The United States ranks fifth worldwide in rankings (.pdf) that include the extent to which countries have online presences "that are the conduit for service flow from government to citizen and consequently a reflection of attention to governance processes," the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs says. Ahead of the United States are South Korea, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Denmark.
No country has a true single sign-on integrated portal, the U.N. says, but USA.gov comes the closest.
The rankings are weighted averages of three sub-scores in what the U.N. report says are the most important dimensions of e-gov, namely "scope and quality of online services, development status of telecommunication infrastructure, and inherent human capital."
In the single category of service delivery, which measures how many services governments put online, the report says the United States ties with South Korea and Singapore for first place.
Integrated service delivery is important, the report says, in order to ensure the "efficacy, transparency, responsiveness, participation and inclusion in the delivery of public services." Integrated e-gov will in turn help foster sustainable development because national and local government are citizen-centric and economic, social and environmental aspects of government are linked, the report adds.
"A holistic approach to governance includes taking into account the efficiency and distributional aspects of sectoral policies and their outcomes, national development agendas, and international cooperation agreements, so that resulting solutions are sustainable in the future," the report says.
All countries in the top 20 rankings are have high per capita incomes, a fact the report acknowledges and says is caused by a lack of "e-infrastructure" in underdeveloped countries. Regionally, Africa averages the lowest in the U.N. rankings; it an Oceania are the only two regions to fall below the world average.
The United States ranks fifth worldwide in rankings (.pdf) that include the extent to which countries have online presences "that are the conduit for service flow from government to citizen and consequently a reflection of attention to governance processes," the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs says. Ahead of the United States are South Korea, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Denmark.
No country has a true single sign-on integrated portal, the U.N. says, but USA.gov comes the closest.
The rankings are weighted averages of three sub-scores in what the U.N. report says are the most important dimensions of e-gov, namely "scope and quality of online services, development status of telecommunication infrastructure, and inherent human capital."
In the single category of service delivery, which measures how many services governments put online, the report says the United States ties with South Korea and Singapore for first place.
Integrated service delivery is important, the report says, in order to ensure the "efficacy, transparency, responsiveness, participation and inclusion in the delivery of public services." Integrated e-gov will in turn help foster sustainable development because national and local government are citizen-centric and economic, social and environmental aspects of government are linked, the report adds.
"A holistic approach to governance includes taking into account the efficiency and distributional aspects of sectoral policies and their outcomes, national development agendas, and international cooperation agreements, so that resulting solutions are sustainable in the future," the report says.
All countries in the top 20 rankings are have high per capita incomes, a fact the report acknowledges and says is caused by a lack of "e-infrastructure" in underdeveloped countries. Regionally, Africa averages the lowest in the U.N. rankings; it an Oceania are the only two regions to fall below the world average.