In order to achieve the e-government transformation, elected officials and administrators are needed at all levels of government who understand the technology and the policy goals and who will push reform.

E-government requires strong political leadership in order to succeed. Strong leadership can ensure the long-term commitment of resources and expertise and the cooperation of disparate factions. Leadership can also articulate a unifying theme that can propel the e-government initiative through all the necessary steps. For example, by declaring Internet access a human right, the Estonian leadership created strong national support for the implementation of the Tiger Leap Forward Initiative, a multi-sectoral program that is aiming to create 300 Internet centers in Estonia by 2002 and whose eventual goal is to create a completely e-literate society. While it is not essential that governments declare Internet access a human right, leaders do need to understand that results will be most likely if they elevate the public profile of their vision and press for its successful implementation by tying it to broader human development and democratization goals.

The e-procurement system in Chile illustrates another approach to the leadership factor: One way for governments to spur development of e-government is through the creation of a central government agency that has not only expertise but also institutional authority to implement change. In Chile, this was the Communications and Information Technology

Unit (UTIC), created in 1998 and given the mandate of coordinating e-government efforts. In taking the lead role in developing an e-procurement system, it garnered support at the cabinet level, lobbied the political parties and labor unions, and lined up private backing from a consortium of companies that included the nation's telecom companies, a well-known consulting firm, and the leading Chilean Internet-based applications company.Strategic Investment

Governments will need to prioritize some programs over others to maximize available funds in view of tightly limited resources. This will necessitate clear objectives for programs and a clear route to those objectives.

Developing nations must choose projects carefully in order to optimize their investment of time and resources. Projects should have clear value in terms of enhancing transparency, increasing citizen participation in the governance process, cutting bureaucratic red tape, or saving money. Standards and benchmarks must be established to measure the relative success of these projects. For example, in Gujarat, India, the automation of toll checkpoints resulted in a significant increase in revenue normally lost to corrupt border agents, so that the system paid for itself within a year.