E-Services in a Developing Country: E-Profile-Based Distribution and Awareness Generation Approaches

Numerous developing countries have embarked on major e-service delivery programs. These countries grapple with the initiatives and are confronted by many problems that are unique to developing countries. A major problem is the lack of methodical approaches that can guide their efforts. There is also not much in the literature on the issues that face these countries as they struggle to provide e-government services. Drawing from the Cape Gateway Project (CGP) of South Africa, this paper outlines a methodical approach that can be adopted by developing countries to provide e-services, especially to their underserved and mostly rural communities. The proposed approach integrates the strategies for modelling, design, development, implementation awareness generation (or marketing) and distribution (or access) as a unified whole. Finally, key challenges confronting e-service provisioning in these countries are highlighted.