Recently, the United Nations released its 2008 E-Government Survey entitled, From E-Government to Connected Governance whose goal was to determine, “the e-government readiness of the 192 Member States of the UN according to a quantitative composite index of e-readiness based on website assessment, telecommunication infrastructure, and human resource endowment. “ You can read all 246 (yes, 246) pages here.

They also have a number of interesting comparative tools on the report’s website. The Graph It feature allows you to compare up to five countries against a specific region while the Country Profile section lets you drill down and do some specific examination of an individual country. These tools have been invaluable in my eGovernment Fantasy League – any one interesting in trading for Burkina Faso?

There are a number of key takeaways in this report, from my perspective. First, the report emphasizes the central importance of the customer in the process of developing eGovernment services – always a good thing. The report also highlights the need for a number of key components in order to achieve results. Namely, country’s require adequate infrastructure, the ability of users to access government services on mobile platforms, basic literacy and internet abilities and a sufficient level of trust in the government as a service provider. It also focuses on the need to bring citizens into the policy development process.

According to the above criteria, the following countries scored in the top 10 on the Readiness Index:

A follow-up point from the survey:

It is worth noting that in this year’s Survey, there were no countries in the top 35 from the African, Caribbean, Central American, Central Asian, South American, and Southern Asian regions.

I’m certainly not suggesting that countries in these regions haven’t made significant gains. Barbados, Angola and El Salvador (to name just a few) are all examples of countries that are embracing the principles of eGovernment with great success. However, in looking from top to bottom on this list, there is significant disparity. The countries at the top have a plethora of resources to focus on eGovernment while others on the list have to contend with the basic needs of safety and security.

For me, the most important takeaway is this: Government 2.0 can fundamentally change the way citizens interact with their government – for the better. It allows for true citizen involvement in the creation of policy and responsive government services tailored to individual citizens. My question then is, how do we take the next step? How can the results of this survey be used to focus assistance and resources for further gains?