|
|
|
GeoICT for Governance: Will Society benefit?
Sjaak Beerens
Director External Affairs
[with extensive contributions by my colleagues M. Molenaar, J. de Meijere and Y. Georgiadou]
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation – ITC
P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, the Netherlands
beerens@itc.nl
Abstract
Governance is defined as the interaction of State, Private Sector and Civil Society directed at mitigating imbalances within society at large. GeoICT contributes increasingly to governance by providing a tool for decision making at different levels of scale and addressing aspects of jurisdiction, spatio-temporal changes and increasing thematic complexity. By doing so it confronts organizations responsible for GeoICT with institutional challenges and changing capacity requirements. In spite of the increasing role of GeoICT for governance, questions are raised about the dominance of technical aspects in GeoICT compared to institutional matters and the poor level of performance in justifying in financial economic terms the importance of GeoICT for society.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Governments are involved in the management of society including our living environment and resources, i.e. the management of space. The management of our living environment requires information about that environment, i.e. space at different levels of scale, different moments of time and part of natural- or man-induced processes., i.e. spatio-temporal or geo-information. Reportedly spatial information comprises some 80% of information used in government decision making.
Figure 1. Geo-informed decision making(Source: Molenaar, M. 2006)
The timely provision of accurate, reliable, appropriate (relevant) and affordable geo-information is therefore essential for decision making, as part of governance.
GeoICT, a combination of Geo Information Technologies (GIT) and Communication Technologies (ICTs), nowadays referred to as GeoICT, is generally considered a valuable tool of effective and good governance.
1.2 Issues for discussion
An address on such a broad topic as GeoICT for Good Governance cannot be complete and comprehensive. It is for that particular reason that any paper or presentation on the issue has to be limited to sharing some thoughts on a number of special aspects around GeoICT and Governance, particularly related to the implications for society.
For the purpose of this paper and presentation these have been grouped under the following headings:
- Governance and good governance defined
- The role of GeoICT for Governance
- Institutional consequences
- GeoICT benefits for society
- Conclusions
2. GOVERNANCE
2.1 Governance defined
Let us first of all define “governance”: Governance is the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority to manage a nation’s affairs. It comprises mechanisms, processes, relationships and institutions for government, citizens and groups, and society at large to:
- articulate interests
- exercise rights and obligations
- mediate differences
Governance as such differs from a situation where the State commands and controls society. Rather it sees the State as one of the three domains of governance which are the loci of political, economic, and social power, i.e. the State, the Private Sector and Civil Society interacting in the societal processes.
Fig.2 From State Control to Governance
Governance can as such be defined as “the interaction of State, Private Sector and Civil Society in the daily practice of production, consumption, movement, recreation and all other activities which occur in a society”.
The State has a role in such matters as:
- protecting the environment
- protecting the vulnerable in society
- political commitment to economic, social and political restructuring
- providing infrastructure
- decentralizing and democratizing
- strengthening the financial and administrative capacities of local, urban and metropolitan government
The Private Sector pursues a market approach directed at creating conditions under which the production of goods and services can flourish and requires:
- an enabling environment for private sector activity; and
- an economic framework of incentives and rewards for performance
Civil Society expects from governance:
- facilitation of political and social interaction and mobilization of various groups in society to participate in economic, social and political activities
- mitigation of potential adverse effects of economic instability
- creation of efficient mechanisms for allocating social benefits
- provision of a voice for poorer groups in political and government decision-making.
(After Alfiler, 2002)
Governance is the concept of “keeping society together”. It is the keeping differences between people acceptable although everybody has the same rights. Governance is balancing powers and inequalities. Balancing will therefore always mean that power, freedom or income of some will be affected to favor others. Governance is the development of policies to mitigate imbalances which tend to arise from the interaction between citizens in their economic, social, cultural and religious behavior (Meijere, J. de and M. Alvarez de Lopez, 2006)
2.2 “Good governance” defined
The concept “Good Governance” initiates an interesting debate of principle: because “what defines “good”?
The Map Asia 2006 Conference states that “a nation’s development shows the state of governance it is under” followed by “how best the technological innovations have been adapted in the governance comes in the form of advancement the nation experiences”. This implies an automatic relation between technological development in a nation and the development of governance to a certain level of being “good” (Map Asia 2006).
Some words of caution are required here: when there is “totalitarian government”, in other words when the State commands and controls society with ultimate reposition of political power and authority, in fact we cannot speak of “Governance” at all, considering the way we have defined “Governance”.
The concept “good” may be better reflected in the way it is being perceived by Civil Society than by the level that technological innovations have been incorporated in the way the State manages its business.
For Civil Society characteristics of good governance are:
- participation of society
- sustainability of the governance
- legitimacy and acceptability to the people
- operating by rule of law
- accountability
- enabling and facilitative
- regulatory rather than controlling
- service-oriented.
But again, much depends on the interpretation of a particular (Civil) Society, which in turn will generally depend on the duration and level of experience with the characteristics above. For a society that has only recently abandoned a totalitarian system of government even the lowest level of participation, e.g. elections will already be considered “good”. For other societies having experienced Western types of democracy for a longer period, a much more advanced system of “participation” will be required before “governance” to be considered “good”.
2.3 Types of governance
Alfiler (2000) distinguishes tree types of Governance:
- Economic governance:
the processes of decision-making that directly or indirectly affect a country’s economic activities or its relationships with other economies.
- Political governance:
the decision-making and policy implementation of a legitimate and authoritative state.
- Administrative governance:
a system of policy implementation carried out through an efficient, independent, accountable, and open public sector.
Each type of Governance leads to formulating policies that have the following rationalities or dimensions (Snellen, 2002):
- Political - the decision making
- Legal - to assure the legitimacy and legality
- Economic- efficient - to ensure the good spending of public money
- Technical-scientific - to ensure up-to-date and appropriate methods and techniques to be used.
Likewise, each type of governance requires its own type of geo-information and GeoICT.
|
|
|