Six African countries stand out in the latest ranking of the 2024 E-Government Development Index (EGDI), one of the top 100 in the world.
Published by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations General Secretariat, the index assesses the ability of 193 governments to integrate information technologies to improve the efficiency of public services.
The continent’s leader is South Africa, which ranks 40th in the world with an EGDI index of 0.8616, underpinned by strong performances in online services (0.8872) and telecommunications infrastructure (0.8951).
It is followed by Mauritius (76th), which also has an EGDI index. Tunisia, 3rd in Africa and 87th in the world, has an index of 0.6935, with scores of 0.5951 for online services, 0.6497 for human skills and 0.6935 for infrastructure.
It is followed by Morocco (90th) with an EGDI of 0.6841. Seychelles is ranked 92nd with an index of 0.6773. Finally, Egypt, in 6th place, ranks 95th in the world with an EGDI of 0.6699.
Denmark is the world leader in e-governance, followed by Estonia and Singapore, which complete the global top 3 with scores of 0.9954 and 0.9362 respectively.
In contrast, the bottom of the ranking is dominated by sub-Saharan Africa, with the last four positions occupied by African countries. The Central African Republic comes last, in 193rd place, with a score of 0.0947.
Just ahead of it are South Sudan (192nd, score of 0.1191), Somalia (191st, score of 0.1468) and Eritrea (190th, score of 0.1576).
The Index is based on three main pillars, each of which includes several criteria. The first, Human Capital (HCI), assesses aspects such as adult literacy, gross enrolment ratio, expected years of schooling and average years of schooling.
The second pillar, Telecommunications Infrastructure (TII), examines the institutional framework, service provision, access to content, technology and e-participation. Finally, the third pillar, Online Services (OSI), looks at the institutional framework, service provision, access to content, technology and e-government.
Countries are ranked on a scale from 0 to 1: the closer a country’s EGDI is to 1, the better it is, and vice versa.
