People

Insight #3 Young tech-savvy women are at the forefront of the e-government revolution.

With increasing pressure from the central government to adopt e-government technologies, local offices are relying on their in-house “computer” clerks – typically young women – to champion new digital initiatives. Historically, women were recruited into government for clerical and secretarial roles. In this day and age, these roles translate to using word processing and spreadsheet software for typesetting official letters and preparing summary statistics for print reports. This means that young women in entry- to mid-level positions are often the most digitally literate professionals in their department and are therefore best positioned to champion e-governance initiatives. Their responsibilities have grown as a result. They attend technical trainings, they liaise with developers of new technologies, they manage department databases, and sometimes, they even manage their colleagues’ passwords.

“I don’t spend too much time on computers. I recognize their value, but sometimes you just have to function: get stuff done the old-fashioned way and leave the younger generation to figure out these new tools.” ~ A department administrator on using new technologies

Insight #4 Computers are for preparation, paper is for presentation.

Department computers are almost exclusively assigned to clerks who use them to prepare documents for print. Decision-makers seldom interact with data in its digital form, instead preferring to annotate, discuss, analyze, or sign off on printed data tables. As a result of this practice, data – even when stored in digital spreadsheets – is mainly formatted for print rather than for computer-assisted analysis.