ICT Samachar
The e-Governance Board under the Prime Minister's Office has made public the 'e-Governance Blueprint' to bring about a transformative change in governance through digital technology, making public services paperless and eliminating the need for the physical presence of service recipients.
The draft of the blueprint, prepared on January 27, was made public today, according to Dipesh Bista, CEO of the e-Governance Board. He mentioned that discussions and interactions with stakeholders at various stages were conducted, incorporating opinions and suggestions before finalizing the document. The blueprint aims to make public services tangible, agile, transparent, accountable, and effective through digital transformation.
The board emphasized that the blueprint simplifies the process of submitting personal data and information during interactions with public service providers by leveraging digital technology. It seeks to build the necessary digital infrastructure, establish policy and legal frameworks, enhance institutional capacity, and promote governance innovation, research, and development in digital governance.
Seven strategic pillars have been outlined in the blueprint to drive digital transformation. These include a well-defined management framework for digital governance, a robust legal and regulatory structure, continuous development of digital promoters, digital literacy and skill enhancement, formulation and implementation of digital standards and guidelines, strengthened regional and international cooperation, and a focus on innovation, research, and development.
The blueprint integrates key elements from policy documents such as the Information and Communication Technology Policy 2015, the Industrial Enterprises Act 2020, and the Digital Nepal Framework 2019. It highlights the increasing role of information technology in ensuring transparent and efficient public service delivery by improving inter-agency coordination through data exchange networks. Recognizing the need for a national strategy to digitally transform public services, the document also aligns with international models like the Global Digital Compact and Government Stack.
The blueprint emphasizes the importance of common infrastructure and standards, procedural simplification in service delivery, security and confidentiality from the planning stage, policy coherence in digital project development, universal access to digital services, transparency, open data, and continued research and innovation in e-governance.
The document identifies key challenges in digital governance, including the board's limited policy-making role, functional and management-related hurdles, legal and regulatory constraints, technical and managerial barriers to transformative digital services, and issues in digital literacy and skill development. The lack of citizen service centers, difficulties in formulating and enforcing digital standards, and challenges in ensuring transparent data exchange and procurement at all government levels are also highlighted.
Following the approval of the blueprint, several initiatives have been planned for the next three years. These include drafting the e-Governance Act, restructuring the Department of Information Technology, establishing a Data Protection Authority, creating a data exchange platform, integrating digital signatures with national identity cards, and setting up citizen service centers.
The final draft of the e-Governance Blueprint, prepared with technical assistance from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), was received on April 29, 2024, and was subsequently revised from a Nepali perspective.
The Nepali consultant submitted the final version on September 30, 2024, and it was finalized on January 27, 2025. On January 28, during the fifth meeting of the e-Governance Board chaired by the Chief Secretary, it was decided to forward the draft blueprint to the relevant bodies for further consultation.
