Decolonizing e-government benchmarking

Abstract

Digital government can act as an enabler of sustainability, equity and social inclusion and represents a cross-cutting objective across several SDGs. This paper seeks to further the discussion on e-government benchmarking due to the proliferation of different models and measures. The literature on the subject shows the need to pay continuous and careful attention to how we should understand and study the measurement of e-government development [39]. Mainly because the extensive use of benchmarks by large and important organizations (United Nations, European Union, World Bank, OECD) and international companies have influenced 'what it is important to measure', this ends up steering the government's efforts in a particular direction. At the same time, the models and indicators used to assess e-government need to be sensitive to the regional and local context and the purpose of public administration to provide better services and generate public value. We present the results of research conducted in Brazil to identify the online presence of municipalities and contribute to measuring electronic government's progress at the local level based on the Local Online Service Index methodology. The research's main objectives were to understand Brazilian municipalities' online presence and evaluate their online portals regarding technological resources, content and service provision, and local participation and engagement mechanisms. Based on the experience of applying the LOSI in Brazil, we sought to discuss e-government benchmarking from a decolonization perspective [25], theoretically questioning how it is possible and why it is important to include local perspectives in global benchmarking models.