Challenges and best practices for e-municipalities

Abstract

Background: Electronic-municipality (e-municipality) is a reflection of e-government service in the local sphere of government, described as a way of producing useful information for citizens. Electronic-municipalities play a significant role in delivering effective and efficient services to citizens.

Aim: To analyse the role of electronic municipal systems in improving the general welfare of citizens by means of service delivery. This article clarified the concepts of e-municipality by reviewing relevant literatures and further outlined critical factors that are affecting the implementation and adoption e-municipality intensively.

Setting: The article focused on both international and South African local government best practices of electronic municipal systems. International best practices from developed countries, outline lessons that the South African local government can learn.

Methods: The article used mainly the secondary data analysis, gathered from various sources such as articles, document analysis, government documents, amongst others. The analysis is based on various secondary sources linked to the aim of this article.

Results: Key findings of the study showed that most municipalities particularly in developing countries experience challenges in adopting and implementing e-municipality. The concept of e-municipality has been derived from both global and local contexts.

Conclusion: It concludes that just like any innovation, there are challenges related to the successful implementation of e-municipality, such as the digital divide issue, trust issues and technical, economical and social issues. Recommendations include that the local government should invest more in Information Communication Technologies infrastructure for e-municipality development.

Contribution: The results of this research provides best practices for local government in transitioning to e-municipality, the best practice guidelines provide inputs for decision-making in local government.