Assessing the e-Readiness of Marginalised Communities for e-Government Services: A Case of Oniipa, Namibia

Abstract

A community network is highly regarded as an alternative method for extending services to marginalized communities. However, the success of community networks remains low as the host community often fails to take the ownership of such projects in a sustainable way. The literature recommends the use of baseline surveys and needs assessment to identify fundamental roles that could be played by a community network within a given society. It is argued that aligning community networks to the needs of the community could potentially contribute to their success. This study conducts a baseline survey with the aims of understanding key roles that a proposed community network could play within the context of e-Government and m-Government services provision. Community in Oniipa Town in Namibia was selected as a case study. It was found that the identified community had a poor electricity infrastructure, but an encouraging growth of mobile phone adoption, even though mobile phone credit is considered expensive. Despite these challenges, the community showed a keen interest in m-Government and e-Government services. Accordingly, the proposed community network shall engage the community through a human-centered design methodology in an effort to develop e-Government services suitable for the community. The community network shall rely on solar energy and the use of e-Government and m-Government is expected to reduce population mobility in search of government services something that could reflect positively on climate.

ICT in Rural Areas from the Perspective of Dairy Farming: A Systematic Review

“…Considering that, and according to studies done by [160] regarding the use of electronic services by the citizens of peripheral regions, there is evidence that, currently, these are less likely to use the several functionalities of these electronic headquarters, even though they are the most benefited from them because of the geographical challenges they face. It is worth highlighting that currently all governments work towards initiatives, which allow the use of web platforms via smartphones originating the so-called m-government [161][162][163][164][165][166]. Ref.…”