Regional Development Strategy Based on eWork: Step 5

Example eWork goal: Building regional society

Improve the institutional and community capacity of the region by, for example, encouraging the implementation of eWork in the public and non-profit sectors.

A checklist for developing a strategy to achieve this goal might look something like this:

The public sector has a critical role:
- providing a vision
- honesty and impartiality
- freedom from commercial interest
- detailed knowledge of the region, its economy, society and culture as well as the SMEs and other actors
- providing training and advice
- providing finance
- providing business support
- where necessary, planning for improved ICT infrastructure
- moving to e-government, for example by providing a one-stop, single portal where citizens and firms can ask questions like ‘how do I?’ or based on life events, and get rapid and valuable responses. An external Internet portal for citizens and firms should be matched by a staff Intranet. Five steps to e-government:
  1. public sector departments and agencies use the web to post information about themselves for the benefit of citizens and firms; one-way communication. (This is as far as most governments have got to date.)
  2. citizens and firms are able to provide information about themselves (eg changes of address or status); two-way communication.
  3. Government web-sites allow formal and quantifiable exchange of value to take place (eg renewing a licence, paying a fine, claiming for benefit, filing a tax return). Here, substitution of web-based citizen self-service starts to take place which begins to challenge the traditional working practices and structures. Also, government starts to create an electronic market place for themselves and suppliers, creating e-procurement services which can result in huge savings.
  4. A portal that integrates the complete range of government services and provides paths to them based on need and function not on department or agency.
  5. Digital democracy. Government and politicians start using the web to make themselves more transparent, accessible and accountable to the voters by evolving new methods of consultation and participation.
Encourage the implementation of eWork in the public and non-profit sectors.
Encourage public-private partnerships in eWork.
Improve the operation of the regional labour market in its support for beneficial eWork.
Support the regional social partners (employers organisations and trades unions) in developing and maintaining eWork beneficial to both sides.
Take account of the needs of social and environmental development goals.

Contact