E-Government
This component aims to provide value added service in the government using ICT to increase
efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in Government. This will be achieved through the
following sub-components:
1.
2.
3.
4.
National ID Cards
E-Governance Resource Centre
Websites for Service Delivery or Interoperability
Automated National Registries including in land Ownership, ID Cards, Passports and
other licenses
5. Establishing an ICT Village
6. Developing Electronic Government Applications
7. Improving ICT training and digital literacy
1. National Identity Cards
Under the constitution of Islamic republic of Afghanistan the government is obliged
to provide every Afghan with appropriate identification documents, which can serve
as the national identity papers without the doubts of authenticity. With the
prevailing security and socio-economic situation there is dire need for national
identification system that cannot be forged and portrays the true national and
demographic state of the country.
The National Identity Cards Project is being designed to meet this prime need of the
nation and its citizens. The rapid growth of mobile phones, telecommunications and
Information technology, and the Fiber Optic Cable and Copper Cable Networks,
provides the best infrastructure for such nationally important project. Despite likely
constraints in the use of this infrastructure, this is likely to facilitate the on-time and
best delivery of the end product.
The scope of this project is to develop, procure, supply, train, install and maintain
software applications and equipment required for the establishment and
maintenance of the information system platform for the following modules:
A. Resident Management & National ID
Afghanistan resident identification module is to develop infrastructure,
which includes hardware, network, ID card issuance system, and
application software to process resident data registration, resident
management (notice of birth, death and change of residence), and
voters’ list management. Currently, the Afghanistan government does
not have an integrated resident management and management of
Voters’ List based on digital data; most of them are done manually.
B. Acquisition of data for the National ID and Issuance of the ID
Entry of personal information of entire population to issue NID card for
all residents of the country. Construction of integrated image data by
inputting resident photos, fingerprints, iris, signatures and such other
data as per the population registration law of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan for entire population. Issuance of 15 million new ID Cards
for the registered population during the time frame of this project.
C. Driver License (DL) system
The DL involves building an application program in order to implement
data registration, driver license basic (date of issuance, vehicle
operation class changes, etc.). This system will be fully integrated with
the resident management and national ID platform.
D. Vehicle Registration
The vehicle registration system is connected with the national ID and
driver license. Information such as vehicle owner, type, class, etc allows
detailed system management. The vehicle registration system will be
used with the infrastructure, which is expected to increase system
operation and work efficiency.
E. Digital Signature
The scope of Digital Signature system includes Root PKI and National PKI
for public employees considering the following requirements during the
implementation and also the establishment of the Certification
Authority.
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Confidentiality: Information security by encryption of transaction da
ta.
Integrity: Prevent forgery and alteration of transaction data.
Authentication: User identification for data transaction.
Non-repudiation: Reliability enhancement for Transaction by using e
lectronic signature.
Access Control: Permit to access information only for selected receiv
er.
F. Biometrics
The biometric solutions to be introduced involve the fingerprint and iris
and the management of its images and minutiae. The scope of work
includes but not limited to.
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Register and manage DB for high quality iris and fingerprint images.
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Capture high quality fingerprint and iris through live scanner/high
resolution scanner.
Extract minutiae for accurate fingerprint and iris recognition.
Matching algorithm (1:1 verification, 1:N identification) must be
able to find matching data quickly and accurately by using various
extracted biometrics information from extracted algorithm.
Fast and accurate fingerprint pattern separation by implementing 5
separate classification of fingerprint.
By standardizing the storage pattern for biometrics minutiae, the
system should build commonly shared information such as
electronic resident registration card, e-passport issuance and
biometrics data requested by other government agencies.
Fast access of biometrics information and resident personal
information to shorten the information search time.
1:N matching is first carried out through fingerprints. If the
fingerprint matching result yields duplicate data, final matching will
be performed using iris data.
The project will be carried out in phases:
Phases
Description
Phase 1
-Installation of main DB, PKI, Biometric and related
equipment in National Data Center plus expansion of the
Center with connectivity to other Gov offices i.e ABIS.
-Installation of card printers and its related equipment and
installation of the environment systems in the MoI center.
-Delivery of 0.5 million ID cards to MoI.
-Delivery of 7million ID cards to MoI.
-Delivery and installation of all required equipment for the
operation in five main provinces including its districts, i.e
Kabul, Herat, Balkh, Ningarhar and Kandahar.
-Acquisition of data in the five provinces i.e Kabul, Herat,
Balkh, Ningarhar and Kandahar as per the population
registration law.
-Delivery of 7.5 million ID cards to MoI.
-Delivery and installation of all required equipment for the
Operation in the remaining 29 provinces including its
districts.
-Acquisition of data in the remaining 29 provinces including
as per the population registration law.
Phase 2
Phase 3
Socio-Economic impact:
A. Driving License and Vehicle registration
The project will streamline the driving license and vehicle
registration system, which will enable government to collect
revenues and also report on the status of vehicles in the
country. The project will equip the traffic police departments
throughout the country with IT platform, which includes
software and hardware.
B. Supporting elections, the Census, Democracy and other
critical national projects
The government of Afghanistan will hold second national
presidential elections in coming months, although these have
been held once before but still we are seeing the registration
cards are being issued once again, and there’s great chance of
corruption the process as well, the electronic National Smart
Card will provide a plate-form to the government to collect
basic electoral data and could be used as election cards for
future elections.
The GIRoA have always tried in the past to conduct national
census but not have been able to do so successfully which
results in un-equal distribution of resources and lack of feasible
national development strategies, while distribution new ID
cards the government can use the data collection practice as
partial national census, which will ultimately strengthen the
fragile democracy in Afghanistan.
C. Supporting the governance and sub-national governance
agenda
The IDLG wants to develop and support de-centralized/subnational governance levels (provinces and districts) in every
way. This will involve giving them access to central resources,
both from the donor community as well as from the central
government, and – at some point – defining them not only as
administrative units but also as budgetary units.
The implementation of such projects will provide government a
decision-making support plate-form, which will strengthen the
governance in the grass root level. It will also strengthen the
government efforts to collect primary data at the core level,
which will enable them to make effective and efficient policies,
and at the end will be more able to distribute resources equally,
efficiently and effectively at the district and village levels.
D. Supporting primary Health, Education, Mother/child health
and other socio issues.
As for the design of the National Smart Card it will be issued on
the district level to every afghan citizen, this data collection at
the district level will provide government first hand insight to
the primary health facilities, educational facilities and can also
shed light on the mother child health issues e.g. child mortality
and others.
E. Support for other public services
The National Smart Card is designed as the base for other
government services which can presented electronically in the
future, these services can utilize the Tazkira databases for
collection of all data necessary for optimum operations, these
services could include death certificate, birth certificate, driving
licenses, vehicle registration, land registration, and other socio
projects which will have empowering effects on the individual
life of every citizen.
2. E-Governance Resource Centre
The immediate objective of this project is to establish the E-Government Resource
Centre (EGRC) within the Ministry of Communications and IT (MCIT) to provide
timely and high quality advice, training, consultancy and other services in the area
of e-Government to various ministries, departments and agencies of the
Government of Afghanistan and donor supported development projects in order to
facilitate and optimize application of information and communication technology in
the public sector of Afghanistan and to catalyze e-government transformation in the
country. With the adoption of the E-Government culture GIRoA will be able to
overcome the issues it is facing in the areas of transparency, efficiency and public
service delivery.
The ICT Sector strategy vision, which was first stated in May 2003 and recently
presented to the ICT Council, is:
“To Transform Afghanistan in to Information Society”
With the above vision in mind, MCIT has archived major milestones to realize the
first part of the vision, now is time to put all focus for the realization of the second
half of the vision. In order to do this there is need to restructure the ministry by
adding departments, which will implement the policies and strategies in the area of
ICT. It is envisaged to create a ICT General Directorate position with 3 directorates –
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Technology and Innovation directorate, which will be responsible for the overall
development of the ICT policies, appraisals of new projects, Coordination,
benchmarking, market studies and so forth;
E-government Directorate, which will be responsible for the e-gov consulting
and advisory services, E-government human resource capacity development, Egovernment standardization services and IT/e-gov audit;
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Information Security Directorate, which will be responsible for the cyber
security, IP allocation, exchange point, electronic certification and so forth.
As these activities will happen during or by end of the year 1390 (march 2011march 2012), through this project MCIT will establish the E-Gov Resource
Center, which will be transformed in to the E-Government Directorate.
It is proposed that MCIT would establish the E-Government Resource Centre
(EGRC) in the premises of MCIT as a Centre of Excellence in E-Government. It
will be source of technical expertise and skills, advice and guidance for
development and deployment of E-Government in the agencies and
departments of the GIRA. The proposed E-Government Resource Centre will
assist in the development of National E-Government Information Management
and Data Standards and policies within the framework of the already developed
e-GIF and e-Gov Strategic Master Plan. EGRC will provide guidance, advice and
technical expertise to GIRoA for design and development of the E-Government
program as a whole and for specific projects within it. The Centre will also
provide services to donor supported projects and other agencies of the
government at the central and provincial levels in the development and
deployment of ICT for governance and development including training and
capacity building in the agencies and in the development and implementation of
E-Government projects in various application areas. As it is apparent that huge
number of projects are being designed and implemented by donor organizations
directly, which include the ICT module in it, the EGRC will have a unit tasked to
monitor such projects by liaising with donor organizations and also monitoring
their websites and bilateral agreements with the Ministry of Finance. EGRC will
also deploy CIOs in these organizations, which will report on the ICT
deployments in these organizations from time to time. This will ensure the
implementation of common ICT policies and platforms throughout the
government sector. MCIT will arrange MoUs with donor organizations, which
will enable the EGRC to carry forward the coordination tasks in this area.
Services to be rendered by the proposed E-Government Resource Centre can be
categorized into the following major categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
E-Government Consulting and Advisory Services
E- Government Human Resource Capacity Development
E-GIF Implementation and IT standardization Services
IT and e-Gov Audit
3. Websites for Service Delivery or Interoperability
Information accessibility is one of the main issues in Afghanistan for successful
development of E-Government and delivery of public services and information to
the citizens. For this purpose, the government has made a plan to design and
develop dynamic websites for the various agencies and departments of the
government, which will help them to share the information with the citizens and
also with its other stakeholders. The websites will also play a vital role in allowing
government to better serve all of its citizens and provide different programs and
services to its constituents in a more dynamic and interactive way; thereby
increasing citizen participation.
This activity involves development and strengthening official websites of 25 GIROA
ministries, 7 universities, 11 independent directorates and 34 provincial
governments. This will also involve development of web portal, which will be official
online gateway to the government of Afghanistan institutions and socio economic
sectors.
4. Establishing an ICT Village
Information Technology or IT is the collective term for various technologies involved
in processing and transmitting information including computing, networking,
multimedia, telecommunications, microelectronics, and their interdependencies.
Information Technology (IT) is a global industry showing average 10% annual
growth, within IT, software and services account for over half of sales. MCIT is
moving to enable the country to benefit from Information and Communication
Technologies by becoming part of the global information society. In this area, MCIT
is trying to encourage and strengthen all the governmental authorities and related
bodies to take part in this endeavor.
The mission of Kabul IT-Park is to create a Center of Excellence, a technological park
with state-of the-art infrastructure geared towards hi-tech businesses and to create
a strategic base with a superior environment to enable businesses to gain the
competitive advantage they seek.
The idea is to create an environment in which established and emerging members
of Afghanistan’s business sector can operate, expand, collaborate, and thrive. To
this end, the IT-Park will provide facilities based on relevant, needed information
and communication technology (ICT), as well as consulting services. With firms
conveniently located in close proximity to each other, the IT-Park will serve as a
cohesive center for business development and exchange.
The first step will be the arrangement of a Public Private Partnership agreement
with a local or international business firm. Second step will be the preparation of
plans, architectural maps and plot distribution plans. The next step will be to
establish a Techno-park business Incubator facility known as the Techno-park
Business Innovation Centre (TBIC). The TBIC will provide resident businesses with
finished office space and a range of office services, including:
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Heating and Air-conditioning
Furniture
Uninterrupted power supply (UPS), back-up power generation
Maintenance services
Networking
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Reception and lobby area
Conference rooms
Storerooms
Common security systems
Common facilities such as restrooms and cantina
Overall pleasant environment. This may include but not limited to trees,
flowerbeds, etc.
In addition, the TBIC will make available consultancies to businesses in the following
areas:
 Technology
 Management
 Accounting
 Legal and policy
 Marketing
 Training
 Quality control
Serving New Entrepreneurs
Afghanistan’s emerging entrepreneurs are generally recent graduates from science
and technology institutions who have innovative ideas for developing businesses.
Technical experts from a range of public and private sectors and faculty from
premier educational institutions also fall into this category.
New entrepreneurs will receive maximum support from the TBIC. They will be
assisted in the preparation of business plans; the rent of office space; purchase of
furniture and equipment; the procurement and use of computers and software; and
management, accounting, legal, and marketing services.
Experienced entrepreneurs from business and industry and persons who previously
pursued entrepreneurial activities will also be eligible for assistance for their
enterprises, in particular with regard to the preparation of business plans, renting of
office space and purchase of furniture. Management, accounting, legal, and
marketing services will also be available.
Finally, business entrepreneurs from established companies wishing to diversify into
advanced technology fields or transfer their operations to the IT-Park will have
access to all of the facilities available at the TBIC.
The direct beneficiaries of this project will be IT companies in Afghanistan, which
will be able to expand their businesses and generate profits for further
development. The Park could respond directly to the needs of entrepreneurs and
improve survival and growth prospects of start-up companies.
The Park will open employment opportunities for graduates and other qualified IT
specialists thereby preventing their outflow from the country seeking employment
abroad.
Educational and training institutions will benefit from the establishment of the ITPark as a center of learning and research where students can practice their
knowledge and where they can carry out their graduate projects and/or internship
during the semester or summer/winter breaks.
The Afghanistan economy as a whole will benefit directly from the project through
export earnings and improved collection of taxes and indirectly (also through eCommerce development) by the multiplier effects on other sectors.
5. Developing Electronic Government Applications
MCIT has completed drafting of the E-Gov Strategies / Master Plan covering the next
5 years. The plan will be presented to National ICT council and after approval will be
given to line ministries for implementation. MCIT will extend advisory services to
line ministries in the areas of health, agriculture, educations and governance to
develop e-Gov applications. This will enable these ministries to deliver their service
in more efficient and transparent manner. This engagement will ensure the
adoption of enterprise e-Gov architecture, which will be holistic and integrated.
These applications will be in the following areas:
G2C (Government to Customer) and G2B (Government to Businesses) Services
1.
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Government Information available on line at the government web sites
Government Forms available on line for easy downloading
Online Registration of births and deaths
Online Application for various government services made
Land records management and information
Online Drivers Licensing application
Online Business Registration and trade licensing
Online Application for Customs clearance
Online Application for Passport
Online Application for admission to government education institutions
Online Electronic procurement and tendering
Online Electronic recruitment and HRM
Information broadcasting electronically
Electronic government payments
Citizen grievance registration and follow up
Delivery of health services electronically
Delivery of critical information to specialized citizen groups such as
farmers, students, women, youth and senior citizens using electronic
means such as computers and mobile phones.
18. Delivery of extension and training services to specialized citizen groups
such as farmers, students, women, youth and senior citizens using
electronic means such as computers, mobile phones, radio and TV.
19. Online Delivery of Educational services.
G2G (Government to Government) Services
1. Automated Government Processes including electronic storage,
retrieval and processing of information for service delivery and decisionmaking.
2. Electronic Exchange of documents and fully operational enterprise
document management.
3. Collaboration between the government staff on line including chatting
and emailing and video and voice conferencing.
4. Business Process and work flow integration between the various
departments, agencies and ministries.
5. Information sharing and database integration-Enterprise Information
Integration.
6. Electronic information searching across the enterprise.
7. Government Payroll and Personnel Management online
8. Government Human Resource Management and Development including
Training.
9. Government Financial Management
10. Government Strategic Planning and Operational Decision making
supported by agency level or enterprise MIS and DSS.
MCIT will establish the E-Gov Directorate, which will be the responsible organization
for the implementation of the e-Gov strategic Master plan, which will focus on
liaising, guiding, advising, implementing and the development of applications from
the above tentative list.
6. Improving ICT Training and Digital Literacy
Afghanistan has a very small and nascent ICT sector. It needs to adopt innovative
strategies to increase the ICT skills in the private sector and leverage opportunities
emanating from projects and programs being implemented in Afghanistan by the
Government, private sector and donor agencies. It will be necessary for the
following skills to be developed in the Afghanistan. The three-pronged approach is
defined as follows:
 CHART skills (Communication, Heuristic, Analytical, Relational and
Technology): focus on foundational skills needed in the ICT sector
 SMART Skills (Software, Mobile, Application, Research and Technology):
focused on IT industry
 START Skills (Start-up, Training through Association with Remote Teams):
focused on entrepreneurship and cutting edge technologies.
The objective of this activity is to develop and implement a detailed business plan
for a program to develop skills for IT-based services in Afghanistan. The program will
have multiple components, including a skills assessment, building partnerships with
the private sector, and designing the training programs and a pilot rollout. The
consultant will work with multiple stakeholders including the MCIT, Education, lead
academic and training institutions in Afghanistan, local and multinational companies
and agencies/ NGOs based in Afghanistan and with the ICT sector association.
Scope of the activity
1. Conduct an initial skills gap assessment
2. Develop a detailed business plan that will spell out the investments required
for different components of the program together with clear timelines,
responsibilities and a plan off execution.
3. Establish a private sector led initiative for the development of smart skills.
The initiative shall feed into improvement of curriculum design, forging of
international/ regional partnerships, sourcing of content from companies
and universities including the use of open source content from leading
universities. Work closely with the private sector to establish and run the
program.
4. Establish a program of entrepreneurship in IT.
5. Establish linkages with training institutes in Afghanistan and the region.
6.
Help in designing linkages with ICT companies in the country so as to
develop a core talent pool that can be deployed in the mobile applications
areas.
7. Assist in coordinating public-private dialogue between government,
academia and industry associations; and