or the private or third sectors. A national strategy should sum forces and build on strengths, that is take advantage of what works well, integrating it into a broader strategy. Recognizing the success of others is a way to adapt it to the national strategy without having to reinvent the wheel or test new projects and programs. In this way effort and resources can be saved for areas in which there are no existing programs, but which fall within general government priorities. This principle can be applied to state and municipal projects and programs as well as federal ones, or those of NGOs and the private sector.

Integrate horizontally and vertically

Our suggestions are intended to promote the achievement of these objectives, which we consider appropriate not only for the Federal Government, but also for the states and municípios in the economic, political and social context Brazil faces. Therefore we propose principles which can guide the actions of Brazilian governments. Then we proceed to suggest priority lines of action.

Principles 

The principles we propose should serve as beacons to guide actions when intense work and inevitable conflicts could make us loose our strategic direction in the  smoke and noise of daily battles. The principles have a temporal and logical sequence. 

Study national and international experience

They say that those who don’t study history are condemned to repeat it. A government can learn much from the experiences of other countries as well as of the federal, state, and local governments in Brazil. As our analysis shows, there are cases of undeniable success and also of partial and total failures. 

At the federal level there are many examples. But the experiences of the leading state e-governments – like Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, São Paulo, and Rio Grande do Sul – are worth study.  At the municipal level, interesting experience has accumulated in Porto Alegre, Santo André, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ipatinga, and Victoria, among many others.  

Brazil can aspire to enter into the first world in the field of electronic government. The experience of large developed countries with federal structures, such as Australia, Canada, Germany and the United States (all above Brazil in the benchmarking studies of the United Nations and Accenture[i]) suggests models which can serve as goals in the medium and long terms, once studied from a Brazilian perspective. 

There are also some emerging countries with electronic governments which warrant study; this is the case for South Africa, Chile, Israel, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. It should be emphasized that no relevant experience, from whatever country, should be excluded: Brazil is so diverse that even in the experience of much poorer countries there are parallels that can be established with regard to some Brazilian regions.  

Two works dedicated to problems of e-government in developing Countries – that of the Center for democracy and Technology and the InfoDev Program of the World Bank (2002) and of the Working Group for e-Government in the Developing World of the Pacific Council for International Policy (2002) – are especially interesting sources and offer many lessons derived from a large number of national experiences. Brazilian specialists participated in both these studies. 

Develop strategy and priorities

Since resources are finite and scarce, we have to define a strategy that, without losing flexibility and creativity, helps in making tough decisions. The demand for resources will always be greater than the supply. A well-designed strategy, attuned to the priority objectives of the government in other areas, facilitates choices as well as helping set priorities for the general objectives of e-government. We suggest some priorities, but the final selection should be made thorough a participatory process organized by the government, perhaps in the contest of the Executive Committee for Electronic Government.  

Create new programs

Creativity is a characteristic of the Brazilian people. After studying national and international experiences, gaps or failures in existing programs will be visible as well as possibilities for creating new alliances, designing new programs, or perfecting existing ones. It is worth while remembering how important incentives are for mobilizing more resources and ideas – above all positive incentives, such as financial resources, and human ones such as professional recognition. 

Start new programs with pilot projects

Because of the lack of resources, new programs and projects should not receive large amounts of resources without previously being tested and evaluated in pilot projects. After the tests, it is necessary to broaden the scope of pilot projects, thus a rule of e-government is “Think big, start small, scale rapidly”.  

Join forces with successful programs

In Brazil, as in many other countries, there is a tendency to create new projects and programs even when others already exist, but organized by other governments, institutions, or the private or third sectors. A national strategy should sum forces and build on strengths, that is take advantage of what works well, integrating it into a broader strategy. Recognizing the success of others is a way to adapt it to the national strategy without having to reinvent the wheel or test new projects and programs. In this way effort and resources can be saved for areas in which there are no existing programs, but which fall within general government priorities. This principle can be applied to state and municipal projects and programs as well as federal ones, or those of NGOs and the private sector.  

Integrate horizontally and vertically

Isolated projects and programs do not have the same potential as those which integrate the actions of various agencies at one level of the federation – we call this horizontal integration – or, and this is more difficult but often meets the needs of citizens, that integrate the action of agencies at the municipal, state and or federal level – vertical integration. Well executed, such integration in the virtual world can lead to public administration reform because it reveals the overlapping requirements of different agencies, unnecessary expenditures of resources, and lack of respect for citizens.  

Integrating processes in public administration is a difficult task because there are both political and technological challenges to confront.  Even when preparation for such integration can be accomplished at the technical level, making integrated processes viable depends on negotiations at the strategic level, political circumstances, and the relative strength of the actors involved. 

An example of desirable horizontal and vertical integration is the process for establishing a new business. It is a bureaucratic nightmare – lawyers and agents run between agencies of the município, the state and the federal government.[ii] A citizen doesn’t care whether the agencies with which she has to deal are municipal, state, or federal. As two Brazilian specialists explain, the ideal for an integrated e-government is the following:  

In dealing with government, citizens or businesses do not need to go to innumerable different agencies to get something done, such as getting married or divorced, opening a business, or obtaining a license for whatever. It is possible to resolve everything in one place, with one password. The user doesn’t need to know what agencies or departments are mobilized to provide a given service or supply certain information. What goes on behind the electronic interface is of no interest to him.[iii]

Isolated projects and programs do not have the same potential as those which integrate the actions of various agencies at one level of the federation – we call this horizontal integration – or, and this is more difficult but often meets the needs of citizens, that integrate the action of agencies at the municipal, state and or federal level – vertical integration. Well executed, such integration in the virtual world can lead to public administration reform because it reveals the overlapping requirements of different agencies, unnecessary expenditures of resources, and lack of respect for citizens.

Integrating processes in public administration is a difficult task because there are both political and technological challenges to confront.  Even when preparation for such integration can be accomplished at the technical level, making integrated processes viable depends on negotiations at the strategic level, political circumstances, and the relative strength of the actors involved.

An example of desirable horizontal and vertical integration is the process for establishing a new business. It is a bureaucratic nightmare – lawyers and agents run between agencies of the município, the state and the federal government.[ii] A citizen doesn’t care whether the agencies with which she has to deal are municipal, state, or federal. As two Brazilian specialists explain, the ideal for an integrated e-government is the following:

In dealing with government, citizens or businesses do not need to go to innumerable different agencies to get something done, such as getting married or divorced, opening a business, or obtaining a license for whatever. It is possible to resolve everything in one place, with one password. The user doesn’t need to know what agencies or departments are mobilized to provide a given service or supply certain information. What goes on behind the electronic interface is of no interest to him.[iii]

G2G – Government Intranets

A form of integration is within the state machinery, in which electronic government can streamline the internal government functions, such as an electronic database on federal civil servants, carried out by Siorg, the Organizational Information System of the Federal Government (see www.siorg.redegoverno.gov.br). Part of the information is made available for the public (G2C), the rest is restricted to use within the government (G2G).

 G2B – Extranet with suppliers and investors

This type of integration unites government agencies with suppliers and/or private investors or other organizations. It allows e-procurement, making payments or paying fees and taxes, exchanging information, etc. 

The existence of an electronic relationship with the government can be a favorable factor in attracting firms that have automated business processes. The lack of such a relationship will be unfavorable when the supply of electronic services is generalized  between states and municípios.  

G2C – Personalized Internet for citizens

This is the new interface between the citizen and his/her governments. An example is the main federal government portal (www.e.gov.br), which allows access to a wide range of government services, from simple information to individualized financial transactions, such as the payment of taxes. The portal offers limited integration with state and municipal governments, that is, access is provided without a true vertical integration in the provision of services. The low-risk practice is to automate the provision of an existing service, common in almost all e-government projects, which brings lesser gains. Nevertheless, if a public administration succeeds in orienting service provision in the eyes of the user – whether a citizen or a legal entity such as a firm – the gains will certainly be greater. But this redesign will encounter challenges of integration at the political and technical levels. 

It is necessary to develop portals, for they are a new channel for delivering public services and information, but also two-way communication between government and society.[iv] Governments are going to offer public services with interagency integrated processes, using the Web or by traditional means of delivering public services supported by technology. Governments can do it proactively, in order to provide better services and information to society, or reactively, responding to the demands of society to operate within the new paradigm for service delivery being established by the private sector.  

Portal development is generating gains which are perceived by users in timely delivery, quality, and time-saving by avoiding the need to physically visit different government agencies. For government there are gains in greater transparency, lower costs, and increased capacity to meet demand.  

“Thematic” portals can be developed, and there is the possibility of the user of building her own, personal portal. There are profiles of different users. Still to be developed could be a government page which could be standard for any desired service, with the advantage of increasing the audience at a single website, similarly the commercial or political exploitation of this audience. Alternatively, different Web interfaces could be provided, designed to fit the citizen’s, professional’s, or busines’ usage patterns in dealing with the government. Thus it is possible to build portals “on demand” for each user group’s needs for consultation government databases and for each usage profile for delivering services which the government provides. Such portals are points of entry for the network, and technology allows mass customization. It is possible to build a generic portal and specific ones for different user groups. At the limit, each citizen can be allowed to personalize her interface with government. Specific examples would be a portal for business people, with economic indicators, news, business opportunities, links of interest, offers for training workers, incentives, the possibility of receiving offers of potential employees; a “student” portal, with enrolments, educational history, available positions in public and private education and training institutions, government programs, competitions, libraries, offers of internships, and interesting links; a “workers’ portal” with economic indicators, legislation, issuing of work cards, and again interesting links. If all had the same search engine for selecting from a universe of available information and services, different views of the same government could be constructed. The number of users of each portal will be reduced, but there will be a gain in the homogenization of the user profiles. The building of thematic portals based on government services can also be outsourced to private organizations.

Collectivize Internet access

Digital exclusion must be fought by an active policy of digital inclusion. Where distance or income do not allow access to the Internet and e-government from the citizen’s home, it is necessary to collectivize access through telecenters, infocenters, public libraries, schools, etc. A wide range of organizational forms is available to adapt to the technological and socal conditions of each location, of each community. Such collective access centers can be maintained directly by governments (municipal, state, or federal); indirectly, with subsidies from these governments to community organizations or NGOs; or by the private sector (Internet cafés or cabinas can already be seen in many Brazilian cities and towns). The creation of private telecenters can be en encouraged through tax incentives, or even through reverse auctions, where the firm offering to deliver a specific list of services at the lowest cost, in conditions established by governments, wins the subsidy and becomes subject to monitoring by the populace and by the State.  

More experimentation and even healthy competition is desirable, not only between various organizational forms, but also among technologies. For example, there are various broadband technologies – via coaxial cable, via conventional telephone lines (DSL, ADSL), via fiber optic cable, via electric power lines (PLC), even via satellite in more remote regions, especially in the Amazon and rural areas of the Northeast and Center West. Which of these technologies can offer the lowest prices in each location? How can healthy competition be encouraged? And, for new models of collective access, the government can encourage competition with prizes for the best solutions. From each experience there should be an effort to learn something through a systematic evaluation.  

The knowledge available from telecenters of various types in Brazil and various parts of the world, from Canada, with 8,800 community access points, to South Africa. NGOs like sampa.org (www.sampa.org),[v] the Committee for the Democratization of Information Technology (www.cdi.org.br)[vi] and Rits, the Information Network of the Third Sector (www.rits.org.br) have engaged in partnerships with governments to operate telecenters.

Ideally, telecenters should progress toward models of sustainability, charging small fees for their services, mobilizing volunteers and training them. The financial resources should come from multiple non-governmental sources; governmental resources should be used to establish new telecenters, which later are weaned from State support.

Democratize content and access

Electronic democracy demands real democracy, that is popular participation. From the outset, citizens need to know that information and services are available. In telecenters content of interest to each locality can be developed. Talent can be developed quickly, especially among youth, as long as there is adequate organization. There are already examples – like the telecentros in the muncípio of São Paulo and the infocentros of São Paulo’s state government that participate in the Access São Paulo program.  

Democratization of access is essentially another name for capilarization, or reaching the grass roots. Public policy should be concerned with access for persons having their first contact with the Internet and/or with different levels of literacy or with special needs, as in the case of people with various kinds of deficiencies (blind, deaf, dumb, crippled, etc.). They can return to the public the gains obtained with installing Web-based services. Although there are few attempts to measure such gains, there is a perception that providing such services brings a reduction in operating costs. If this is confirmed, the gain obtained is democratized, with better service quality. Investments in telephone call centers (0-800 services), mobile posts, and computer centers in schools are among the ways to democratize access to public services.[vii] 

Reform public administration[viii]

We already touched on the matter of administrative reform when we discussed the principal of horizontal and vertical integration. The e-government portal is the departure point, but alone it is not enough. The ideal portal individualizes the citizen’s relationship with his governments. It matters little to the citizen whether the service she requires is provided by this or that agency, secretariat, or ministry. She wants her needs met, without wasting time in lines, with out having to hire an agent (despachante), with courtesy, and punctually.  

To register a birth, register a child in a school, report a crime or that there is a pothole in the street, calculate and pay taxes, obtain a building license, pay a fine, search for employment, register a marriage, report a change of home or business address or telephone number, retire – all are normal events in a citizen’s life cycle. It should not be necessary to go to a municipal, state or federal government office, or even to know how they are organized. The government can – and should – facilitate the life of the citizen, treating him as a client or, better, as an employer, and not as a number, a person whose time has no value, as an object for which difficulties are created in order to obtain bribes for relief from those very difficulties.  

Various states have been providing new kinds of “one-stop shop”. In Bahia they are called “Services for Assisting Citizens” (SACs), in São Paulo “Timesavers” (Poupatempos), in Rio de Janeiro Easy Rio (Rio Fácil), in Curitiba “Citizenship Streets”. They are located in shopping centers, at nodes of the local transportation system, etc., that is in places convenient for the citizen, and they operate on schedules which are not traditional for public services, but convenient for the citizen. All government services are available in these centers, so it is not necessary to walk from one government agency to another losing both time and patience.  

Electronic government open 24 hours a day on the Internet is a natural extension of this type of administrative reform, a reform which tends to lead governments organizing it to rethink their internal organizations with a view to making them more efficient. The ideal portal provides access to all levels of the Federation and does not expect the citizen to be a political scientist in order to understand where he has to go; the portal organizes services to meet the needs of those needing these services, whether citizens or businesses. 

Establishing an e-government portal can lead to additional administrative reforms, eliminating duplication of services, reducing unnecessary staff, creating new business processes, and the encouraging better coordination of services from the three levels of the Federation. If the intention is indeed to reform, reform can be realized in a systematic yet context-sensitive way, taking into account the environment, the components of a solution, the conditions which must be met, the stakeholders involved, and both the theory and practice of the government in question. Alternatively, it is possible to automate services along more traditional lines. The first way allows more radical and effective changes in the relationship between citizen and government. The second is more pragmatic, and can be used in situations where government structures do not perceive information and communication technologies’ potential to leverage government actions. Nevertheless, changes can be brought about. Even when processes are not redesigned, installing an electronic relationship leads to changes in organization, processes, skills required, structures, and theories. A well-designed change project, which considers all the factors, can leverage public administration reform. 

When these reforms are implemented, citizens and enterprises will save a lot of money, since the costs of dealing with their governments fall and taxes can decline. Below we give some examples of the kinds of reforms which seek to break down self-contained “silos”, which seek efficiency and efficacy, and which increase transparency, which in turn reduces opportunities for corruption. 

Break down silos and intermediation

The tendency of bureaucracies, both public and private, is to organize in self-contained departments, or “silos” (to use a term from agriculture). In each silo there is a hierarchy with bureaucratic rules for communication. The corporate interests of the bureaucrats tend to prevail over the interests of citizens, with negative results for the latter. And, when possible, the bureaucrats of one silo do not speak or even interact with those from other silos (read ministries, agencies, seceretariats, etc.). This corporativist organization is the legacy of the old Portuguese estado cartorial and Mussolini’s Corporativist State, copied by Getúlio Vargas. This principle extends to separate “unions” (sindicatos) for workers and employers, all subordinated to their respective ministries.  

In this respect some changes in Brazilian public organizations are already evident – new, more flexible policies, and people disposed to a more entrepreneurial approach support a change process. But breaking down silos is still necessary for democratic administrative reform. 

Governments can use technology to promote disintermediation in the relationship between government and citizens and between government and businesses. A more direct relationship is possible, without intermediaries. For this, service-delivery processes have to be designed and integrated, or there is a risk of perpetuating outdated processes. Some intermediation processes exist because of the complexity of bureaucratic processes and add value by saving time for the person or entity seeking the service. But often they are opportunities to practice corruption.  

The State has to organize itself to deliver services to citizens, not for the advantage of the bureaucrats in their hierarchical silos or for the intermediaries who live in symbiosis with the bureaucrats. Electronic government changes the interface between the State and the citizen, and this can lead to reform in the structures which sustain the interface. 

Seek efficiency and efficacy

Electronic government makes it possible to attain objectives such as doing more and doing it more cheaply, rapidly, and better – in other words, the possibility of getting more results at the same or less cost, in less time, and with a higher standard of quality. Electronic government offers the possibility, thus, for the government to offer new services or conduct reforms which would otherwise be impossible to carry out. In redesigning functions to correspond to the new interface, the Internet, many ways of saving resources can be discovered. Transactions costs, execution time, duplication and possibilities for errors in data are reduced; tasks are transferred to the citizen, increasing the ability of the government to deliver services; work flows are automated and internal processes simplified. Furthermore the implementation of processes and mechanisms which offer civil servants the possibility of innovating and being more effective is made possible. 

Increase transparency and attack corruption

Electronic government allows citizens, civil society organizations, and even supervisory government agencies access to information on the working of governments. The citizens and these organizations can then oversee and monitor government offices and agencies. Online purchases through reverse auctions (the lowest price wins), online filing and payment of taxes, and monitoring the progress of public works are only some examples of how transparency can facilitate citizen understanding and avoid corruption. It shines the light of popular monitoring not only on the activities of the State, but also of its bureaucrats and employees, who then really do have to serve the people.  

Listen to the Citizen

Listening to the citizen means being prepared to hear what she has to say, but also to open lines of communication. Ombudsmen already exist in many governments and government agencies, but it is necessary to establish policies which guarantee confidentiality, obligatory replies, and monitoring of the quality of these replies. 

For beyond complaints and reports, the citizen also has to be heard regarding the choice of priorities in making services available. Even those who never used a computer have expectations regarding the use of technology by government to better meet the needs of the population.  

Public consultations, surveys, and referendums are other possibilities for listening to the citizen. And finally, we can go beyond a government which asks “speak with us, we reply” with participation in both formulating and monitoring the execution of public policies and budgets. It should be kept in mind that the Internet facilitates democratic practice and that this depends more on the existing mechanisms of participation than on technology. Technology is available, but its use depends on political will on the part of the government, and a interest in playing an active role on the part of citizens. The Web is an alternative for governments whose action plan includes increasing democratic participation. 

Involve the stakeholders

Stakeholders are the persons and/or organizations that have an interest in a given matter. Involving them is good policy, good administration, and good governance. However inspired civil servants, managers, and political leaders charged with elaborating e-government policy may be, they are not omniscient. It is important to involve organizations and those responsible for implementing e-government policy with its users. This is the way to discover and overcome resistance, creating win-win conditions and understanding the needs of users (See Box 3.1).  

Users can be involved through intermediation by political representatives with roots in communities, civil society organizations, or directly through setting up focus groups, a technique often used in strategic communication and in marketing of products and services produced by the private sector as well as of political candidates or policies that a government is considering for implementation. It is a kind of field test with the support of social scientists (psychologists, anthropologists, communications specialists). When this technique is not appropriate, a pilot project can be a solution. 

The objective is not only to discover resistances and overcome them and to design services that achieve their objectives, but also to save political, financial and human resources, avoiding the allocation of large quantities of resources until the service is shown to be feasible and efficient to deliver. It can take more time to involve the stakeholders than to imply impose or execute a policy, but the results are better in various dimensions: in the coherence of policy, in the ease of its implementation, in its financial cost, and in its effectiveness. 

Create Alliances

A basic principle of politics, one frequently forgotten by politicians and economists, is that, to achieve a change objective that will affect vested interests, it is advisable to form alliances with groups that, in the end, will be benefited by the change, or that can be led to support it thorough an exchange of favors or by the threat of withdrawing support for objectives which are important to these groups. The implementation of e-government implies reforms of the State, of public administration, and of the manner in which citizens and businesses interact with the state.  

The process for involving stakeholders seeks to create alliances, or, at least, to reduce resistances. But it is worthwhile to think politically and seek active alliances within the federal government and with state and municipal governments, with the private sector, and with the third sector (civil society organizations including NGOs). Where there is obstinate resistance, it should be neutralized. Developing a winning alliance or coalition is a form of neutralizing the opposition and the activity of intermediaries. 

Communicate strategically with the public

Strategic communication, a modern term for scientific marketing, also helps promote desirable changes for the implementation of electronic democracy. In the private sector it is not rare to invest heavily in marketing studies, focus groups, and in advertising. The same thing takes place in political campaigns. And why shouldn’t reformers use these tools to achieve objectives declared during a political campaign after the politicians who proposed them have been elected? A multimedia approach, with synergy among its components – that is combined use of the Internet, television, radio, the print press, and face-to-face events like seminars, presentations, and speeches is best. Specifically these techniques can be used to promote the use of government service portals to develop their audience just as is done with commercial portals: it is a way to promote services and their adoption.  

Internet

On the Internet, governments can use their service portals or specialized e-government sites to announce their objectives, events, etc. But a communications policy appropriate to this medium, with allocation of formal responsibility of content and updating of pages should be developed. On the sites of government agencies that have priority participation in the program (ministries, secretariats and data processing services) items of special interest can be inserted. It is also possible to use more active techniques, like automatic distribution lists for e-mailed notices, electronic discussion groups, and electronic forums.  

Television

Television, the most popular Brazilian medium, is available in almost 90 percent of households. It is also a powerful communications tool; the formats which can be used include interviews, news programs (to announce an important event or success achieved), documentaries, and even telenovelas (dramatic serials – that can, for example, portray interactions between citizens and governments via the Internet, distance education – showing a youth progressing in his career through taking advantage of this, persons solving health programs on the Internet, the use of information and communication technologies in public safety, businesses carrying out business with governments, etc.). 

Radio

Everything we write with regard to television also applies to radio, an extremely popular medium in many regions of Brazil. Though it is less powerful (offering sound, but no images), radio reaches people in their cars, at work, on the beach and in other places where television is not normally present.  

Print media

A powerful medium, which can be sued to complement the others, newspapers, magazines and the like daily r3each millions of Brazilians at home or the workplace, and can be read on the bus, in the metro, on airplanes, etc. An article, column, an interview, a paid announcement – these are some of the formats for the print media. 

Speeches, presentations, and seminars

These are events which attract a limited, but usually influential audience. When they are important and given appropriate publicity, they can receive coverage on television, radio, and in newspapers and magazines. 

Integrate e-government with the use of one-stop-shops, call centers, etc.

For many years we will still have citizens who do not have Internet access or do not want to interact with their governments via the Internet. For these people – whether as citizens or workers in businesses – human intermediation in interactions with government is indispensable. 

It is important to bring the government closer to the people, so that people don’t lose valuable time in bureaucratic processes with government agencies in scattered physical locations. For example, the Services for Citizens (Serviço de Atendimento ao Cidadão – SAC) is an integrated system for delivering government services created by the Government of Bahia state in 1995 to improve public service delivery (see www.sac.ba.gov.br). SAC one-stop shops bring together, in the same physical space, various agencies of the federal, state and local governments, saving citizens both time and money as well as providing a comfortable environment. There are appropriate areas for waiting and for services supported by photocopy services, bank branches, photography services, and the ability to set up appointments in advance. All this takes place in a pleasant environment with uninterrupted services during an extended work day.  

The civil servants who work in the SACs have access to the electronic infrastructure of governments via their Intranets and the Internet. This facilitates the provision of services on the spot. Ideally, and putting aside the difficulties of organizing such centers, with adequate technical support and training any government office can become an integrated service center. A citizen should be able to apply for a job at the counter for the secretariats that make up the government, find out from the Transportation Department what fines his vehicle has received, and make his declaration of exemption form income tax, better known as “re-registration of the CPF (Personal Tax Certificate)”. All government agencies, like banking services, should be used to meet demand for the full range of products of the organization, sometimes quite different in nature. And, for those services which require the presence of the citizen, the Center should provide information on the nearest office providing the service, the fee required, the necessary documents which have to be presented, and the time within which the service will be performed. It would be like a service contract between the citizen and the government to discourage clientelistic practices and to allow the former to control the quality of services delivered by the latter.  

Another form of electronic intermediation without direct use of the Internet is the call center. Call centers can be physically integrated with a one-stop-shop. In this case, the operators reply to questions with the help of computers connected to the government intranet and the Internet. The call center can receive and return faxes and operate “chat centers” with individual attention.[x] 

The organization that offers a page of services on the Web should be prepared to reply to the citizen appropriately. For this it is necessary to invest in a structure and training to allow proper response to complaints, suggestions, or questions, to provide accurate information on service provision or – a novelty – on the use of technology and support for the use of programs, with a view to replying to questions like “how can I do this download” or “Why does this page give this message?”.  

There are various ways of setting up one-stop-shops. Each agency present on the portal can set up its own, but these separate centers cannot provide integrated service delivery when more than one agency is involved, as in the case of setting up a business, for example. It can be set up to serve various agencies and processes; it can be divided between various locations, geographically decentralized and integrated through information and communication technologies, operating using the same information system. Or, service delivery can be outsourced to private businesses having the necessary know-how and can use all the alternatives mentioned.  

The SMS (Short Message Services) technology, commonly known as the “torpedo”, allows democratizing access to electronic public services. A large part of the low-income population does not have access to a fixed line phone at home, but does have a mobile (often pre-paid) phone. In Brazil, there are examples of using cell phones to deliver public services, such as sending daily market prices for agricultural products in the Supply Centers (public markets, CEASAs), informing a candidate for employment of the availability of a job and setting up an interview, or of information on vehicles obtained from the Department of Transportation (DETRAN).  

So that there will be uniform quality in services provided via the Internet, at the counters of government offices, or by telephone, it is important that all have access to the same databases for services and information. This infrastructure, which takes a lot of work to set up, is the basis for quality services, whatever the means chosen by the citizen to obtain them.  

Encourage computer literacy

Access means social inclusion and has various dimensions: to technological resources, but also to the skills necessary to use them. For a citizen to be able to use computers and access the Internet, digital literacy training is necessary. Many people learn either at school, or with the help of families and friends, but organized digital literacy programs are also important. Telecenters (using the term generically) often offer courses which promote their use.  

Programs involving partnerships with private sector firms and NGOs for installing infrastructure, hardware, software, user support, and technical support for networks are not sufficient for a community to obtain information and services and to generate their own content. Beyond training the “reader citizen”, it is necessary to provide opportunities for the “producer citizen”, capable of producing content, offering services for the community, and expanding her space for citizen activity. A State policy for electronic government should include resources to promote digital literacy both directly (through public schools or government telecenters) and indirectly (through incentives for the creation of programs with this objective by civil society organizations or private sector enterprises. 

The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI), established in 1995 in Rio de Janeiro, has specialized in digital literacy through its Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools (EICs). According to its website (www.cdi.org.br), “a recent external impact evaluation showed that 87% of the youths who pass through the EICs

had their lives modified in some way, whether by going back to public schools, by obtaining an employment, or by getting them out of criminal activity.” Some Brazilian states have agreements with CDI to operate EICs and telecenters (See Box 3.2) 

Central functions of the State in delivering services to the Citizen 

We recommend four priorities for the electronic delivery of services to citizens (G2C): education and training, public health, justice, and public safety, and one in the area of services to businesses (G2B): e-procurement (online purchase of goods and services). These are suggestions for discussion among governments and in structured contacts with society. We believe that they are fundamental factors for action by the public sector and can have a large impact on the welfare of citizens and eventually on income distribution. Even though they are priority areas for e-government, we are not excluding continuing the already successful efforts in the area of public finance (in online declarations of the income tax) and elections, where Brazil has the best electronic election system in the world. In each of these priority areas we provide suggestions for actions to take, integrated with other actions of public policy. 

Education and Training

Use of the Internet and television in classrooms of schools and universities and in distance education – carried out in homes, workplaces, and specialized centers – is perhaps the highest priority. These two media can be complementary rather than substitutes. The Internet offers interactivity, but, without broadband connectivity, cannot offer the same quality of sound and images as television, and there is still a long road to travel to reach those who need education and training to better their lives and to increase the competitiveness and productivity of the labor force. 

This is a sector in which the principles of building on strengths and integrating can be applied. We have already mentioned various programs of the Ministry of Education which are already under way, but which can not only be perfected, but accelerated. Examples are TV School (TV Escola), ProInfo (National Program for Information Technology in Schools), Proformação (Program for Training Practicing Teachers), and the Canal Futura (a 24-hour-a-day educational channel delivered by satellite and cable) of the Roberto Marinho Foundation. 

UniRede (www.unirede.br), the virtual public university of Brazil, is a consortium of 70 public higher education institutions that seeks to democratize access to quality education through offering distance education courses. The proposal includes undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education according to the Terms for Membership which created it. The consortium has already made possible cooperation between universities and technical schools, thus avoiding the isolation and duplication of effort among its initiatives. Among other advances, the payment of royalties for the dissemination of is eliminated for technologies and content developed by its member institutions. Furthermore, it delivers a distance education course on the use of television in schools developed with the support of the Secretariat of Distance Education of the Ministry of Education. 

All the member institutions have experience in distance education, and for this reason the virtual university receives the support of the ministries of Education, Science and Technology and other partners. But, for lack of financial resources, the achievements of UniRede have been well below its potential. 

One of the organizations participating in UniRede is Cederj, the Center of Distance Education of Rio de Janeiro State (www.cederj.edu.br), an initiative of the government of Rio de State in partnershiop with the public universities and various municipal governments of the state.[xi] Cederj, which makes this form of democratizing public, free, and quality higher education viable, has a production center for web materials and for television and is already offering courses in Mathematics and Biology in the interior of the state in 26 centers in the interior of the state. These centers combine broadband internet access using distance education with conventional education. Students receive printed materials and have access to web-based materials as well. Their questions can be answered by tutors of the universities responsible for the courses by telephone, fax, or e-mail. Each week tutors responsible for each discipline are available in the regional centers to provide additional help to the students. 

The courses are hybrid ones, partly taught via distance education, partly face-to-face with the help of the tutors, These courses lead to undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Biological Sciences, each eight semesters in length. They are designed to train secondary school teachers in the hard sciences. There are not yet enough resources to accelerate the production of new courses, like Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Science.  

We could cite many other examples, but what is important is to develop a strategy for supporting distance education in Brazil with the leadership of the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with state and municipal secretariats of Education, so as to make a real leap into the future. And the Ministry of Communication, which controls the Fund for Universalization of Telecommunications Services (Fust), and the Ministry of Science and Technology (and the state and municipal science and technology secretariats) should not be left out: all can contribute to improving the national system of education and training. 

Distance education and the use of television and the Internet in classrooms should be used not only formal education, but also – in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, the Senai/Senac/Senar/Sebrae System, by the extension departments of public and private universities, and by private sector training firms. Together they can constitute a national system for permanent education and training for those who have left the formal system of education and are either working or want to work. In economic terms, distance education is not only for the flow of students in the formal education system, but also for the much larger stock of the labor force, for intellectual and workers and laborers who need to stay up-to-date and have possibilities to increase their knowledge. The objective is to make them competitive in the labor market and to make the businesses in which they work competitive in the national and international markets. 

Various ministries, schools, and enterprises of the federal government seek to train their employees or civil servants of the federal, state, and municipal governments throughout Brazil. Some examples are the Ministry and the secretariats of Education, the Ministry and the secretariats of Health, the Ministry of Social Security, the National School for Public Administration (Enap), the Financial Administration School, and the Bank of Brazil.  

The costs of transport and living expenses, as well as of the time away from their jobs necessary for face-to-face training in Brasília or even in the state capitals is high. Digital distance education techniques offer ways to achieve educational objectives without incurring the costs associated with travel. But frequently the fixed costs of (1) creating and maintaining a center in Brasília with an uplink to one or more satellites and (2) establishing and maintaining training centers with broadband Internet access and television in the states and municipalities together prevent the use of this form of teaching and learning.  

The truth is that rarely does an agency, a school, or a federal enterprise need such centers in the states and municipalities for a sufficient number of days per year and hours per day, and for a sufficient number of trainees to justify the needed investments. However, if it were possible to share the costs and the training centers with other ministries, schools and enterprises, the unit cost of training for the full use of installations, if not for 24 hours per day, perhaps 12 or 8; if not for 365 days a year, at least 250 or 300. This is the policy being followed in Mexico, where 3,200 Digital Community Centers in municipal seats and other locations got broadband Internet connections in June 2003, and the objective is to reach 10,000 locations by 2006 (see www.e-mexico.gob.mx and www.sct.gob.mx/prog_sectorial_01_06/pg_capitulo7.html).  

In more isolated municípios with lesser demographic density, especially in the Amazon region, it is possible that the number of trainees of the agencies and enterprises of the federal government participating in partnerships of this nature would still not be sufficient to fully occupy a municipal training center, which would most likely have to operate using satellite-based connections to the Internet. In such cases, partnerships should be broadened to include state secretariats, private businesses, and the third (NGO) sector with an interest in carrying out distance education programs.  

Pooling the demand for training in order to reach the grass roots at lower unit costs than face-to-face training requires coordination among agencies and public sector firms which want to give and receive training. The problem is organizational and political, not technological.  

The economies of scale inherent in these technologies require full use of the training centers to be constructed. To achieve effective inter-institutional collaboration, capable of aggregating the economic and social benefits at the lowest possible cost, requires clarity of vision and leadership regarding the benefits to be achieved at the top of the institutions – preferably in key institutions for command and coordination, like the Casa Civil (Presidential Chief of Staff), Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management.  

When financial resources for new initiatives are scarce, partnerships seeking to reduce costs become strategic necessities. 

Health

To invest in Brazil’s human resources education and training are not enough; it is necessary to maintain and improve the health of Brazilians. Public health is above all education for the prevention of diseases and accidents and to broaden the understanding of citizens concerning diseases and the ways in which they can be cured. 

Thus, everything we write concerning distance education applies to the health system, both preventative and curative. Health portals on the Web for citizens and for professionals of the health system can offer up-to-date information on any topic related to this subject.[xii] And, in a proactive way, Web campaigns can be developed to prevent diseases like dengue.  

Telemedicine makes possible diagnosis and treatment management by specialists for patients far from the large urban centers without the need for travel, which makes for a much more efficient use of these scares human resources. And the smartcard (see www.datasus.gov.br/cartao)  for SUS (the Single Health System), initiated on a pilot basis by the Ministry of Health during the second government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and which makes possible access to personalized data, such as a citizen’s medical records, can be perfected and rolled out to the full population. Information systems which permit the citizen or his family to oversee the services which are being delivered relieve the government of building burdensome oversight structures.  

Geographic information system (GIS) technology can be employed in mapping endemics and epidemics and monitoring the success of campaigns such as the vaccination of children and senior citizens. It is also possible to keep track of the number of vacant beds in public and private hospital, and the availability of beds in intensive care units, the supply of health services by hospitals and health centers, the treatment of patients, computerization of transplant centers to guarantee rapid location of donors and recipients, as well as stocks of blood, human milk, and bones. To apply information technology to health allows opening for the population information of a non-individual character; in this way the costs and successes of policies can be monitored by citizens. 

Public Safety

The public safety crisis has become one of the deepest concerns of Brazilians living in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Campinas, Santo André, Belo Horizonte – and the list continues. Kidnappings, assassinations of mayors and judges, common citizens killed by stray bullets, summary executions by bandits and by police, entire city districts ruled by drug traders – every day citizens are assaulted by headlines, shocked by television coverage, and terrified by the violence shown in films like City of God and Bus Number 174. This crisis affects the life of everyone and also the economy, the tourism industry – which, despite low prices in dollars and euros, has been suffering significant losses because of violence – and high-technology industry and services; there is a brain drain as scientists and technicians who fear daily violence and seek safer places to work. This fear also reaches smaller cities, since it is a daily theme in the media. 

The public safety problem is related to Brazil’s legendary and unjust income distribution, to the slow rate of generation of new jobs compared to the rapid growth of the labor force, to drug dealing, and to the multiple police forces (civil, military, federal, highway, municipal guards, and private security guards), to cite only the most evident causes. Using telematics alone cannot resolve all these problems, but it could be an important part of the solution. In the paragraphs that follow some examples of how this can be done are provided. 

Crime mapping using GIS

Geographic information systems (GIS) already play an important role in crime mapping in several Brazilian cities – Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais, was the first to implement them. Connected with modern offices (delegacias), they make it possible to classify crimes according to their location (with the street and number identified), the time the crime occurred, whether arms were used, whether drugs were involved, etc. Computerized and applied in maps on electronic screens in dispatching rooms and in police cars, this technique helps police officers discover patterns of crime and to dispatch the police available according to a strategy. If physical maps are combined with maps showing demographic and socio-economic data, this tool can become even more powerful and can help not only in repressing crime, but also in preventing it.[xiii]  

Linking electronic databases

Police work in Brazil still lacks full access to relevant information coming from a variety of databases at the federal, state and municipal levels. With national data banks of fingerprints, photographs of known criminals, police files, and other relevant data available in all police offices and even in police cars, police in any part of the country would have a powerful instrument to identify suspects. The interconnecting of Brazilian databases useful for police work is far from complete (see Box 3.3).  

 Observation with TV cameras and digital identification of criminals

In places with serious urban violence and posing a high risk to the population, sophisticated electronic surveillance systems can be used. Automatic cameras are already used to identify automobiles which break traffic laws, and automatic television cameras linked by fiber optic cables with military police command centers are beginning to appear. In this area new kinds of partnerships are being developed. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, Globo Cable has allowed its network of fiber optic cable to be used free of charge to connect 12 TV cameras along the beaches, from Leme to Leblon, to the Military Police command center.  

Electronic surveillance can prevent crime, once potential criminals know that they are being watched, and can be used to identify criminals in action, resulting in their capture. Partnerships with the private sector, not only in telecommunications, but also in commerce, the hotel industry, etc, can supplement tax resources to install and operate such systems. A more sophisticated form of electronic surveillance is the capture of images of people passing in front of surveillance cameras and their automatic comparison with images of known criminals in a database. This system has been used as an anti-terrorist measure in London and other cities and high-risk areas, such as banks and the headquarters of large companies.   

This is a controversial area, and implementation of such surveillance systems should be discussed with society with a view to weighing the possible benefits against the risks of reduced privacy.  

Another approach to identification of criminals online was developed in Rondônia and could be adapted in the rest of Brazil’s states.[xiv] 

War on drug-dealing and organized crime

The production, transport, trade, and consumption of drugs are matters of national and international public safety. The networks and mafias involved in the drug trade are powerful, international, and have access to finance, intelligence, and arms many times superior to those of government authorities. This is a question of war, since the very structure and integrity of society are threatened, frontiers penetrated, and sovereignty lost. The losses are economic, social, moral and of health. In this war the powerful weapons of telematics should be employed to defend society. The techniques described above are all applicable. Others, like radar, satellite, and geophysical surveillance (like the Service for Protection of the Amazon – Sivam) can and should be employed. 

Integration with other public policies

The repression of crime is an area where the potential for applying technology is more evident, given the perception of insecurity of the population in large urban centers. Less evident, but with more effective results, is its use as a support for integrated projects of various areas of government, which can lead to reduction in crime indicators. The technology can be the supporting infrastructure for integrated policies for education, sport, leisure, culture, community work, income and employment generation, and support for small individual and community enterprises.  

Online government purchases (e-procurement)

Today portals for online purchases over the Internet, like ComprasNet (the federal e-procurement service), insure more transparency in bidding for government projects, permit monitoring by civil society and citizens, and reduce opportunities for corruption. The change[xv] in Law 8,666, which deals with bids, should make government purchases more agile. 

Without a doubt, it is necessary to update bidding instruments, the so-called new regimes for electronic commerce and government. However, it is not enough to change Law no. 8,666; it is necessary to create a broader legal basis for the digital economy, such as questions relating to privacy rights, the public key infrastructure (for encryption), for digital signatures, for time-stamping. Various steps are being taken in the right direction. Wed could have a permanent government structure, as in other countries, to deal full time with this new economic environment. 

The federal government’s e-procurement portal is a world-class solution as testified by technicians from the European Community. Furthermore, its implementation was an innovative experience in terms of the business model, since the solution was the fruit of a public-private partnership: all the investment was carried out by private enterprise and the income from the portal will be divided between the government and the private partner.[xvi] 

Various changes should be made to increase security, transparency and agility of public sector transactions. The Internet is a privileged medium for purchasing faster and at a lower price, and it also allows citizens to monitor the transactions. Furthermore, the citizen and businesses that use public services need legal guarantees that they protect them from eventual failures of the systems. 

Judicial reform

The judiciary should increase its use of information and communications technology, principally regarding legal and constitutional reforms, in order to make the whole judicial cycle more efficient. The experience of Rio Grande do Sul shows the way in this area, as does that of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul.[xvii] Justice in Brazil tends to be delayed, and often is not carried out, which frustrates the population and increases the custo Brasil (cost of doing business in Brazil), reducing our competitiveness in world markets.