Strategies, Policies and Evaluations of Brazilian Electronic Government

Abstract

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to analyze the strategic direction of the Brazilian e‑Government Program from 2008 to 2014 associated with the Brazilian ranking on the United Nations e‑Government Survey. Federal government strategic plans from 2008 to 2014 were analyzed based on three categories: e‑services, e‑administration (interoperability, integration; standardization; structuring systems) and e‑democracy (open data and transparency; e‑participation). Semi‑structured interviews were conducted with fifteen government executives responsible for the planning and coordination of public policies in this sector. The research demonstrates that the Brazilian e‑Government Program acquired a more important role in the Brazilian political arena after the protests of June 2013. The ⠜Gabinete Digital⠀ was created and reported directly to the Presidency of the Republic. It has successfully launched many e‑government initiatives that were being developed but were not considered as a priority. Another research finding was the emphasis on increasing the supply of e‑services. This was explicitly observed in government strategic planning starting in 2011. As a result, Brazil moved up 33 positions on the online index of the UN Survey from 2010 to 2012. The last presidential term was more focused on promoting interaction between government and society ⠍ through an increase of transparency, the use of open data by the states and municipalities, and providing access to public information. Brazil rose seven positions on the e‑participation index between 2012 and 2014. Despite numerous initiatives, Brazil's e‑government index ranking in the UN Survey is advancing very slowly and still didn⠒t reach the 45th global position it had in 2008, mainly because of low scores on the telecommunication infrastructure and the human capital indexes. These findings can also be verified in the evaluations of e‑government initiatives presented. Our objective was to verify the convergence, effective follow up and achievement of the targets stipulated in the e‑government stra