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About the Program
In 2022 HSE University launched the e-Governance Knowledge Sharing Program, primarily focused on Africa and aimed at sharing the experience of developing and implementing e-Governance solutions between Russian and African institutions.
The knowledge sharing is to be carried out in the field of digital transformation of public administration, covering its theoretical aspect, regulatory framework, technologies and platforms, international rankings, trends, etc.
Program objectives
Digital development and digital transformation of public administration were suggested among the most promising avenues of knowledge-sharing on the first stage of the Program, with the focus on industry standards and strategies development promoting sustainability of institutions and quality of governance.
The format of knowledge sharing will allow the exchange of experience of development and deployment of e-governance platforms in the African countries. The participants will also get the opportunity to become acquainted with the state of the art solutions and their developers.
Under the Program HSE Center for African Studies launched the e-Governance Knowledge Hub for Africa with country profiles and challenges registry accompanied by the relevant solutions from various fields of e-governance.
On December 15, 2022, at a roundtable Russia-Africa: digital transformation of public administration the reports on the prospects of cooperation with African countries in the digital markets were presented. The experts discussed suggestions regarding the contents of the knowledge sharing for e-Governance Programme.
In July 2023, the Program was presented at the Second Russia–Africa Summit where a roundtable "Knowledge Sharing: Exchange of Experience in the Field of Digitalization of Public Administration" was held with participation of Igor Lyapunov, Senior Vice President for Information Security at Rostelecom and General Director of Rostelecom-Solar; Kamalidini Souef, Minister of Post, Telecommunications and Digital Economy of the Comoros; Peya Mushelenga, Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Namibia; Orlando Mazuze, General Manager of MaCh Digital (Mozambique); and Adamu Garba, President of IPI (Nigeria).
Nevertheless, according to the latest UN e-Governance Development Survey, Africa has an average e-Government Development Index (EGDI) of 0.41. It is a tangible progress compared to 0.28 in 2012, but the room for growth is still huge.
International institutions, such as the UN, the World Bank, the African Development bank invest extensively in playing a role in the digital transformation of public administration in African countries providing their intellectual expertise and resources.
The shortage of telecommunications infrastructure, though visibly improved аccording to the 2022 UN survey, high cost of mobile broadband subscriptions, as well as the scarcity of cybersecurity frameworks are still hurdles to overcome.
Unlike most competitors, Russian e-Government is fully backed by domestic solutions and its developers, while the share of the Russian hardware in the government sector is growing steadily with the aim to reach 100% level.
At the end of 2022 the Russian Public Services Portal by Rostelecom was ranked as the most visited governmental website in the World according to the SimilarWeb rating. It delivers at least 132 federal public services with the number of verified accounts exceeding 100 millions as of November 2022.
E-Governance in Russia is also outperforming on the regional level, mainly in cities such as Moscow and Saint-Petersburg with their own portals: Moscow Mayor official website and Public Services Portal of Saint-Petersburg.
Moscow is leading the global rankings of e-Government, and it has consequently ranked in the top 10 in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 editions of the UN Survey. In 2022, Moscow shared the 5th place with Dubai, New York and Paris with the Local Online Service Index (LOSI) of 0.92.
Who supports
The Program is led by the HSE University Center for African Studies and is being implemented with the support of the Non-State Development Institute «Innopraktika», and we are proud to have one of the biggest IT companies Rostelecom as our partner.
Recent Events
At the Second Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum, a round table “Knowledge Sharing: Exchange of Experience in the Field of Digitalization of Public Administration” was held. The discussion was moderated by Anastasia Pavlenko, Deputy Executive Director and Director for Strategic Partnerships of the non-state development institute Innopraktika. The event was attended by Andrey Maslov, Director of the HSE University Center for African Studies and Coordinator of the Knowledge Sharing Program.
The round table “Russia – Africa: Knowledge Sharing in the Field of Digitalization of Public Administration” was held at the Higher School of Economics as part of the XXIV Yasin International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development. Research fellows, representatives of Russian IT companies and delegates from African countries attended this event.