1.0 INTRODUCTION “Governments and public organisations are slowly realizing the power of ICT for redefining governance and providing new modes of engagement with citizens. However, institutional change remains slow and hard. For ICT to be used effectively, technology needs to be matched to the local context and be sensitive to people’s needs.” The Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011 1.1 ICT IN THE 21 ST CENTURY: A WHOLE NEW WORLD The persistent global economic recession has thrown many Caribbean small states into deep crisis, forcing Governments to re-think their traditional approaches to development. ICTs are breaking down silos, hierarchies and structures of control, blurring lines between industry sectors, increasing efficiency at all levels in the production cycle, and revolutionising entire areas of economic activity. What is more, the age of always-on social media is transforming the way people live, learn, play, work, socialise and effect change in a complex global environment. The future of public and private sector growth is personalisation: content, products, technologies and services built around the desires of individual corporations, small businesses, citizens and consumers (Babb, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013). Technology is also driving convergence at the consumer end, providing the ability to access multiple mobile services through a single device, including iPads, tablet PCs, mobile phones, and game consoles. This convergence is having a divergent effect for service providers, who can no longer focus on one type of sector, consumer, medium, or device, but must develop for and exploit services from diverse industries via the Internet and multiple digital media and communications channels. These changes represent an evolution from mass society and mass media to the digital, networked society with its personalised, niche media, products and services. This has implications for every aspect of modern life, including the way governments interface with their citizens (Ibid). Indeed, citizen expectations have changed significantly. Yet, the public sector has often been slow to respond. At the same time, governments are faced with shrinking resources as tax revenues plummet or remain stagnant in countries still troubled by sluggish economies, rising costs and, for many, an inability to provide the types of seamless service solutions citizens truly desire. Coupled with uncertainty as to when the economic recession will end and a more demanding citizenry, many governments find themselves challenged to take a lead role in helping to guide this social and economic transformation. These realities place immense demands on a wide range of public service players, for whom the pressure to deliver value is immediate and critical. Today’s civil servants find themselves caught between the curse of budgetary constraints and the constant demand for increased efficiency on one hand and, on the other, pressure to produce improved social outcomes from citizens increasingly exposed to superior customer service and sophisticated product offerings from around the world. In this context of rapid economic and social transformation, speed of implementation is critical to future success. Thus, in order to support CITO 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 CTU has designed this E-Government Policy as the first of five components in a holistic national programme to leverage ICT frameworks as a means of helping to catapult the country to its next stage of development. The five components of this holistic national programme are: 20