Paradoxically, however, successful application of the new models necessitates a certain degree of institutional “maturity” to handle the extremely disruptive challenges associated with issues related to individual privacy, security, data privacy and protection, and authentication, to name just a few. Certainly, it is of paramount importance that Belize pays as much attention to developing the right policy, legislative, regulatory and/or enforcement mix as it does to designing and deploying the new technologies themselves. If it fails to do so, the Government is likely to create a scenario in which there is no legal counterbalance to the invasive power of these technologies to disrupt the lives of citizens and other stakeholders. Therefore, in order to guide the Central Information Technology Office (CITO) of Belize, Government’s technology arm, in developing appropriate e-government frameworks that support achievement of the goals set out in various national development plans and strategies, including Horizon 2030 and Government’s Medium Term Development Strategy 2010-2013, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) has designed this e-Government Strategy and Plan of Action. It represents the second and third components in a holistic national programme to leverage information and communication technology (ICT) as a means of helping to catapult Belize to its next dimension of development. The five components of this holistic national programme are: 1. An e-Government Policy that outlines the wider vision, mission, guiding principles and core objectives that are to shape the delivery of government services in Belize during the next three to five years; 2. A set of roadmap strategies for the design of effective e-Government platforms based on the agreed eGovernment Policy framework; 3. An e-Government action plan that gives direction to the roadmap, detailing the steps, timelines, potential partners and/or resources to implement the strategies and achieve the vision for eGovernment in Belize; 4. An ICT Innovation Policy that outlines the wider vision, mission, guiding principles and core objectives that are to shape the development of ICT and innovation in Belize during the next three to five years; 5. A set of high-level projects and roadmap strategies for the design of effective ICT Innovation platforms based on the agreed ICT Innovation Policy framework. These five components are intended to be complementary, with delivery of e-Government services being a driver for ICT innovation in Belize even as local advances in the ICT sector support innovation in e-Government. To this end, the e-Government Policy identifies the following seven (7) strategic themes that will guide eGovernment development and implementation in Belize over the course of the next three to five years. 1. Public Sector Infrastructure Development: Building out a world-class Government Wide-Area Network (GWAN) for the Belize public sector using common and shared platforms that enable delivery of robust, seamless, user-friendly, end-to-end ICT services internally and to external clients. 2. Creative Regulatory Reform: Designing and implementing pioneering policy and regulatory approaches to ICT adoption and usage in the public service that allow e-Government to flourish in a secure environment. 3. Targeted Human Capacity Development: Shaping public sector frameworks for training, education and career-long learning that bridge significant existing deficiencies in individual and overall human capacity. 7