The Center has recorded a number of achievements in 2008, in the areas of: strategic direction and internal workings, projects, organization of events and conferences, research and development, fellowships, networking and strategic partnerships, visitors and international outreach. These achievements are briefly described below.

1. Strategy

   To realize the five-year strategic plan for the Center, approved by the UNU-IIST Board in May 2007, a set of concrete benchmarks were defined to measure the progress in terms of: fellowships, events, projects, outputs and internal capacity. Along with the benchmarks, the impact created by the Center through its various activities was assessed in four main areas: (1) Impact upon governments in developing countries by raising their awareness and human/organizations capacity to plan, implement and evaluate Electronic Governance initiatives - UNeGov.net; (2) Impact upon national agencies responsible for coordinating Electronic Governance development by raising their capacity for policy, strategy and program development through research - EDUeGov; (3) Impact on the global research and practice community for Electronic Governance by connecting together practitioners, researchers and developers working in the area - ICEGOV; and (4) Impact on the host government through building tools, providing guidance, and developing capacity of different agencies in implementing the Public Administration Roadmap through Electronic Government - e-Macao.

2. Projects

   A total of nine projects were executed by the Center, as described by different sections of this report: (1) UNeGov.net - Community of Practice for Electronic Governance, (2) Information Technology Governance for Public Administrations, (3) Software for Electronic Government, (4) Knowledge Management for Electronic Government, (5) Semantic Interoperability for Electronic Government, (6) Developing Open Courseware, (7) WEMS - Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System, (8) Capacity Building for Software Technology and Electronic Governance, internal collaboration within UNU-IIST, and (9) Development of Computer Science Departments in Developing Countries, the UNU-IIST project currently executed by the Center.

3. Events

   Responding to increasing demand, there has been again a considerable increase in the number of workshops, schools and other e-government-related events organized in 2008. Through UNeGov.net, the Center organized five workshops and eleven schools in: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Nigeria, all in partnership with host governments. In the case of Kyrgyzstan, a new Leadership School was delivered to Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers of the Kyrgyz Government. In the case of Colombia, following last year's events at the national level, a series of schools were delivered to provincial-level governments in collaboration the central coordinating agency and the association of municipalities. In the case of Mongolia, following last year's Foundation School, a new Implementation School was prepared and delivered to respond to concrete needs of Mongolian Government.

4. Conferences

   The Center organized in 2008 the second edition of the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, 1 - 4 December 2008, Cairo, Egypt, www.icegov.org (ICEGOV2008). Co-organized with the German University in Cairo and taking place under official patronage of the Ministry of State for Administrative Development, Government of Egypt, the conference brought together practitioners, developers and researchers from government, academia, industry and non-governmental organizations to share the latest findings in the theory and practice of Electronic Governance. It attracted 127 submissions from 46 countries - 80 from academia, 21 from government, 15 from industry and 11 from non-governmental and international organizations. The program included: 3 invited talks, 15 invited sessions, 10 tutorials, 6 workshops, 9 panel discussions, 12 regular paper sessions and 1 poster session, by leading international experts and practitioners in the field. Conference proceedings were published by ACM Press in the International Conference Proceedings Series.

5. Research and Development

   A number of development outputs were produced during 2008 such as: Strategic IT Planning Framework including software, processes and training materials; Strategic Alignment Toolkit and Software, and Macao IT Strategy for 2010 - 2020 produced with its help; production-quality version of the Message Gateway and two communication-intensive applications built upon it; semantic interoperability middleware and its integration with the Message Gateway); and software to collect, manage and visualize electronic eco-messages for the WEMS Project. A number of development outputs are yet to turn into publications. The publications in 2008 include six papers in conference proceedings, one article in a magazine and the book of ICEGOV2008 proceedings.

6. Fellowships

   Two international government fellows were invited by the Center in 2008: Radha Chauhan, Principal Consultant at the National eGovernance Plan, Government of India to work on the policy framework for sustainable Electronic Governance in India; and Mohamed Shareef, Deputy Director, National Centre for Information Technology, Republic of Maldives to work on the readiness assessment framework as a basis for strategic IT planning for the Maldives. Both Government Fellows carried our research and project development in their chosen areas, and are expected to continue their work and return back to the Center.

7. Partnerships

   A number of partnership agreements have been developed and formalized in 2008, with Memoranda of Understanding formulated and signed with: the Ministry of Communications and IT, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; National IT Center, Kyrgyz Republic; Ministry of Communication, Government of Colombia; Universidad Externado de Colombia, Colombia; Federal Capital Territory Administration, Abuja, Nigeria; and Global IT Technology Program, Information and Communications University, South Korea. Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, remains a strong partner of the Center, German University in Cairo co-organize with the Center the ICEGOV2008 conference, and 2008 noted concrete collaboration with UNU-MERIT (a module contributed by the Center to the UNU-MERIT school on Design and Evaluation of Innovation Policy in Developing Countries in Amman, Jordan) and with UNDESA (organization in Macao of the 1st Executive Meeting of Electronic/Mobil Government Repository for Asia-Pacific, an initiative by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, where the Center plays the role of global research partner).

8. Visitors

   The Center hosted four visitors during 2008: Philipp Schmidt, University of the Western Cape, South Africa and UNU-MERIT, 29 April 2008; Francisco Camargo, Director for Coordination and Management, Agenda Conectividad, Ministry of Communication, Colombia, 12-19 September 2008 invited as Senior International Government Fellow and e-Macao Visitor; Dr. Ebot Ebot Enaw, Director, National Agency for IT Development, Government of Cameroon, 15-26 September 2008 invited as Senior International Government Fellow; and Ms. Seema Hafeez, Economic Affairs Officer, UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs, New York, 8-12 December 2008 invited as e-Macao Visitor.

9. Outreach

   The staff of the Center gave 15 invited presentations, including keynote and invited talks, at various events during 2008: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, United States, January 2008; African E-Gov Forum, Kampala, Uganda, March 2008; Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, March 2008; UNU Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan, March 2008; Capacity-Building Workshop on Back Office Management for e/m-Government in Asia-Pacific Region, Shanghai, China, May 2008; Training Programme on Design and Evaluation of Innovation Policy in Developing Countries, Amman, Jordan, June 2008; Seoul Conference on Innovation Strategy Collaboration and Networking across Boundaries, Seoul, South Korea, September 2008; Asia e-Government Forum 2008, Seoul, South Korea, October 2008; 3rd Conference on Global e-Governance, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, November 2008; EU-China Information Society Project Annual Conference 2008, Beijing, China, November 2008; Inter-University Institute of Macao, November 2008; Strategic UNU Workshop on Innovative Capacity Development through E-learning with a Special Focus on Africa, Bonn, Germany, November 2008; 2nd Workshop on Formal Languages and Analysis of Contract-Oriented Software, Malta, November 2008; e-Government Workshop at Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology, Kanazawa, Japan, December 2008; and Japan Electronic Industries Technical Association, Tokyo, Japan, December 2008.

The Center completed its first set of project contributions to the e-Macao Program in the first months of 2008. It also continued developing its internal capacity and capabilities to cope with the increasing international demand for assistance and collaboration, and the resulting likely increase in project activities and events.

The Center has recorded a number of achievements since the commencement of its operations in January 2007, in the areas of: strategic direction and internal workings, organization of events and conferences, research and development, networking and strategic partnerships, fellowships and international outreach. These achievements are briefly described below.

1. Strategy

   To provide a clear strategic direction for the Center which is well-aligned with the mission of UNU-IIST and the UNU, a five-year strategic plan has been developed and presented to UNU-IIST Board in May 2007. Extensive organizational infrastructure has also been put in place to enable the Center cope with its growing range of activities.

2. Projects

   A total of seven projects is currently executed by Center and described by different sections of this report: (1) UNeGov.net - Community of Practice for Electronic Governance, (2) Standards for Electronic (3) Strategic IT Planning for Public Organizations (4) Software Infrastructure for Electronic Government (5) Semantic Interoperability for Electronic Government (6) Developing Open Courseware, and (7) South-South Cooperation on Software Technology.

3. Events

   There has been a considerable increase in the number of workshops, schools and other e-government-related events organized and planned in 2007. Through its UNeGov.net initiative, the Center organized four workshops and six schools (both national and regional) in: Colombia, India, Macao, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea and South Korea, most organized in partnership with host governments. In addition, four other events were organized in Macao and the US. Notably, the Center organized an event on "Developing Electronic Governance in the South - New Models for South-South Cooperation" which took place on 18 October 2007 at the UN Headquarters in New York. The event brought together key international players in Electronic Governance and Regional Cooperation from Africa, Asia and South America, and various international and UN organizations such as UNDP, UNDESA, Canada School of Public Service and Academy for Educational Development.

4. Conferences

   Two major international conferences were organized by the Center:
   • ICEGOV2007 - 1st International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, 10 - 13 December 2007, Macao, www.icegov.org, was organized by the Center for Electronic Governance at UNU-IIST, jointly with the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, and the UN Asia-Pacific Center for ICT for Development, South Korea. The conference brought together practitioners, developers and researchers from government, academia, industry and non-governmental organizations to share the latest findings in the theory and practice of Electronic Governance. It attracted 159 paper submissions, and was attended by 200 participants from governments, academia and industry and non-governmental organizations from 53 countries. It offered a rich program of 3 invited talks, 6 tutorials, 6 workshops, 7 panel discussions, poster presentation, 12 regular paper sessions, etc. by leading researchers and international experts in the field. Conference proceeedings were published by ACM Press in its International Conference Proceedings Series.
   • ICDCIT2007 - 4th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology, 17 - 20 December 2007, Bangalore, India, was organized by Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneshwar, India, and co-organized by the Center for Electronic Governance at UNU-IIST. In the tradition of ICDCIT conference series, ICDCIT2007 welcomed presentations of research ideas and results in theory, methodology and applications of Distributed Computing and Internet Technology. In addition, the conference emphasized that research in this area can play an important role to build a foundation for the development of e-Society Applications (e-Applications) and at the same time, that e-Applications can provide relevance and context for such research. A total of 177 papers from 20 countries were submitted for ICDCIT2007, and 33 were accepted for presentation at the conference. Conference proceedings were published by Springer as a volume of Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

5. Research

   There has also been significant increase in research activities and outputs from the Center in 2007. A number of conference and seminar presentations have been made, including 16 publications - 2 at national[3][4], 13 at international conferences and 1 in a journal. Most publications were in the area of foundations, models and software infrastructures for e-government. The Center is also engaged in research collaboration with Microsoft in the area of Semantic Interoperability for Electronic Government.

6. Fellowships

   In addition to the regular fellowship program, the Center has commence the training of "International Government Fellows". These fellows would spend from one to three months at the Center and in other partner institutions to obtain training expected for a position of Chief Information Officer in Public Administration (the scope is similar to the training through regular UNeGov.net workshops and schools), and carry out concrete research and project in specific areas of interest to their governments. Two government fellows received such training in the Center during 2007: Ganbold Nyamdorj from the ICT Authority of the Government of Mongolia, and Bimal Shah from the National Information Technology Center, Government of Nepal. The number is expected to increase to about six per year in 2008.

7. Partnerships

   A number of partnership agreements have been developed and formalized. Memoranda of Understanding were formulated and signed with Governments of Mongolia and Nigeria to define frameworks for intervention and technical assistance. Discussions are underway with other government partners. Partnerships with international and other UN organization are also emerging. For instance, United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, Canada School for Public Service and the Academy for Educational Development have all participated in the Center's events in 2007. In addition, the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, co-organized ICEGOV2007 with the Center.

8. Outreach

   To increase the visibility of UNU-IIST and the UNU in general, the Center has been participating in the activities of the Open Courseware Consortium, particularly its governance committee. The Center is also leading the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Society for Electronic Governance as a sister society of the North American Digital Government Society. In addition, the Center staff gave several invited presentations at various events and locations during 2007: University of Hong Kong; Asia Development Bank and Government of Nepal, Kathmandu; Engineering Institute, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu; Africa e-Government Forum, Accra, Ghana; Microsoft Government Leaders Forum, Beijing, China; Government Technology Exhibition and Conference, Ottawa, Canada; Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA; UNU-MERIT, Maastrich, Netherlands; Open Courseware Conference, Utah, USA; International Conference on Theory and Practice of Software Engineering, Orlando, USA; Korea Aeronautics University, Seoul, South Korea; National Information Technology Agency, Seoul, South Korea; Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO), Seoul, South Korea; KADO's Digital Opportunity Forum, Jakarta, Indonesia; KADO's Digital Opportunity Forum, Hanoi, Vietnam; Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India.

The Center will in the first half of 2008 be completing its first project contributions to the e-Macao Program. The Center will also continue to build its internal capacity and capabilities to cope with the likely increase in project activities and events.

Through its projects and events, and despite the modest funding basis, the Center has already achieved significant impact upon: (1) Governments in developing countries, in terms of awareness and human/organizations capacity to plan, implement and evaluate Electronic Governance initiatives - UNeGov.net; (2) National agencies responsible for coordinating Electronic Governance development, in terms of their capacity for policy, strategy and program development through research - EDUeGov; (3) Global research and practice community for Electronic Governance, by connecting together practitioners, researchers and developers working in the area - ICEGOV; and (4) The host government, through building tools, providing guidance, and developing capacity of the agencies of Macao SAR Government in implementing the Public Administration Roadmap through Electronic Government - e-Macao. The Center is now an official advisor on Electronic Governance development to the national governments in Afghanistan, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Nigeria, and to the local governments in Abuja and Macao. The achievements recorded so far confirm in concrete terms that the Center fulfills its objectives, its design is successful, and its operations are sustainable in the long run.

The achievements recorded so far confirm in concrete terms that the Center fulfills its objectives, its design is successful, and its operations are sustainable in the long run.