To Örebro University

Evaluating e-government has proven difficult. Reasons include the complex nature of e-government, difficulties in measuring outcomes and impact, and the evolving nature of the phenomenon itself. Practical and effective evaluation methods would be useful to guide the development. To gauge the state of the art in the field, a review of contemporary literature investigated the status of research on e-government evaluation. We found the issues involved to be described by five critical factors: maturity levels, evaluation object, type of indicators, evaluation timing, and stakeholder involvement. The review suggests that there is no best model but rather that e-government evaluation must be situated and take a formative approach to guide the next step. However in doing so there is a need for a clear perspective on where e-government development is going. On this point research is more in agreement, and we provide a model to conceptualize this development.

Electronic government (e-government) faces challenges impeding its successful implementation. In the least developed countries, where e-government initiatives are developing but little research is done, it is difficult to know how to move forward with the development. As a contribution to increased knowledge, this study identifies e-government challenges in Rwanda. To this end, the study takes an interpretive approach and, from interviews and document analysis, identifies key e-government challenges. Those challenges include lack of a change management strategy, limited cooperation, language and literacy barriers, incomplete automation, difficulties with system integration, and a lack of intermediaries' management mechanisms. This paper analyses the challenges service providers would have to manage for e-government to improve and informs policymakers of the areas that need their attention for Rwanda to evolve towards the desired e-government. The study contributes to the yet scarce literature of e-government in Rwanda.

E‐government implementation is growing worldwide. In the context of developed countries, as well as some developing ones, research provides tools to evaluate e‐government services and reflect on e‐government performance. However, in the least developed countries (LDCs), where the preconditions are in many ways more challenging, little is known about those services. While information technology can be imported, social, organizational, and infrastructural arrangements conducive to high‐quality service delivery must be developed locally. In contributing to understanding the challenges as well as opportunities involved, this paper explores the qualities of e‐government services in Rwanda, an East African LDC. The investigation focuses on service providers' views of the qualities, as it is only through their understanding of the situation that service quality can be improved. This is a qualitative study based on interviews with employees of government organizations and document analysis. We identify and discuss 28 e‐government service quality factors, which are grouped into nine quality dimensions—accessibility, availability, awareness, responsiveness, information quality, information security, ease of use, support, and cost. This research contributes to raising awareness about the qualities of e‐government services in Rwanda in particular but may also have relevance for other LDCs.