Strengthening Citizen Participation Through E-Governance: Taking Stock and Looking Forward to Ugandas Local Governments

Abstract

As developing countries apple to strengthen participatory approaches in their Local Government systems, e-governance provides an opportunity to reposition the interaction between government and the citizens. E-governance resonates with Ugandas new thrust for Demand-Driven Community Development and LED initiatives implied in her Third National Development Plan. And by reaching out to local communities and providing them engagement digital channels, e-governance can resuscitate Uganda long lost values of self-help, cooperation, and community involvement in service delivery systems as targeted by the Parish Development Model. The e-governance conviction is based on two theoretical perceptions. Firstly, that the quality and effectiveness of any governance policy largely depends on the involvement of all its stakeholders in decision-making. Secondly that e-governance is a great platform that provides a single point of access for both governors and the governed in public processes. Yet, local actors find investment in such technology-intensive systems inherently expensive and risky. Expensive in terms of the infrastructural set up and maintenance and risky considering the less certainty that it will automatically serve the intended purposes. Using desk research based on a critical interpretive review and theoretical synthesis, this paper explores the reality of e-governance in Uganda, synthesizes the opportunities and draws implications of e-governance towards strengthening citizen participation in local governments of Uganda. The paper concludes that the country has experienced more e-government than e-governance. It recommends that the national government should deliberately perpetuate a system that ensures the security of electronic transactions and communications, protection of privacy, empower citizens to control personal information and commit to universal accessibility and affordability at community levels