Canadian volunteers help Filipinos avoid e-governance errors

"In North America, we've made a lot of mistakes," recalled Canadian volunteer adviser Roger Scazighino of the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) during an interview at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City.

Having been in the high-tech industry for 50 years, Scazighino has been a consultant to various projects, including the Skylab project, which was the first American space station launched into orbit.

During those years, he said that many North American government automation projects failed completely or were launched but later found wanting.

Scazighino is just one of many Canadian volunteers sent by CESO to different parts of the world, including the Philippines, to share their expertise. Afraid of just fading away, he decided to become an expert volunteer in project management, teaching people how to execute automation of large information technology projects.

"If you think training is expensive, try ignorance," the Canadian volunteer said, quoting a sign he saw in the Philippines, as he was assigned to teach municipality officers to manage government automation projects.

Local municipalities in the Philippines usually "don't have much," added Leslie Strike, another Canadian volunteer adviser who has 40 years of experience in banking and information technology. After retiring, she decided to volunteer for CESO.

Strike and Scazighino spent a few weeks in select areas in the country identified by CESO. Strike said she was assigned to help local municipalities understand "strategic planning."

Project management and strategic planning are concepts familiar in the corporate world. Both concepts are now being passed on to local government officers in the country in the hopes of promoting better governance through the use of information technology, Strike said.

Scazighino said training is an expensive exercise, but that countries cannot jump into the 21st century without going through the pain of training.

As expected, the younger municipal officers were leading e-governance projects in local governments. However, these young leaders often lack the "real-life" experience necessary to run projects.

Scazighino said e-governance projects are like large enterprise projects: One has to lay down standards to ensure successful project implementation. But one of the challenges was to show the benefits of such projects. In most cases, e-governance leads to intangible benefits, such as faster delivery of public service.

Strike, for her part, said it was important to let local government officers understand how technology can serve their needs. But someone has to be a champion, she added.

Scazighino said local governments should also start documenting the "lessons learned" from projects that have failed. This process will later help them avoid the same mistakes, he said.

"The average citizens do not always see the benefits of automation," he said. He also pointed out that communication was very important in government automation projects.

"Technical people need to learn how to communicate with their leaders and the rest of the organization," he said. By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net