MuNet, a new way to improve municipalities

Diego Cardona Miguel Porrua Javier Saenz

Dean Business School - Uninorte egov coordinator – OAS MuNET II Coordinator Project
Km 5 Antigua Via Puerto Colombia 1889 F Street, 20006 Italia 536 B – B8000DKL
Barranquilla – Colombia Washington D.C. – USA Bahia Blanca – Argentina
57 5 3509399 1 202 4583150 54 9 291 4545726
dfcardona@uninorte.edu.co mporrua@oas.org jsaenzcore@gmail.com
Marcelo Lasagna Silvana Rubino Florencia Ferrer
Director Fundación Buengobierno IADB Consultant Director e-stratégia pública / FF
Santiago de Chile – Chile Washington D.C. – USA Rio de Janerio – Brasil
mlasagna@buengobierno.org slyhallman@mac.com florencia@e-strategiapublica.com.br
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we present the project denominated Efficient and
General Terms
Management, Standardization, Design, Reliability, Legal Aspects.
Transparent Municipalities – MuNet, developed by the
Organization of American States – OAS, with the sponsorship of
the Canadian for International Development Agency – CIDA. The Keywords
aim of this project was to help Latin-American municipalities to eGovernment, eGovernance, New Public Management, OAS,
use ICT tools to improve efficiency and transparency in its MuNet
activities. The project was developed between 2005 and 2006 in
22 municipalities distributed in 11 countries, with the support of 5
experts of 5 different nationalities. The first phase followed a
1. ANTECEDENTS
diagnostic of the general situation of the municipality, including 1.1 Government and ICT
technological aspects, and also transparency perceptions. Then a
In the last decade the improvement in Information and
proposal of strategy to apply electronic government was
Communication Technologies – ICT and its application in
developed with the collaboration of a Consultancy Team and the
government accelerated the process in governmental institutions,
Task Force defined by the Major in each municipality.
developed a citizen centered vision and increased the active
Furthermore, all the participants in the project received a virtual
participation of private sector and non governmental organization
course about fundamentals in electronic government strategies.
in the public ambit.
With the document approved by the society and the political ambit
the Consultancy Team accompanied the Task Force in the The impact of ICT is not only at inner process, also affects the
implementation process, using in some cases the technological relationship with the citizens improving efficiency, reducing
support of the project, specifically with software applications to transaction costs, increasing the satisfaction level and supporting
develop the WEB page of the municipality – MuniPortal –, the transparency in the public management via the clear data flow
another software – MuniCompra – to improve the buying process among the different levels of government. Finally the ICT creates
and a last one to support the creation of a one stop window for the a bridge with a competitive and globalized world, opening many
municipality services – MuniServi –. Additionally, this paper also opportunities at social, cultural and economical ambit.
presents evidence of the implementation process and the general
data about the diagnostics developed. 1.2 Why MuNet
Municipalities are the axis of the Latin-American society, and due
Categories and Subject Descriptors to its proximity to the citizenship it becomes the natural point of
J. Computer Applications contact. To assure the success of any action to improve
J.1 Administrative Data Processing relationship between the government and the citizenship, the
Subjects: Government municipalities must be consulted.
As a result of cost of high qualified human resources, the
government should take advantage of the ICT possibilities. The
Latin-American municipalities appear as inefficient and with a
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for
dangerous lack of transparency, with some few exceptions that
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are confirm the general rule. In this situation, the Organization of
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that American States – OAS, with the sponsorship of the Canadian
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy International Development Agency – CIDA designed the MuNet
otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, project [15] to help Latin-American municipalities to use ICT
requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. tools to improve efficiency and transparency in its activities [8].
ICEGOV2009, November 10-13, 2009, Bogota, Colombia
Copyright 2009 ACM
1.3 Proposal Additionally, the OAS, the “Corporación Andina de Fomento” –
MuNet offers a tool kit that helps to take advantage of the ICT CAF, the private sector at each country and the beneficiated
possibilities with a complete program, that includes; diagnostics, municipalities contributed with an equivalent amount as co
training, consultancy and technology. The first edition of MuNet contribution.
was used to validate each component of the tool kit as for this
reasons the municipalities selected presents a wide range of 2. THE PROJECT
characteristics [3].
2.1 Vision and objectives
The proposed activities were: The vision of MuNet is that municipalities can accelerate its
• Workshop to explain the project and to create the necessity movement towards the efficiency and transparency using ICT, and
among municipalities a minimal level of these characteristics improves the development
• Consultancy Team distribution of the society.
• Diagnostics about transparency and ICT use
• Task Force training As a result, the Project objectives were:
• Electronic government strategy preparation • Create at the top of mind of the decision makers, that ICT
• Technological implementation of MuniPortal, MuniCompra improves the transparency and efficiency.
and MuniServi • Support municipality’s efforts to implement ICT as tools to
All these activities were developed in approximately two years. improve transparency and efficiency.
• Create and prove a tool kit in order to implement electronic
1.4 Consultancy team government initiatives.
Instead MuNet use ICT to improve efficiency and transparency at
municipalities, the strong component of the project was its human 2.2 Municipalities
team. Due to the necessity to prove the methodology, and the tool kit,
the beneficiated municipalities was very dissimilar. Also, because
Additional to the traditional challenge associated to the public the wishes of the donors, the municipalities were located in
consultancy, organizational knowledge, consecution of political Central America and the Andean region. Via the country offices
support, avoiding cultural resistance, etcetera; It is essential to of the OAS and also via WEB there were a call for participation,
develop a high percentage of the work using virtual tools. Both, as a result, more than 100 municipalities presents candidature and
MuNet born in knowledge society in order to promote the the final group was conformed by 22 cities from 11 countries.
opportunities offered by ICT: and the experts on electronic
government that are living in countries different to those Country City
beneficiated by the project. Furthermore, it was necessary to El Alto
Bolivia
optimize the use of scarce resources. As for these reasons, the Trinidad
project was developed applying virtual tools and the Consultancy Capitanejo
Colombia
Team must fit the following characteristics: Soacha
Belén
• Public sector knowledge Costa Rica
Curridabat
• Electronic government experience
Azogues
• Latin American relations Ecuador
Cuenca
• ICT experts
Ahuachapán
• Writing skills in electronic government topics El Salvador
Izalco
• Innovation and work team abilities
Guatemala
Additional to the strong professional profile, the geographical Guatemala
Patzún
distribution was highly important in this process. Therefore, the San Miguelito
criteria for the selection of the Consultancy Team were conformed Honduras
La Esperanza
by: León
Nicaragua
• Diego Cardona (Colombia) Masaya
• Florencia Ferrer (Brasil) David
Panamá
• Marcelo Lasagna (Chile) San Miguelito
• Silvana Rubino-Hallman (Estados Unidos) Lima
Perú
• Javier Sáenz Coré (Argentina). San Román Juliaca
Colón
The Project successful is explained by the dedication and Venezuela
enthusiasm of this Consultancy Team. Maracaibo

1.5 Financing
MuNet began with a contribution of US$600.000 from the CIDA
via the project New Programming Approaches – NPA, developed
by the OAS [9].
The list includes big cities and small towns, urban and rural, rich
and poor, instead of the following common characteristics:
• The Major wants to use ICT to improve the municipality
• There is a basic infrastructure to starts the process
• There is a Task Force full time assigned to the project
• There is a modernization plan
• Budget at ICT area
2.3 Technical tools
The MuNet tool kit includes:
• Sensitization of the Major and the Project Manager at
municipality about the potential of electronic government.
• ICT and transparency diagnostics at municipality.
• Training of human resource in electronic government theory.
• Model of strategy for electronic government.
• Technological platform including MuniPortal, MuniCompra,
MuniServi.
• Support consultancy to create the electronic government
strategy and the technical platform implementation.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Virtual support
As it was mentioned previously, MuNet was designed in order to
incorporate the municipalities in the knowledge society using an
innovating structure. MuNet apply a dynamic and coordinated
work style using ICT, mainly internet, email, IP telephony, chats,
video and a virtual platform. Enabling remote support from the
Consultancy Team to the municipality’s Task Force.
The virtual interface developed at the OAS WEB site
http://www.educoas.org, was the key element to improve the
relationship among participants, sharing opinions, questions and
experiences, creating an efficient learning system. This virtual
platform develops the remote work, the time optimization, the
instant assessment and the follow up along the complete project
phases. Additionally, the methodology enforces the relationship
among the Task Force and from that group with the Consultancy
Team, as a basic way to solve the traditional difficulties of a
project and consolidates the normal process.
At this virtual platform, there were a public and also a private area
in order to create confidence from the municipality’s participants
with the designed consultant when the topics were critical. In the
initial approach, the participants hesitate to use this tool, but the
continuous work of the Consultancy Team dissipates all the
possible doubts, creating the necessary tool adoption.
Additionally, other problems were attacked, for example, the low
internet access at some municipalities was override with the
commitment of the Consultancy Team and the Task Force, using
alternatives communications ways, telephone, fax or traditional
mail. As a result, MuNet proves that is possible to change the
traditional work structures in cooperation and technical assistance
projects under low cost policies and using effective tools without
dismissing quality and efficiency.
3.2 Task force
In order to assure the implementation of the Project, each Major
designated a Project Coordinator or “MuNet Manager”, as the
focal point and responsible of the development of all the activities.
The characteristics of these managers were:
• To be very close to the Major.
• Experience in human resource management.
• Ability in work team.
• Planner.
• Results oriented.
Additionally, a team of employees of the municipalities, the Task
Force, were selected using the following criteria:
• Experience or interest in modernization projects.
• Leadership to apply the experience.
• Time availability.
• Preferable, but not required, basic knowledge in ICT.
This Task Force interacts with the Consultancy Team and received
the basic course in electronic government strategy preparation,
creating the seed for the leadership in this area at the municipality,
responsible to do the transparency and technology diagnostics,
prepare the strategy, define the projects and implement it. With
this method, MuNet assured the sustainability of the project and
an internal structure to develop the technological implementation
of the projects at the municipality.
3.3 Methodology pack
As mentioned above, one of the competitive advantages of the
MuNet project is the holistic approach to the process. The tool kit
provided includes a wide range of necessary elements to improve
the possibilities of the municipalities to entrance into the
knowledge society using ICT and empowering the human capital.
The tool kit includes:
• Workshop with Majors [10].
• Methodology to make the ICT and the transparency
diagnostic.
• Basic course in electronic government theory.
• Consultancy to design the electronic government strategy [1].
• A technological solution including:
o MuniPortal; software to develop WEB sites.
o MuniCompra; software to electronic management of
public bids.
o MuniServi; software to publish public service on line.
With these elements, MuNet proposes a new concept of
modernization, starting inside municipalities and creating local
solutions according to each culture and particular necessities.
3.4 Resultant strategy
The coordinated work of the MuNet Task Force with the
Consultancy Team, combined with the implementation of the
methodology proposed as part of the tool kit, were the base of the
design and implementation of electronic government strategies.
The first draft of the strategies were developed as a result of the
course in basic theory in electronic government, the next step was
the revision developed by the Task Force with the support of the
Consultancy Team.
The final document was launched as policy for the community
with the presence of the consultants at each municipality in order
to create commitment among all the stakeholders [14].
4. MAIN ACTIVITIES
4.1 Diagnostics
To starts with the strategy, the first step was to make an ICT and
transparency diagnostics.
The ICT diagnostic tried to determine the degree of application of
ICT in the municipality and was the departure point for the
Consultancy Team and for the Task Force, because determined the
intensity in which they are used in the daily activities of the
municipality and in the interaction with citizens, as well as to
detect the necessities of investment in infrastructure and
connectivity. Also, by means of this evaluation it was tried to
reveal useful information for the decision making at local level
particularly as far as the preparation, implementation and use of
the ICT not only on the part of the public employees but also of
the citizens. On the other hand, the evaluation contributed to the
identification of strengths and weaknesses of the municipality with
the purpose of orienting resources towards the advantage of the
advantages provided by the TIC.
The transparency diagnostic was designed with the purpose of
orienting the Consultancy Team and the Task Force on the level of
transparency in the municipality and the perception of the citizens
of the same one at the beginning of the program. This was made
with a survey applied to the employs, of key information on basic
aspects such as information access, the financial handling of the
municipality and the resources investment. Also, it was tried to
identify the strengths and weaknesses of the municipality in
relation to the existence of mechanisms to follow up complaints.
Finally, the citizenship perception of the level of municipal
transparency was introduced including the degree of honesty of its
employees in the administrative processes and if there is
communication channels with the citizenship. Later, all the
collected information could be very useful to the Task Force to
evaluate the advances in this field after the conclusion of the
project.
4.2 Virtual course
The course “Introduction to the Formulation of Electronic
Government Strategies” is offered via the educational WEB site of
the Americas www.educoas.org, starting in 2003 with a duration
of seven weeks.
This course has been taken by more than 3000 persons at Latin
America; someone at Spain and for the MuNet project was made
some particular adaptations.
In order to approve the course, the participants prepared an initial
draft of the electronic government strategy for the municipalities.
This draft and the posterior revision was the base for successfully
projects like the Santiago de Cali municipality at Colombia,
winner in two occasions of the Ibero American Price of Digital
Cities, sponsored by AHCIET, 2008 in the category big city and
2007 at special category ICT and Disabilities [6] or the
Connectivity Agenda at the same country [5], whom has been
prepared at least 800 governmental employees during 2007.
The virtual course offered with the project, was structured in four
modules:
• Electronic government introduction.
• Electronic government strategy as country, region and city
project.
• Successfully experiences analysis.
• Best practices.
The main objective of the course was to be the support tool of the
participants in the implementation of the selected projects, at the
end of the course the participants can evaluate the strengths,
weaknesses and risks related with the projects implementation.
Additionally, via the evaluation of best practices was possible to
identify opportunities and threats. During the course the
participants received the necessary knowledge to do this type of
analysis applied to electronic government in order to create the
basic document of electronic government strategy for the
municipalities, including the particular aspect of each community.
The course was developed in a virtual platform with the support of
a specialized tutor in two main issues, electronic government and
virtual education.
For MuNet project, the course was developed from July to August
2005, with 197 participants with a wide range of basic profiles,
under the support of a Tutor Team conformed by Diego Cardona,
Alfredo Rosero and Diana Parra from Colombia, Daniel Tapella
and Dante Moreno from Argentina, Gianella Gonzalez from
Paraguay and Maria Dolores Peche from Perú. This Tutor Team
was coordinated directly by Diego Cardona from Colombia for
this special edition, supporting the regional coordinator; Jose Luis
Tesoro from Argentina.
The participants in this course were nominated by the Major and
the MuNet Manager of each municipality, by this reason, the basic
profile of the participants was very wide, starting with the employ
in a little municipality without education up to the employ in big
cities with master degrees, creating an important challenge to the
Tutor Team. Due to these differences was very difficult to create
the groups of the course, after large and carefully discussions, the
conclusion was to maintain in a group the complete Task Force
from a big municipality with at least another Task Force of a little
municipality because the advanced participants support the
development of the less advanced participants. The initial
objective was to create a dynamic behavior inside the groups, but
the effectiveness of this proposal was very narrow; actually the
interaction among participants was produced by the support work
of the Tutor Team with the Consultancy Team and a special group
of monitors. Finally, from the 197 participants, 135 approved the
course.
The learned experience concludes:
• The behavior of each group depends on the diversity of
profiles, level of knowledge, abilities and skills to work in
virtual atmospheres of the participants.
• As for a good number of participants, the course was his first
virtual experience, is necessary to extend the stage of
adaptation to the virtual platform.
• In order to support the direction of the course is necessary to
reinforce the support in the hall tutors, in charge of the
Regional Coordinator and the tutors Coordinator, as well as
the participation of the tutors.
• To create a clear relationship between the final project of the
course and the electronic government strategy of each
municipality must be an excellent communication between
the tutor and the assigned consultant, as far as possible must
be the same person.
• As there is a deficit of share capital at some municipalities, is
necessary to create strategies to allow an optimal advantage
 of the facilities provided by the technological platform with
the course.
• In necessary to be conscientious of the deficiency in
connectivity at some municipalities that would generate
delays in the advance of the course.
• In order to obtain a labor unloading that allows the necessary
dedication to the course, must be a clear agreement between
the Major and the Task Force.
• As far as possible, is convenient to accompany the processes
of policy generation and training, with projects of investment
in hardware and connectivity for those municipalities that
require it.
• As far as possible, the Mayor and the Project Manager must
take the course, to obtain a greater commitment and a basic
training in all the levels.
• Creates a support program in which a group of advance
participants helps the less advanced ones.
• Apply the successfully experience of the monitor, whose
main function is to make the tracking of participants to fulfill
the assigned tasks, as well as to support the generation of the
weekly reports.
4.3 Strategies development
As mentioned above, the development of the electronic
government strategy at each municipality, proves that is possible
to change the traditional work structures in cooperation and
technical assistance projects under low cost policies and using
effective tools without dismissing quality and efficiency.
The propose work methodology supposed a series of challenges
for the Consultancy Team s as for the Task Force whom
participated in the project.
One of the main challenges was to coordinate the daily work
through the virtual platform, since the Consultancy Team did not
have personal communication with the Task Force. In addition,
the Consultancy Team did not have the opportunity to be directly
at the municipality; therefore, all the MuNet universe was
developed in the cyberspace, having raised new spaces for the
learning and the interchange of experience. Additionally, the
Consultancy Team was contracted using electronic ways and all
the meetings of coordination were made using the virtual platform
offered by OAS. The profile of the Consultancy Team, Tutor
Team and Coordinators, is extremely cosmopolitan, coming from
the entire American continent, Washington DC, Santiago of Chile,
Bogota, Bay Blanca, Lima, Asunción, Buenos Aires and Sao
Paulo. This diversity made that the sum of experiences, world
visions, explanations of the reality, and specific knowledge of
electronic Government was in fact a great cultural, diverse, rich
and complex mixture [11].
Also, the Task Force for each municipality represents 11 different
countries from the region, some great, as well as small
municipalities, extremely poor, like San Miguelito in Honduras,
with 80% of the population underneath the line of poverty, and
very rich others like Belen in Costa Rica, seat of Intel.
Once the work began, the contact between the Consultancy Team
and the Task Force in each municipality was carried out using
virtual tools, mainly through the virtual platform provided by the
OAS. Nevertheless, with the purpose of facilitating and
accelerating the relation as well as to create the documentation of
the process, some of the consultants chose to use additional tools
like the Skype, MSN and Yahoo. In some cities, with spread
Internet connection, the task of constructing virtual relations was
relatively easy, considering that to impose a discipline without
having personal communication always is difficult. In other
municipalities with social, ethnic realities, and very specific
economies the difficulties were greater. For example, in San
Miguelito, Honduras, the only technological means that existed
was a public telephone. In addition to the virtual interactions, as
already it was mentioned, the MuNet methodology included
additional activities like, the advanced training course in line, the
ICT and transparency diagnostics and the technological package
e-Muni. In that phase, the work of the Consultancy Team went to
support the local work in the information rise on its
administration, in the development of a unique electronic
government strategy, endorsed by all the stakeholders.
4.4 Technological tool
The MuNet project offers to the municipalities e-Muni; a
technological platform, conceived to accelerate the advances of
the electronic government in the municipalities of Latin America
and the Caribbean. e-Muni includes the following components:
• MuniPortal: This component allows to organize and to
publish, in a “one stop window”, all the information related
to the municipality, as well as to manage basic functionalities
of the interaction municipality-citizenship.
• MuniCompra: This component facilitates the management of
purchases of the municipality with modules of public access.
It allows eliminating many of the problems and difficulties
that appear when doing governmental purchases. Some of
these include the discrimination of suppliers, the threats of
companies to other companies, the interaction of
governmental employees with the companies with the
consequent possibilities of corruption, subjectivity and lack
of transparency.
• MuniServi: This component allows the putting of municipal
services on line, allowing, to the citizen, the accomplishment
of complete transactions on line. It incorporates a
functionality of payments, the definition of the work flow
related to each service, by means of the incorporation of
graphical elements.
Some of the advantages and benefits of e-Muni:
• Immediate application
• Facility of installation and handling
• Personalizeable solution
• Low cost
• Scalability, flexibility and modular conception
e-Muni is yielded in donation to the municipalities of the MuNet
Program. OAS gives the information of the source code in order
to facilitate the improvement of the application according to the
necessities of the municipality. The access to the source code will
give to total freedom from action to the municipalities to be able
to operate the tool, to adapt it and to make the required
adjustments.
In this stage of the project, a virtual space was provided to each
municipality with the purpose of initiating the works is assigned.
Once concluded a defined period of time, the municipalities must
migrate them to their own servers or find a hosting.
4.5 Technical support
The Consultancy Team visited the municipalities to present the
strategy [12] and to star the last phase of the project, the technical
support in the implementation process. This visits followed a basic
scheme in relation to the meetings that were carried out with the
strategic actors, the institutional presentation of the OAS and the
activities of the MuNet program. Simultaneously, the visits
offered the opportunity to give the approval certification to whom
participated in the virtual course.
There were meetings with the Major and the executive team to
obtain the endorsement and support to the strategy considering it
as a fundamental tool for the future of their municipality, its
insertion in the knowledge society and the coherence with the
local development plans. Also, the Consultancy Team met and
knew the Task Force whom were working virtually at the platform
during long months. Other public employees also participated in
the meetings of launching of the strategy, solving their doubts and
understanding the advantages for the municipality but for them
and his labor functions.
The mass media were present in the meetings, as well as
representing of local associations of private sector, academy,
associations and nongovernmental organizations, who were
invited to construction of endorsement [2].
5. CONCLUSION
5.1 Impact
The implementation of MuNet in a group of municipalities with
very different characteristics allowed the identification, not only
the benefit that the ICT provides to the improvement of the public
management, but also a series of recommendations for future
similar initiatives [7].
The clearest impact of MuNet has been perhaps also the most
basic step: the beginning of ICT centered activities. Through the
support of the Consultancy Team to the Task Force in the
definition of a strategic frame for the use of the ICT in each
municipality, a dialogue with the political authorities was
generated, that in many cases eliminated barriers for the
consideration of technology acquisitions in the municipal budget
which they were not raised or they had not been dealt with the due
urgency.
The next table displays some MuNet quantitative impacts:
Trained employees 197
Trained mayors 15
WEB Pages developed 16
Consultancy hours spend 7350
Training hours spend 21000
Increase in ICT budgets over US$ 1.800.000
Qualitative impacts of MuNet include:
• Availability of technology to improve the process of projects
follow up of and its physical and financial execution. This
issue is very important considering the scarce resources
• Improved the connectivity infrastructure, and in some cases
impelled execution of studies that articulate a vision of
connectivity for everything.
• Identification of concrete objectives to short, medium and
long term that ensures the completion of the arduous
digitalization process.
• The Task Force members, as a seed of experts, expanded its
vision beyond the local reality, emphasizing the importance
of ICT in the global development and the necessity to have a
strategy of electronic government who orient the initiatives to
make.
• On line services were implemented to reduce, or in some
cases eliminate interminable rows, lost of time for the
citizenship that goes to the municipality, and as a
consequence, improves the life quality.
• Confidence increase of the citizenship towards the public
administration through the improvement in the benefit of
services and the creation of effective communication
channels between citizenship and government. This
contributed as well to the transparency and the promotion of
ethical conduct among employees.
5.2 Learned lessons
5.2.1 Planning
In relation to the planning aspects stand out:
Define with precision the terms of reference of the Consultancy
Team and the local actors of the project.
Define a checklist of the process, with a frame of objectives,
obligations and responsibilities in a scheme of ample and flexible
work that allows permanent adaptation.
Constitute local Task Force of interdepartmental, multicultural,
interdisciplinary character and with multiplicity of competitions
(technology, communication, political handling, etc.). Via this
Task Force, the initiative does not depend on a single person.
Electronic Government is not a subject of exclusive competition
of the specialists in technology, although in appearance is it,
actually, it belongs to all the organization, as much to the area of
health like security one, to education and youth, the attention to
the citizen, among others. If the project only focused the
technological aspects there is the risk of delays due to the internal
negotiations among areas.
5.2.2 Training
In relation to the training aspects stand out:
The formation of the employees must have a preparatory phase in
order to tie to the necessities identified with the electronic
government strategy.
The people who participate in the training must participate in the
implementation process.
As the project advances, the organization begins to recognize the
necessity of increasing specialization in subjects such as
technologies selection, organization, finances among others, since
the adoption of ICT benefits the processes. The public employees
saw their training as an opportunity to increase efficiency and
transparency in their functions.
Cultural change is a result of training. Changes are deep,
frequently imply acceptance between pairs, elimination of cultural
barriers and paradigms or aspects that mark the operation of the
organization.
5.2.3 Technology
In relation to the adoption of technologies, this issue has a
significant complexity that can be observed in the forums of
discussion of experts in computer science. Free Software VS
Owned Technology, languages, data bases, Contents Managers
Systems – CMS, some times, take decisions confined to the
knowledge that are arranged at local level: the best solution is the
one than it is known, limiting the necessary innovation to maintain
to the municipality in a forward position, still with limited
resources. The situation will change with the WEB 2.0 and the
solutions based on mobile government where the complexity will
be greater than the learning abilities.
The Task Force at municipality, must have enthusiasm and
specific knowledge about the organizational culture, the
processes, how to solve problems, how to identify strengths and
weaknesses; since, to implement solutions technologically based,
requires a cultural change in organizations and individuals.
The ICT contributes to create and to identify opportunities and
these opportunities will be able to improve the development
processes. The connectivity and the technology access also will be
necessary but is most important to know how to use it.
Is important to maintain a complete record of the technical
difficulties presented during the use to technology solutions for
future improvements in the implementation.
Is important to define the reach of the technological support with
precision.
The training of the technical staff must consider that the suppliers
usually know more than the municipal people in charge, situation
that is deepened in the small municipalities with limited resources.
This can constitute an opportunity or a weakness, according to the
approach that is adopted. To have a vision and a strategy, avoid
undesirable risks and variations.
5.2.4 Political issues
The leadership of maximum level is essential for the success of the
project. This leadership must incorporate the subject in the
priorities of the public agenda, in the internal face and the external
communication, as in the allocation of resources [4].
Is necessary to identify all the stakeholders in order to create the
commitment with the resultant Electronic government strategy.
The strategy is a live document in permanent evolution as part of a
plan of local development, with the dynamics that requires the
context, the permanent necessity of adaptation, including new
necessities, problems and expectations of the citizenship. The
efforts must be oriented, to include the demands and interests of
the citizenship.
The citizenship satisfaction is fundamental and can be measure via
opinion polls, surveys, and etcetera.
That the defined strategy must have coherence with the political
management and the future vision.
5.2.5 Information
Create a complete documentation of the project, including at least:
participation of the involved actors, interchanges, necessary
subprojects, advances and delays, resources, next steps, and
etcetera.
Shows the advances of the project internally, its objectives and
profits, so that the people feel contributor of the success and the
challenges, and is possible to identify allies and detractors.
The divulgation of the project contributes to the appropriation of
the technology. Also, when the advances are divulgated in the
community, the institutions, schools and mass media the project is
owned by the stakeholders.
Create a communication strategy, internal and external. It is the
entrance of that community to the Knowledge Society, as a
process, with the exercise of the leadership of the local
government. The appropriation will allow reinforcing the
continuity of the project.
The idea is to give greater value, so that the cost of changing is
greater than the one to assure their continuity.
5.2.6 Sustainability
To assure the sustainability of the project, the municipalities, as
part of their commitment with the program, must make financial
contributions at the beginning that return in the measurement of
their fulfillment.
Is necessary to generate, or adapt, the legal and political
instruments to provide continuity, growth and budget to the
project.
Generating a network of support; technicians, civil employees
with key positions in ICT issues, electronic government,
knowledge society, etcetera, even that exceeds the project.
The networking will be useful if there is a deliberate strategy, in
which are defined what can be contributed and which can be the
benefits.
The idea is to establish and to make fulfill a chronogram, to
contribute to the project success.
The Task Force, will mark the difference. A proactive attitude,
towards the continuous improvement, centered in the added value
to the citizenship will contribute to that success.
5.3 Future
The next step is a new version of MuNet constructed on the
accumulated experience during the implementation of the first. As
MuNet was advancing in its implementation, the OAS was
receiving demands of governments and deprived institutions to
carry out MuNet in different countries from the region or, in the
countries in which already operated, with a greater number of
municipalities.
Important advances were made in the presentation and discussion
of proposals, which finally did not culminate in the expansion
from MuNet to those respective countries, in:
• Brazil (BNDES - National Bank of Economic and Social
Development)
• Colombia (Superior School of Public Administration)
• Costa Rica (Intel Foundation)
• Paraguay
• Chile
In a second phase, MuNet should reach a greater number of
municipalities of all Latin America and in addition expand to the
English Caribbean. With the double objective to accelerate its
expansion and to guarantee the future sustainability of the
program, a strategy of implementation of the second phase of
MuNet has been conceived based on National Program idea by
country
This first stage of MuNet allowed the OAS to confirm that the
municipalities of Latin America have an urgent necessity of
support to raise the train of the knowledge society. Although great
part of the municipal political leaders of Latin America is not still
conscious of which the citizenship gamble if they lose this train,
the international organisms have been convinced so much by their
own studies as by the agenda that the states members have marked
through Declarations like the one of Tunisia (World-wide Summit
for the Society of the Information, 2005) or Santo Domingo
(General Assembly of the Organization of the American States,
2006).
This first part has also confirmed the suspicion that only an
integral program can put municipalities in the footpath of the
knowledge society. Detached activities of training, consultancy or
technology implementation will hardly obtain sustainable precise
results in the time. As a result, MuNet offers an integral support,
including, for the second part, the participative aspect, but not yet
will be as complete as it would have, since it will not include the
connectivity element.
Additionally, phase I confirmed that without the commitment of
the upper authority of the municipality, which in the Literature of
the electronic government would be called political support, no
initiative will obtain remarkable results independent of its
integrality.
Phase I of MuNet demonstrate that the reality of Latin America is
diverse and that in their varied geography there are almost 20,000
municipalities, many of them with a pressing necessity of support
to materialize its interest to take advantage of the opportunities
that offer the ICT. Given to the size of the region and the number
of municipalities that integrate it, MuNet needs to speed up and to
support many more municipalities every year. For that reason, in
phase II [13], MuNet will establish national programs in each
country in which it operates and it will incorporate local partners,
with the aim to cover the greater possible number of
municipalities and guaranteeing the sustainability of the activity in
the medium term.
In addition the phase I have left the following lessons that will be
incorporated in phase II:
Following the well-known economic theories related to the
behavior of the consumer, the municipalities tend to give a value
of 0 US$ to those services that receive to a cost 0 US$. Although
the municipality makes a contribution to the project in form of
human resources and infrastructure, all the services that received
from MuNet in their phase I were gratuitous. In phase II, MuNet
will receive from the participant municipalities a symbolic amount
that allows establishing a clear initial commitment with the
project.
The Mayors and public employees, like any human being who has
before himself a difficult mission, need incentives to surpass
themselves and to assume challenges. The national and
international prizes and recognitions act as final motivation for the
municipality and MuNet has received several requests so that it
establishes some type of regional recognition for those
municipalities that are become reference for the others. In its
phase II, MuNet will incorporate national annual recognitions as
much as international.
Although in the accomplishment of the diagnostics as in the
design of the electronic government strategy was considered the
citizenship, this one does not have been present in the activities of
phase I of MuNet in the measurement that corresponds to him
based on its importance. During phase II, MuNet will put more
emphasis in the necessity to work citizenship centered. This
conviction, has taken to us to include in MuNet II a module
specifically focused in citizen participation, which includes
technology related to the same one which it will be transferred to
the participant municipalities.
Those professionals near the scope of the electronic government,
know that the successfully implementation of projects in this area
requires of the suitable combination of three elements nails:
people, processes and technology. Phase I of MuNet has taken
advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT for accomplishment
of work under remote form, but has also confirmed that no
technology can replace the human presence in important instances.
Although the second phase of MuNet will continue taking
advantage of the ICT to reduce the implementation costs, will
include more personal interaction between the municipal MuNet
Consultancy Team and the Task Force.
The agility of the municipal governments to make decisions, when
they are compared with other instances of government, is a
weapon of double edge for a project like MuNet. This agility
causes that the priorities of the municipality can change with more
frequency of the wished and human resources have a greater level
of rotation so well than the one that would be advisable to
maintain projects of medium term in operation. These aspects
have been a constant challenge for MuNet in some of the
municipalities and have forced to handle the calendar of activities
with excessive flexibility. In its phase II, MuNet will establish a
calendar-commitment with the participant municipalities and
municipality that cannot to follow the calendar will be retired of
the project.
One of the aspects more valued by the municipalities phase I of
MuNet was the possibility of knowing what was making other
municipalities and how they were doing it. It is not secret that the
opportunity to take references from advanced municipalities and
to extract learned lessons is a valuable tool of advance for the
electronic government, for that reason, MuNet II will incorporate
of formal way the creation of a network of work for all the
participant municipalities. This focused municipal network in
electronic government will have two instances, a national and
another international, and will have a developed virtual
sustenance.
As it has been indicated already previously, MuNet II will be
implemented installing national MuNet programs. Each country
will count on its own MuNet, in which the OAS will be joining to
local partners for the execution of the project. This new form to
operate of MuNet has manifold objectives; reaching the greater
amount of possible municipalities in the smaller time interval,
since the knowledge society does not wait by anybody and the
evolution of the technology raises changing horizons of work. On
the other hand, transferring all the knowledge and the
methodology to local partners in the country. Related to this
aspect appears the last one of the objectives of this new
perspective; guarantee the sustainability of MuNet beyond the
presence of the OAS and the support of international donors.
Finally, MuNet II will incorporate the Caribbean region, although
the municipal life is not as intense as in Latin America due to the
population and territorial size of the countries, the same one is
taking relevance, particularly in some of them.
6. REFERENCES
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Nicaragua, On Line document
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