Abstract
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have historical ties and MENA countries share similarities with respect to socio-cultural characteristics, national economics (mainly based on natural resources such as oil), religious beliefs (predominantly Muslim), national languages (mainly Arabic), form of governance, and affiliation to regional organizations such as the Arab League. Few comparative e-government researchers have addressed e-government services and contents of e-government Websites within the context of MENA countries. This chapter fills in this gap by presenting e-governance as a desired outcome of diffusion of the Internet among MENA countries. It presents comparisons with respect to types of Websites and services, service-oriented features, online executable services, stages of development of e-government service, and e-government rankings of Websites hosted by MENA governments. Results of our analyses suggest that the similarities in e-governance among MENA countries span a number of variables including the stages of development of e-government services provided through Websites. Our recommendations, grounded in careful examination of 230 Websites of 18 MENA nations, could assist them in the provision of better e-government services to their citizens.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Affisco, J., & Soliman, K. (2006). E-government: A strategic operations management framework for service delivery. Business Process Management Journal, 12, 13–21.
Al-adawi, Z., Yousafzai, S., & Pallister, J. (2005). Conceptual model of citizen adoption of e-government. The Second International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology. Retrieved August 23, 2008, from http://www.it-innovations.ae/iit005/proceedings/articles/G_6_IIT05-Al-Adawi.pdf
Anzinger, G. (2003). African governments on the www. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/africa.html
Bovaird, T., & Loffler, E. (2009). Public management and governance (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor and Francis.
Burkhart, G., & Older, S. (2003). The information revolution in Middle East and North Africa. Prepared for National Intelligence Council by RAND’s National Defense Research Institute. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1653/MR1653.pdf
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.
Cresswell, A. M., Pardo, T., Burke, G. B., & Dadayan, L. (2007). Advancing return on investment analysis for government information technology. In Proceedings of the 8th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research: Bridging Disciplines & Domains; Philadelphia, PA, May 20–23, 2007. dg.o, vol. 228. Digital Government Society of North America, 244–245. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.dgsociety.org/documents/p244-Cresswell_000.pdf
De Alcántara, C. H. (2002). The development divides in a digital age. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Retrieved September 25, 2009, from http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/Website/document.nsf/%28httpPublications%29/19B0B342A4F1CF5B80256B5E0036D99F?OpenDocument
E-Government Authority. (2009). e-Government Authority signs strategic partnership agreement for MENA ICT 2009 Conference, Kingdom of Bahrain. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from http://www.ega.gov.bh/downloads/news/170809E.pdf
EuroMonitor. (2009). Regional focus: Growing internet usage in the Middle East and North Africa. Retrieved September 29, 2009, from http://www.euromonitor.com/Regional_Focus_Growing_Internet_usage_in_the_Middle_East_and_North_Africa
Facebook. (2009). e-Government – Kingdom of Bahrain. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11662676851
Foulger, D. (2001). The cliff and the continuum: Defining the digital divide. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from http://pages.prodigy.net/davis_foulger/articles/cliffAndContinuum.htm
Franda, M. (2002). Launching into cyberspace: Internet development and politics in five world regions. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Gil-Garcia, R., & Pardo, T. (2005). e-Government success factors: Mapping practical tools to theoretical foundations. Government Information Quarterly, 22(2), 187–216.
Hargittai, E. (1999). Weaving the Western Web: Explaining differences in internet connectivity among OECD countries. Telecommunications Policy, 23(10/11), 701–718.
Heeks, R. (2002). E-government in Africa: Promise and practice. Information Polity: The International Journal of Government & Democracy in the Information Age, 7(2/3), 97–114.
Hu, Y., Xiao, J., Pang, J., & Xie, K. (2005). A research on the appraisal framework of e-government project success. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Electronic Commerce (Xi’an, China, August 15–17, 2005). ICEC '05, vol. 113. ACM, New York, NY, 532–538. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1089551.1089647
Internet World Stats. (2009). Internet usage in the Middle East. Retrieved September 16, 2009, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats5.htm
Isselhorst, H. (2002). E-government manual: Classification scheme for e-government procedures. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from https://http://www.bsi.bund.de/cae/servlet/contentblob/487830/publicationFile/29241/2_Klass_en_pdf.pdf
Katchanovski, I., & LaPorte, T. (2005). Cyberdemocracy or Potemkin e-villages? Electronic governments in OECD and post-communist countries. International Journal of Public Administration, 28(7–8), 665–682.
LaMotte, G. (2002). Digital divide in Arab world “staggering”. VOA News (Cairo), 27 June.
LaPorte, T. M., Demchak, C. C., & Friis, C. (2001). Webbing governance: Global trends across national-level public agencies. Communications of the ACM, 44(1), 63–67.
Moon, M., & Welch, E. (2005). Same bed, different dreams? A comparative analysis of citizens and bureaucrats e-government perspectives. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 25(3), 243–264.
Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
OECD. (2003). OECD e-government studies: The e-government imperative. Paris, France: Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.
OECD. (2007). Good governance for development (GfD) in Arab countries initiative: Third steering group meeting at ministerial level. Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.arabgov-initiative.org/publications/GfDII/corruption/Cairo/report-en.pdf
OECD. (2008a). Fourth regional meeting of the good governance for development (GfD) working group on e-Government and administrative simplification. Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.oecd.org/document/20/0,3343,en_34645207_34645466_41073876_1_1_1_1,00.html
OECD. (2008b). High level capacity building seminar on “Administrative Simplification: Overcoming Barriers to Implementation”. Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.oecd.org/document/8/0,3343,en_34645207_34744758_41122120_1_1_1_1,00.html
Resnick, M. (2002). Rethinking learning in the digital age. In G. Kirkman (Ed.), The global information technology report: Readiness for the networked world (pp. 32–37). New York: Oxford University Press.
Robins, P. (2009). The Middle East: A beginner's guide. New York: One world Publications.
Rorissa, A., Gharawi, M., & Demissie, D. (2010). A tale of two continents: Contents of African and Asian e-government Websites. In Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2010), January 5–8, 2010, Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii.
Saidi, N., & Yared, H. (2002). e-Government: Technology for good governance, development and democracy in the MENA countries. Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.erf.org.eg/cms.php?id=publication_details&publication_id=322
Slate Group. (2008). The failed states index 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2009, from http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4350
UNDP. (2002). Arab human development report 2002: Creating opportunities for future generations. Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.nakbaonline.org/download/UNDP/EnglishVersion/Ar-Human-Dev-2002.pdf
United Nations. (2008). United Nations e-Government survey 2008: From e-government to connected governance. Retrieved September 18, 2009, from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN028607.pdf
United Nations. (2009). United Nations e-Government readiness knowledge base. Retrieved September 16, 2009, from http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb
USTDA (2007). Opportunities for US companies in the e-Government (IT) sector in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco. Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.uschamber.com/NR/rdonlyres/e7mhbolv3uyozpcjanxbiv6ll4z656cou3tm77jnylg6w2opweslvweoxpmm6di4srrko36p5j3vffb35weiobpc4qg/20071029USTDAEventFlyer.pdf
West, D. M. (2007a). Global e-Government. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovt07int.pdf
West, D. M. (2007b). Digital government: Technology and public sector performance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Wong, W., & Welch, E. (2009). Does e-Government promote accountability? A comparative analysis of Website openness and government accountability. Governance, 17(2), 275–297.
World Bank. (2003). e-Government: Technology for good governance, development, and democracy in the MENA Countries: Management tool kit by World Bank. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://whitepapers.zdnet.co.uk/0,1000000651,260116005p,00.htm
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Mohammed Gharawi, Tarkey Alhozaimy, and three anonymous reviewers for their help and invaluable comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rorissa, A., Potnis, D., Demissie, D. (2010). A Comparative Study of Contents of E-government Service Websites of Middle East and North African (MENA) Countries. In: Reddick, C. (eds) Comparative E-Government. Integrated Series in Information Systems, vol 25. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6536-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6536-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-6535-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-6536-3
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)