CHALLENGES IN E-GOVERNANCE

1. Environmental and Social Challenges
   • Low Literacy: Literacy can be defined as the ability to read & write with understanding in any language. A person who can merely read but cannot write can‘t be considered as literate. Similarly formal education or minimum educational standard is not necessary to be considered literate. Low Literacy level of Nepal is a huge obstacle in implementation of e-Governance projects. Illiterate people are unable to access the e-governance services; hence the projects do not get much
   • Low IT Literacy: A large number citizens are not literate and those who are literate, they do not have much knowledge about Information Technology (IT). Most of the peoples in Nepal are not aware about the usage of Information Technology. So, in Nepal, with such low IT literacy level, success of e-Governance projects is difficult to achieve. So, first of all people must be made aware about the usage of Information Technology
   • Service Unavailability: Even when Internet is available, there are performance related issues either related to application or Internet connectivity leading to non-usage of e-Governance
   • Diversity in Nepal: People in Nepal come from different backgrounds speaking different languages. Citizens face language problems while using computerized services. Most of the applications and websites are either in English or Hindi.
   • Low Confidence on Technology: The citizens are not well aware to handle the computer & Even if the system works and they are in a position to use the system, Citizens of Nepal tend to not trust the outcome of technical solution placed. For example in many cases two parallel systems exist to cater the service – manual and computerized system. There generally comes a gap in information available in both the systems due to delays in updating records which leads to lack to trust in available information. Also Manual signature copies of records are valid, where ever it is be placed either for agriculture loan /sale of land/ bank loan etc. It means there is a high dependence on field functionaries in terms of updating and signatures.
   • Lack of Expertise: Observation says expertise are not available in different departments of government for immediate repair of hardware/networking, therefore an obvious delay exists in the system. Even if any requirement to repair/ new procurement then its procurement process takes time to fulfill the procurement norms and
   • Struggle to Change: The struggle to change phenomenon can explain much of the hesitation that occurs on the part of citizens in moving from traditional paper based manually maintained system to automated wed based solutions. to interact with
   • Lack of Integration: Majority of the e-Governance services are offered by the state or central government are not integrated with each other. Lack of interoperability & liner communication between departments may be its major Therefore, the data that resides within one part of system/department has zero or very little meaning to some other department of the government.
   • Lack of Awareness Amongst Citizens: Most of the people are unaware of the benefits of e-governance services. Even the government doesn‘t take initiatives to create environment for the people awareness about e-Governance activities. Unawareness is one of the biggest hurdle in successful implementation of e-Governance
2. Economic Challenges
   • Limited Financial Resources: The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is one of the measures of national income and a country‘s economy. GDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the country in a given period of time. GDP of a country is the measure of its financial strength/ability. Our country has limited financial resources so as to implement and maintain the e-Government projects
   • Low per Capita Income: Per capita Income means how much money each individual receives from the yearly income generated in a particular This means to what each individual receives if the yearly national income is divided equally among everyone. Per capita income of Nepal is low as compare to the other countries. Therefore, people cannot afford services available on web/internet provided by the government which is a challenge for implementation of e-governance.
   • Cost: In developing country cost is one of the most important obstacles in implementing e-Governance where majority of the population is living their livelihood below poverty line. A huge amount of money is involved in implementation, operational and evolutionary maintenance tasks. Installation and maintenance cost of hardware & network is very high. These costs must be low enough so as to guarantee a good cost/benefit
   • Cost for usage: All citizens cannot afford to have Internet facility at their door steps, so government may facilitate free facility to access the information through any government outlets/Business centers.

• • Maintenance of Electronic Devices: As the Information Technology changes very fast and it is extremely difficult for us to update our existing systems that fast. Regulations of different devices and their different parameters may vary and the system in use must be capable enough to handle all the emerging

1. Technological Challenges
   • Defined Requirements: In traditional government functioning, there were large amount of discretion to deliver service but when we convert these processes into application, it becomes the issue of freezing the processes. As requirement analysis is not properly done, therefore process could not be re-engineered significantly. The requirement analysis is a key component of any service mechanism to make it
   • Inter-operability: Inter-operability is the capability of systems and organizations of different qualities to work together. The e-Governance applications must have this feature so that the newly developed and existing applications can be implemented
   • Lack of Infrastructure: Many government offices do not have proper adequate ICT infrastructure to make their services deliverable. Lack of Internet connectivity through Broad Band/optical fiber connections in most of the villages leading to difficulty in accessing information. Power cut problem in villages creates problem in service deliveries. Even when resources with Internet is available, there are performance related issues either related to application or Internet connectivity leading to non-usage of e-Governance services.
   • Lack of Resources: Dedicated Hardware & Network engineers are required for solving operational problems in many
   • Lack of back up: Most of the departments lack regular and centralized backup
   • Lack of strategy or policy: It is required to increase citizen‘s confidence and trust on government
   • Tried and tested technologies: Technology tends to get out of time delivery very Our government may not be in position to buy new storage infrastructure very frequently. So, it is advisable to use better and safer technologies and products which are tried and tested for durations long enough rather than using the latest ones.
   • Privacy and Security: There will be three levels of access available for e-government stakeholders: no access to a web services; extent amount of access to a web-service or full-access to a web service, however when personal sensitive data exists the formation of the security access policy is a much more complicated process with legal consideration. With the implementation of e-governance services related projects, effective measures must be taken to protect sensitive personal information. A lack of security standards and protocols can limit the enhancement of
   •   projects that contain  sensitive  information  such  as income, medical history we saw how the concept of e-governance has evolved over the years in Nepali scenario and how much it is required for responsiveness, transparency and accountability on the part of government and at the same time it is also a toll to increase the participation of citizens in making policies by appropriately empowering them with the right information at right time. The penetration of internet, and telecommunication services in Nepal has increased in the last decade and this gives a ray of hope to the citizens of the nation to fight with the long persisting problems of poverty, corruption, regional diversities and unemployment. But at the same time, slow pace of project completion leads to red tapism and resistance from government officials and citizens too has not given the desired result