Publication:
Mobile Government: How-to Note

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
2023
ISSN
Published
2023
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Mobile phones have become the main communication tool and helped countless people to improve their lives in many countries. The use of mobile phones has grown exponentially over the past 30 years from 11 million subscriptions in 1990 to 8.6 billion in 2021.1 Ninety-five percent of the world’s population now has access to a mobile network. Acknowledging the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones in our lives, European Union governments have embraced the paradigm shift from electronic government (eGov) to mobile phone-based access to government services (mGov) through the Berlin Declaration 2020. The rationale was simple: even if governments have implemented eGovernment portals and online solutions, not everyone has access to the internet via a laptop or personal computer. Mobile phones, on the other hand, are almost universal. Though 17 percent of people in least developed countries still lack mobile access, active broadband subscriptions are increasing fast in all regions of the world, topped by Africa with 28 percent growth and Asia with 27 percent between 2018 and 2020. Mobile phones are thus helping more and more people connect to the jobs, business opportunities, and services they need to escape poverty.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2023. Mobile Government: How-to Note. Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Insight - Governance;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39479 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Fostering a Digitally Inclusive Aging Society in China : The Potential of Public Libraries
    (Washington, DC, 2014-07-08) World Bank
    The World Bank has been supporting this policythrough theprogram China Rural Information and Communications: Technical Assistance on Design and Impact Evaluation, which aims to support the government make decisions about potential scaling up of innovative ICT pilot projects and to generate and disseminate knowledge about the impacts of ICT in rural China. Three activities were undertakenwith a focus on a trio of provinces (Guizhou, Jilin, and Shandong): (a) a demand survey to assess rural ICT access and attitudes; (b) a library study including scoping the status of ICT use in rural libraries; and (c) a limited impact evaluation to examine how ICT interventions have affected rural users.
  • Publication
    Mobile Money Services Development : The Cases of the Republic of Korea and Uganda
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02) Gutierrez, Eva; Choi, Tony
    This study intends to increase understanding of how different types of mobile money services have developed in different environments. For this purpose, two countries were selected, the Republic of Korea and Uganda. From these study cases, some conclusions emerge. The development of mobile banking services can appear at different stages of financial sector development, but it requires a vibrant and competitive telecommunications sector. The regulatory environment does not need to be very sophisticated for the mobile industry to emerge. However, some elements appear to be important. The legal framework should allow (or at least not explicitly forbid) nonbank financial institutions to issue money and use banking agents or correspondents. To ensure wider use of the service by the population, it is important to educate the population on the benefits of mobile money services.
  • Publication
    Strategic Assessment of Bhutan's E-Governance Program
    (Washington, DC, 2010-06) World Bank
    This report reviews the status, opportunities and constraints of the Royal Government of Bhutan's e-Governance program, and recommends actions to enhance and accelerate it. The report is structured as follows: Part II is a strategic view and executive summary of the present situation, opportunities, constraints and suggested strategy for acceleration of e-Governance in Bhutan. Parts III through VII look at the various dimensions of the strategy, namely human resources (Part III), institutional framework (Part IV), e-governance architecture (Part V), interoperability framework (Part VI) and implementation roadmap (Part VII). The Appendices expand upon various aspects of the report and provide complementary information. Appendix (VIII) subsection F, describes an alternative strategy suggested by an external peer reviewer of the final report, which can enable the rapid rollout of e-Government in the Bhutanese context using a commercial Enterprise Resource Planning system purpose built for the public sector, albeit with certain limitations and costs which need to be evaluated in further detail.
  • Publication
    Mobile Usage at the Base of the Pyramid : Research Findings from Kenya and South Africa
    (Washington, DC, 2013-05) World Bank
    While the growth of mobile communications in developing countries has been phenomenal, using mobile phones and applications to meet human and economic development goals is not widespread, for they have not proven acceptable or desirable to the locality into which they are introduced. Therefore, it is deduced that technical know-how and entrepreneurial acumen must be complemented by sociocultural understanding. InfoDev's Mobile Use at the Base of the Pyramid program seeks to contribute to this agenda through on-the-ground studies in developing markets. The first phase of this program supported both qualitative and quantitative research on mobile usage by low-income populations in Kenya and South Africa. This report documents the findings of this program.
  • Publication
    Digital Identity Toolkit : A Guide for Stakeholders in Africa
    (Washington, DC, 2014-06) World Bank Group
    Digital identity, or electronic identity (eID), offers developing nations a unique opportunity to accelerate the pace of their national progress. It changes the way services are delivered, helps grow a country's digital economy, and supports effective safety nets for disadvantaged and impoverished populations. Though digital identity is an opportunity, it raises important considerations with respect to privacy, cost, capacity, and long-term viability. This report provides a strategic view of the role of identification in a country's national development, as well as a tactical view of the building blocks and policy choices needed for setting up eID in a developing country. The report presents a conceptual overview of digital identity management practices, providing a set of guidelines at a national level that policymakers can find helpful as they begin to think about modernizing the identity infrastructure of their country into eID. The report also provides an operating knowledge of the terminology and concepts used in identity management and an exposition of the functional blocks that must be in place. Policy considerations are referenced at the end of the report that governments can use as they contemplate a digital identity program. Given its abridged nature, the report is intended to be insightful and detailed, though not exhaustive. Several important topics related to eID are noted though deserve further discussion, including: economic and financial analysis, the development and setup of a national civil register, and cross-border aspects of eID. The building blocks, as discussed, can help ensure that a secure, robust and reliable digital identity platform can serve the development needs of a country for the foreseeable future.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    A Puzzle with Missing Pieces
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12) Ashton, Louise; Friedman, Jed; Goldemberg, Diana; Hussain, Mustafa Zakir; Kenyon, Thomas; Khan, Akib; Zhou, Mo
    The identification of key determinants of aid effectiveness is a long-standing question in the development community. This paper reviews the literature on aid effectiveness at the project level and then extends the inquiry in a variety of dimensions with new data on World Bank investment project financing. It confirms that the country institutional setting and quality of project supervision are associated with project success, as identified previously. However, many aspects of the development project cycle, especially project design, have been difficult to measure and therefore under-investigated. The paper finds that project design, as proxied by the estimated value added of design staff, the presence of prior analytic work, and other specially collected measures, is a significant predictor of ultimate project success. These factors generally grow in predictive importance as the income level of the country rises. The results also indicate that a key determinant of the staff’s contribution is their experience with previous World Bank projects, but not other characteristics such as age, education, or country location. Key inputs to the project production process associated with subsequent performance are not captured in routine data systems, although it is feasible to do so. Further, the conceptualization and measurement of the success of project-based aid should be revisited by evaluative bodies to reflect a project’s theorized contribution to development outcomes.
  • Publication
    Looking Beyond the Horizon
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06) Mihretu, Mamo; Llobet, Gabriela
    The story of how the PVH Corp. (referred to throughout this document as PVH) came to leada group of its top suppliers to build factories and a fabric mill in Ethiopia’s Hawassa IndustrialPark (HIP) is the study of a strong collaboration between a private company looking to optimizeits business model and a government aiming to transform its economy through global strategic repositioning. The success of this story hinges upon the intersection of their goals and a shared vision of development that includes a strong commitment to social and environmental goals.PVH was motivated to invest in Ethiopia to respond to shifts in the global apparel sector, its growing desire to retool its business model and to address its concerns about compliance with social and environmental standards in its traditional sourcing locations. PVH had decided to rethink its business model and to look beyond the horizon towards a new region in which tolocate its manufacturing base. To have better oversight and enforcement, PVH moved to adopta fully integrated vertical supply chain, including direct investment in one of the manufacturingfacilities.Key to Ethiopia’s success in attracting this important investor was the government’s ability and willingness to strategically evaluate its foreign direct investment (FDI) needs and strategy and to take steps to evolve into an attractive location for higher value-added export-oriented investment.This case study explains a private investor’s site selection process. It assesses the elements PVH prioritized when deciding to commit to Ethiopia, and specifically to HIP. The case study further assesses the government of Ethiopia’s strategy, level of readiness, interest, and commitment, and sets out some key challenges that lie ahead for this partnership. The case study is structured in ten sections. Section second offers a brief background on the textile and apparel industry, including an explanation of its value chain. It provides a brief corporate profile of PVH and its current global footprint and business model. Section third describes the site selection process: PVH´s initial explorations in Africa, its consideration of several African countries, and its initial conversations and negotiations with Ethiopian authorities. Section fourth discusses the Ethiopian government’s strategy to attract and expand export-oriented investments, including efforts to bolster the country’s competitiveness. This section attempts to offer some explanation why Ethiopia was the right fit at the right time and its level of readiness to land such an investment. It provides a brief profile of PVH’s Africa point of entry, the HIP. Section sixth covers the challenges that lie ahead for this-project---potential setbacks that will affect not only the consolidation and growth of the textiles and apparel industry in Ethiopia, but also the government’s vision of becoming the “manufacturing powerhouse of Africa.” Section eighth concludes with some key lessons from PVH’s decision to invest in Ethiopia. Such lessons may be relevant to countries or regions interested inattracting FDI and may be of particular interest to other African countries in their quest to attract major investments in the textile and apparel sector.
  • Publication
    Economy Profile of West Bank and Gaza
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10-31) World Bank Group
    Sixteenth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2019 covers 11 areas of business regulation. Ten of these areas - starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency - are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in these two measures. Doing Business provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. This economy profile presents indicators for West Bank and Gaza; for 2019 West Bank and Gaza ranks 116.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2017
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30) World Bank Group
    Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.
  • Publication
    Senegal : Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) : Corporate Governance Country Assessment
    (Washington, DC, 2006-06) World Bank
    This report provides an assessment of Senegal's corporate governance policy framework, enforcement, and compliance practices. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Senegal. The report identifies several key next steps that can be carried out in Senegal and that focus on implementation, including: (i) developing program to build awareness of the importance of corporate governance and to train directors in modern corporate governance principles; (ii) drafting a code of corporate governance; (iii) addressing governance weaknesses in the state-owned enterprises. A separate report reviews the special issues for the corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in Senegal; and (iv) revising the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) uniform act for commercial companies (over the long term) to incorporate modern corporate governance principles.