The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR) yesterday issued a public consultation to seek comments on a draft of the e-Participation Policy, which aims to improve citizen’s access to information and public services, and to engage the public during decision-making.
“e-Participation is the sum total of both the government’s programmes to encourage participation from the public and the willingness of the public to do so. It is imperative that to successfully embrace e-Participation in the State of Qatar, thereby ensuring social and economic progress of the nation, all government agencies implement the provisions as laid out in the draft policy provisions,” said Hassan Jassim al-Sayed, ictQATAR assistant secretary general, Information Technology Sector, ICT Government Programmes.
Al-Sayed said the policy aims at instituting the culture and practices of e-Participation in government agencies and improving transparency and public participation to assist the government in achieving national development goals.
He said all views and comments should be sent to [email protected] on or before September 15, 2014. A consultation survey may also be filed online at the Hukoomi website.
The draft policy is available in Arabic and English at ictQATAR’s official website www.ictqatar.qa. The Ministry, al-Sayed added, also inviting the public to fill in the questionnaire at the Qatar e-Government Portal (Hokoomi) at www.gov.qa, which are available in both Arabic and English.
According to al-Sayed, public participation in governance processes and decision making is a “vital component” in the new knowledge-based society.
This section provides provisions for government agencies in Qatar to support the use of online community engagement as an integral part of the development, implementation, and evaluation of its policies, programmes, and services, he noted.
“This policy on e-Participation requires all government agencies in Qatar to take the following steps: e-Participation administration, e-Participation webpage, online public consultation, online public engagement, use of social media analytics, and the national e-Participation portal,” al-Sayed explained.
He added that Article 12 (9) of Decree Law No 27 of 2014 setting the organisation structure of ictQATAR provides it with the authority to draft legislations, policies, and standards for information technology systems, electronic transactions, and e-Government services to enable the transformation of government agencies in Qatar.
Further, Article 11 (4) of Decree Law No 27 of 2014 identifies promoting the principles of e-Participation between government agencies and the public as ictQATAR’s responsibility.