|
COMMISSION ON EMPOWERNMENT AND PARTICIPATION - Report
A) Summary
Empowering citizen for participation is a key objective with a broad scope. Empowerment enables citizen to participate in the information society and to be part of democratic deliberation. Thus e-Government plays a decisive role. Top on the agenda are providing access as well as the development of community user information systems.
The Commission on Empowerment and Participation treats the subject in three activities: (a) presenting case studies (from South Africa, Botswana, Lithuania and Russia); (b) having a research topic on the framework of empowerment; (c) specification of a particular development project.
B) Mandate and Focus
The Commission Empowerment and Participation Focuses On:
- General Focus of the Commission: Empowerment and participation is well in line with the objective of utilising ICT for accelerated development and concentrating on the needs of developing countries. Empowering citizen enables them to participate in the information society as well as to improve their social and economic status. This objective becomes concrete in devising appropriate universal access policies and strategies as well as in developing cost-effective community user information systems.
On one hand government has to care and promote the use of ICT, on the other hand is e-Government of top importance. So e-Government programmes improve the quality and expand the reach and accessibility of the services offered to citizens. On closer inspection e-Government and e-Democracy are complimentary processes in nature. For all such activities the criteria of sustainability and affordability of systems demand priority, also targeting the special requirements of marginalized groups is a main concern. In this approach the Commission addresses the subjects of collaboration, capacity building and research.
- Particular Areas Investigated: The work of the Commission comprises as follows:
- Case Studies: Case studies deal with a wide range of digital connections: government offering information and services to citizens; building communities for social and economic development; knowledge transfer and learning situations etc.
- Research Topic - Framework of Empowerment: Evidently the question arises which conditions may favour empowerment and this leads to a research issue on the frame within empowerment takes place. This issue touches on government in its divers roles and on several factors shaping concrete projects: actors, structures, resources, funding, technology, strategies and so on.
- Project: A particular development project in Botswana is under specificatio
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Themes