E-Government Development

The LOSI Project investigates the online presence of municipalities, evaluating their portals in order to help measure the progress of e-government in municipalities.

Objectives

• To understand the online presence of Brazilian municipalities
• To evaluate the cities' online portals in terms of technological resources, availability of content and services and mechanisms for local participation and engagement
• Describe the online public services and telehealth available to municipalities to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic

Research context

Since 2001, the United Nations (UN), through the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government, in partnership with other global institutions, has been conducting the 'e-Government Development Index' survey, which presents the e-Government Development readiness of UN Member States. In order to broaden the understanding of the use of ICTs at the local government level, since the 2018 edition UNDESA, in partnership with the United Nations University Operational Unit on Policy-Oriented e-Governance (UNU-Egov), has incorporated into the publication the study that evaluates municipalities' e-Government portals using the 'Local Online Service Index'. The Index is made up of 80 indicators related to four dimensions: 1) technology resources; 2) online service provision; 3) content provision and 4) participation and engagement.

In 2021, FGV CEAPG accepted the invitation to implement the 'Local Online Service Index' Pilot Project in Brazil. All state capitals and municipalities with a population of 500,000 inhabitants or more were selected, totaling 53 municipalities surveyed. This sample is representative of the Brazilian population, with around a third of the population living in the 53 municipalities (32.6% according to the IBGE's 2020 estimate or 69 million inhabitants).

Data collection took place between June and July 2021. Three instruments were used: 1) structured observation of the municipalities' e-government portals; 2) an electronic questionnaire sent to the municipalities; 3) structured observation on indicators of online public services and telehealth to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The results of this stage in Brazil have already been published and you can access the two reports by clicking on their respective links: E-Government Development : local online service index in brazilian municipal ities and E-Government Development: local online service index in brazilian municipalities (Executive Summary).

In 2024, a new stage of data collection began and the results will be published on this page.

Institutional support

• Centro Regional de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento da Sociedade da Informação (Cetic.br), a department of the Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (NIC.br), linked to the Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil (CGI.br).

Partner institutions

• United Nations University, Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-Egov)
• United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)

Research coordination

• Prof. Maria Alexandra Cunha
• Erico Przeybilovicz

Research team

• Amanda Caroline Convento
• Ana Flávia Martins de Lima
• Beatriz Moraes Santos
• Bianca Mendes Pires Ji
• Carlos Daniel Martins Sampaio
• Débora de Lira Costa Tavares
• Fabiano Jorge Soares
• Gabriela Gorenstein Lerner
• Helena Fontão Sarti
• João Pedro Haddad Belon Fernandes
• João Sabino Bueno de Azevedo
• Júlia Roberta Klein
• Lais de Brito Martins
• Lorenzo Prandini
• Luiz Renato Belia Unger
• Marianna Porchat Cicivizzo
• Nicole Messias
• Nicole Mourad Pereira
• Sophia Volkmer Medeiros Santana
• Teresa Harari
• Thiago José Tavares Ávila

Administrative coordination

• Fabiana Paschoal Sanches de Moura

Important links

• https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2020
• https://egov.unu.edu/about/about-unu-egov#overview