Two UR fresh PhD graduates conduct research to advance e-Government services in Rwanda

24-06-2019

The move to online government services gained a significant impetus in recent years in Rwanda. Currently, a big number of government services can be accessed through one-stop online portal. In the pursuit to an effective e-Government services system, there have been issues related to infrastructure and organization towards its implementation while ways to handle the privacy of data from e-government users is still a big challenge.

The Challenges observed through the implementation of e-Government in Rwanda prompted two University of Rwanda staff to conduct related research for their PhD thesis. Fresh PhD graduates include Pierre Bakunzibake and Chantal Mutimukwe who both earned their PhD degrees at Örebro University in Sweden under the support of UR-Sweden Programme for Research Higher Education and Institutional Advancement.

From his research topic “ Improving Implementation of e-Government Services in Rwanda, an Organizational Perspective” Bakunzibake analyzed the implementation of e-Government services in a developing context. He found out that e-Government is not only constrained by political, social economic or infrastructural challenges but also by organizational issues.

Dr Bakunzibake while presenting results from his PhD thesis

Bakunzibake’s research states that the implementation of e-Government services has been generally focusing more on technological aspects with limited attention to organization change issues. The research provided other important organizational changes that are instrumental for quick access to services and service delivery, which ultimately will increase efficiency in public institutions. The research therefore calls for establishing an appropriate framework for organizational learning among government agencies in relation to improvements in one stop e-government, and the setting of clear goals at the local government level.

The second research by Chantal Mutimukwe is around the topic “Information Privacy Protection in e-Government in Rwanda”. The research first-tracks the momentum gained by online services in Rwanda and provides a set of guidelines that Government organs could follow to achieve effective information privacy protection practices from e-Government users.

Dr Mutimukwe during the defense of her doctoral thesis

In her research, Mutimukwe contributes to the development of e-Government by providing important information to organizations involved in developing e-government services to have a better understanding of the information privacy protection situation. According to her, awareness about information privacy is important for countries that consider e-Government as a tool to boost their economies.

For more about the research by Pierre http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-73635
For more about the research by Chantal http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-73635