A NEW report by the World Bank (WB) has listed Tanzania as among countries in the globe with effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in delivering public services.
Whereas globally Tanzania is placed at 26th position, the country emerged second in Africa and tops the list in the East African Region.
The GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) report, whose study was conducted last year in a total of 198 countries has placed Tanzania at 26th position in the globe, it has climbed from 90th position in 2021 when it was in group B to 26th place and moved to group A.
As part of the GovTech Global Partnership research agenda, the World Bank has placed a focus on measuring GovTech maturity around the world.
These efforts culminated in the first edition of the GTMI launched in 2021. The construction of the GTMI is primarily based on the World Bank's GovTech Dataset, which is publicly available through the World Bank Data Catalog.
The GTMI is a composite index that uses 48 key indicators (including eight external indicators) to measure critical aspects of four GovTech focus areas in 198 economies: supporting core government systems, enhancing service delivery, mainstreaming citizen engagement, and fostering GovTech enablers.
In Africa, the study was done in 49 countries and Tanzania has emerged second after Mauritius for the use of technology in government services.
It was established that the use of ICT in Tanzania has increased by 0.86 per cent in the last one year.
In 2021, Tanzania was placed 5th after South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda.
In East Africa the study involved 13 countries, namely Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Seychelles and Tanzania.
The report further shows that in Tanzania the sectors of education, health, finance and agriculture were leading in provision of services through ICT and hence simplified access of services.
It was noted that the success was a result of a whole-of-government approach, including the e-Government Authority (e-GA) provides vision and leadership regarding ICT policies, strategies, and operations.
Also the report argues that the Government Communications Network (GovNet) is a secure shared network connecting 72 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) and 77 local government authorities (LGAs).
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Furthermore, the government e-office system (GeOS) facilitates day- to-day government administrative processes involving movement of files and documents.
The online service portal also brings services closer to the public by allowing citizens to apply for passports, permits, and licenses, and to make payments online.
The government mobile platform (mGov) offers a one- stop shop center for government mobile services via push (G2P) and pull (P2G) SMS, USSD, and mobile application (Android and IOS).
The study measures countries' maturity in digital government transformation in four GovTech focus areas including core government systems and shared digital platforms, online service delivery, digital citizen engagement, and GovTech Centers.
It is the most comprehensive measure of digital transformation in the public sector.
This iteration captures many changes and initiatives that were launched in the last two years.
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent recovery efforts have emphasized the value of digital for government and development outcomes.
This is a key moment for GovTech. Governments are beginning to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic while facing bold challenges on fiscal space, peace, stability, and climate change.
