Silas Biu /s11127558

Name: Silas

ID S11127558

COURSE: MG214

Assignment 3 Replace Final exam Part A:

Essay
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The introduction of ITC revolution over the years has transformed the economies of many
countries around the world. The establishing of new industries has led to the formation of
software and hardware where it replaces the old system through disintermediation. This leads
to the increase of productivity, equally far-reaching and effects for the majority of employees.
Undoubtedly the development of private organization has paved the way to the innovation of
the e-business and e-commerce which than developed and adopted to running the government
operation which then terms as e-government. This essay will discuss the use of e-government
by the public sector in many pacific island countries particularly in Fiji during the period
Pandemic of COVID19 and other diseases outbreaks such as measles. The essay will also
discuss some of the challenges faced in the public sector by using the e-government and it
will provide some specific example how the public sector uses this system in attempting to
improves services more efficiently.

The emergence of e-governance is seen as a preferred tool to enhance all government services
towards its customers, public, citizen and all government agencies, and it became a next wave
of ITC implication in the public sector to improve service efficiency. The introduction of e-
government has transformed the public-sector in-service improvement and quality and such
benefit can depend on the logical test of the citizen derived from the usages of ITC. Wescott
(2001) defines e-government as the use of ITC in promoting government services more
efficient and cost-effective by allowing public or citizen to access information and enable
government to account for its citizen. The author like Hughes (2018) also defines e-
government is the specific information and communication technology transformation in the
public management and with some specific areas in the public sectors. According to (Cullen
and Hassall 2016) define the term e-government in the context of pacific islands developing
countries as a way of how information and communication technology has changed the
government practices by seeking with varying degrees by the use of information and
communication technology to generate and enhance the progress of government more
efficiency in delivering of information and improving services for its citizen and commercial
operation online.

To begin with, by looking at the current situation of Fiji followed by the period of the
pandemic of COVID 19 and the outbreak of dengue in a few years back, the government
through the ministry of health and other ministries have engaged in using e-government to
inform the public about the health issues take place in the country. For example, during the
first confirmed positive case of COVID 19 to be registered in Fiji, the government use
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various form of e-government ITC technology to inform the public about this pandemic.
This includes Fiji TV live stream, Fijian broadcasting corporation radio, Fiji one news home
Facebook page government website through the ministry of health and other ministries. All of
these e-government technologies have important in providing effective information for the
public to prevent a pandemic. However, it becomes a normal practice for the government to
aware the public about any health issues through the use of e-government. For instance in the
case of COVID 19, the government of Fiji aware the public that to prevent the spread of this
pandemic, there are some prevention measures made available, for the public such as wash
your hand with soap, stay at home to save lives, avoid large gathering, practice social
distancing and if any citizen has symptoms the govern provide the free toll number to call the
specific ministry, thus this information is made available through using e-government.

Similar, apart from the pandemic of COVID 19, Fiji also experience the outbreak of dengue
in a few years back and there is an attempt of the public sector as the ministry of health to
prevent this health issues by using the electronic and mobile service in monitoring and
providing effective information to the public. Dengue is one of the health issues in most
countries in the Pacific, and in Fiji, its outbreak has resulted in numbers of deaths. From these
reasons there is a convenient method of e-government needed to monitor this health issues,
that is the country prosed to use the mobile application to monitor and track the outbreak of
this health issue (Emmenuel et al, 2015). Electronic medical records are widely used by the
health sector in almost every country which enables the health sector to easy access with
medical records, reduction of potential medical errors, appointments and billing management.
(Cullen,2016). The use of electronic medical records is significant where it provides and
locate information about the patients that can be shared with doctors, hospitals and patient.
With the help of AusAID in funding the management of patient records in pacific islands
countries, Fiji used patient information system to manage its health services. (Cullen,2016).
By the same token, there is proposed use of the mobile application in the ministry of health in
Fiji during the outbreak of dengue. This e-government device can help monitor the spread of
dengue and enable prevention measures with identifying the areas affected by the dengue and
to provide support with the assistance of media to the general public (Emmenuel et al, 2015).
The mobile application for monitoring and tracking of dengue was proposed to provide the
public about the dengue symptoms, checker and feedback to the ministry of health. Similarly,
the use of GPS, the global positioning system in the mobile application is useful in storing
data and showing the location of the user affected by dengue (Cullen,2016). Thus, it’s
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important to note that, such application is required for the public to register and become users
of the system. In associated with this, most countries in the pacific island used mobile
technology in their health system, such as mobiles phone, patient monitoring devices,
personal digital assistance and some wireless devices system Bluetooth and GPS (Emmenuel
et al, 2015). All these e-government technologies have enhanced more service efficiency and
effectiveness through the form of communication between public and health services,
consultation and monitoring among health profession and intersectoral communication. With
that, such form of communication provides significant purposes, such as health advice,
helpline, telemedicine, appointment reminders, treatment reminders, health awareness, public
warning and health advice during public health emergencies periods like COVID 19 and
dengue outbreak and other health issues. Thus, such communication can be employed via
basic SMS messaging and required internet connectivity. A classic example is Fiji, where
over 13,000 subscribers are engaged in mobile health application to aware about the outbreak
of diseases such as dengue and to maintain the contact at times during some health issues and
natural disaster (Cullen,2016. This was effective for the public because the public who
subscribes can use SMS to contact the medical teams of the doctor through the Fiji medical
council and Fiji colleges of general practitioner where they can take on to reply to any health
issues inside 24 hours through SMS and they will refer the patient to any nearest medical
facility(Cullen,2016). Another example is PNG since its telecommunication has improved,
the providing of mobile network has reached out large areas which leads to the introduction
of mobile phone-based syndrome surveillance system by the health sector to timely detect
and prevent the emerging outbreak of a disease such as measles (Cullen,2016). Samoa is
another example that also use mobile technology in their health sector in form of SMS and
other related mobile phone application to send out information to the public for health advice,
health tips and other health information in concerning the outbreak of a disease such as
dengue. (Cullen,2016). There is no doubt in Fiji where the use of e-government is started to
improve, which stated in the Fiji strategic plan in 2011 to 2015, as the progress of Fiji
towards in achieving its health outcome rely on its well-functioning and performances in its
health information system that access towards time-series geographical disaggregated data,
ages, sex and some are not available (Cullen,2016). Thus, attempt and effort have been made
to solve data gaps to ease planning about prevention and responses to the recent outbreak of
health problems such as COVID 19 and other related issues as dengue. Apart from this, most
pacific island countries employed the use of DHIS2 District Health Information Software in
their public health sector. This e-government technology is a web-based health information
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system with GPS picturing features that include geospatial technology and mobile
application, it was used to manage data, analysis of data, and program monitoring in the
health information system towards the citizen. The countries in the region used this e-
government software includes the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa and it will become
common in the regions in the futures.

Besides, there are many challenges faced by public health sectors and citizen by using e-
government technology. First is the geographic location of the pacific islands in term of
remoteness and isolation, limited resources and long-distance connectivity which resulted in
not accessing international telecommunication services. Internet cost remains high, not every
one access to the internet and educated, computer illiterate and not everyone understands the
English languages (Cullen,2016). Not only that but also, collecting, managing and applying
of timely accurate data is also challenging if data are not a high standard, this indicates that
despite the data is being collected together, they cannot be utilized by the public sector due to
fact that the collection of data in the pacific islands countries is often not relevance with
lacking resources, thus this can lead to the failure of entering the critical data to aware the
emergence of diseases in the regions. A classic example can be noted in Kiribati health
strategies where failures of data are not only the problem, but there is need to train more
health planner and policymaker to understand the applying of e-government technology in
making the decision (Cullen,2016). In particular, since the mobile application is discussed in
the case of Fiji, it's also associated with some certain challenges. This incorporated with
design and implement ideas to improve health information system which can lead to scarce
health care resources, lack access to technology infrastructures and lack of expertise in such
areas of technology to improve the system. (Emmenuel et al, 2015) Also, other challenges are
people in rural areas uses mobile phones have find it difficult for internet connectivity and
electrical charges. Some other associated problems are lack of understanding of information
technology, inability to read and use such information technology (Emmenuel et al, 2015)
Thus, all of these factors discussed above have become the main challenges faced by the
health public sector and citizen in using e-government technology in the pacific islands

To concludes, it is clear in the essay that e-government technology has played a significant
role in providing and improving public services efficiency and effective online during the
time of public health emergency. In the case of Fiji and other countries in the region have
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use e-government in their public health to deliver services more efficiency and effectiveness
and its progress. For instance, the e-government use by Fiji government in the period of
COVID 19 and dengue outbreak have effective in aware the public about these health issues
and also some other countries in the region where the use of e-government in their public
sector have effective in providing of services online for their citizen. Undoubtedly the e-
government also has challenges for the public sector and citizen but it can be addressed if
every country in the pacific islands and international organisation work together in one way
or the other to take this issue for consideration.
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Bibliography.

Owen, E, H, (2018), Public Management and Administration, 5th ed, Macmillan education,
London,

Rowena, C, and Graham, H, (2016), Achieving sustainable E-Government in the Pacific

island states, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Rowena, C, and Graham, H, (2016), Achieving sustainable E-Government in the Pacific, In

Rowen, C, (ed), The use of ITC in the health sector in Pacific islands countries, Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand, pp,305-331.

Reddy, E., Kumar, S., Rollings, N. and Chandra, R., (2015). Mobile application for dengue
fever monitoring and tracking via GPS: a case study for Fiji. arXiv preprint
arXiv:1503.00814.

Wescott, C., 2001. E‐Government in the Asia‐pacific region. Asian Journal of Political

Science, 9(2), pp.1-24.