Ghana’s Election 2024 can open a new chapter of GovTech

It is often perceived as the use of technology to improve the delivery of government services to citizens in the area of enhancing the government operation and the process of democratic governance.

GovTech is particularly useful in contributing to the growth and reform of a country’s public sector.

This will also indirectly enhance the trust of citizens in the government and increase the rate of civic participation in the democratic process.

The GovTech concept can be viewed as the use of Information Technology and of more recently, Open Source Software and Information Sharing Mechanisms, to improve or develop public sector organisations and government processes.

This improved government service aims to enhance the welfare of the public, either through direct contribution to the public or by developing the government sector as an agency of social change.

The model has been successfully implemented throughout the 1990s and the early 21st century and the best practices have been emulated worldwide.

A priority area includes electronic delivery of information to EU citizens enabling better access to the Community’s open decision-making and law-making processes, and there is a strong will to bridge the gap between the technological ‘haves and have-nots’.

This is all done by means of utilising information technology in the public sector.

A simpler definition can be the systemic IT application to exchange of information between government and its citizens, other government agencies, private/public sector organisations or other governments to enhance the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the public sector.

GovTech strategies are not only about automating existing tasks but about re-engineering how government works in ways that take advantage of new technologies.

One striking example of this is the Government of Mauritius, which has set out to make the island a cyber-island and to transform the country into an efficient, transparent, and fully connected Knowledge Hub.

In the process of developing the Mauritius Internet Exchange Point (MIX), the government learned some hard lessons about the process of public sector innovation and the challenge of spearheading new initiatives in an environment of uncertainty.

An interesting West African case is the GovNet project in Ghana which has sought to leverage new technologies to overcome low Internet and computer access in the country and better link Public Sector Organizations in ways that help the government better interface with the private sector and civil society.

To liberate the upcoming countries from underdevelopment, massive attention should be paid to the deployment of new technologies in the public sector.

Using technology and its various forms to improve the way of life for others is an important step in achieving a more equitable society.

A wide range of different types of information technology is being used to such ends, varying from simple database processing to more complex management decision-making support systems.

A relatively new concept in developing countries, especially for nations in Africa is GovTech (short for Government Technology); the use of Information Technology in its various forms to improve the effectiveness of the public sector.