A study on human capital index in closing the digital divide and raising e-government performance in middle east countries

E-government initiatives aim to employ information and communications technology (ICT) to provide better services to citizens and businesses while challenging the digital divide, which leads to closing the divide so as to promote e-government performance. This thesis takes related works already reported in the literature and addresses major factors that played a main role in achieving digitized governments, especially in the Middle East and Arab countries. As the case study, performance indices of Iraq, Bahrain and the KSA from 2002 to 2014 are studied in depth. The problem has been identified as the steady decline in the Human Capital Index (HCI) in the region. Therefore, the nature of the HCI measurement has been investigated. Major findings demonstrate a relationship between the HCI and ICT skills index of the International Telecommunication Union with a considerable digital divide in ICT skills in the Arab countries in addition to poor performance in the HCI. This finding is also supported by interpreting the differences between the indices of the HCI versus the telecommunication infrastructure index (TII) and online services index (OSI). This quick tool reveals that a poor HCI prevents these countries from promoting higher ranks. Another finding emerging from the statistics shows that the HCI exhibits unique behavior that differs from the TII and OSI and that it (the HCI) needs more time to improve. It is therefore necessary to focus on investing in HCI and ICT skills and to develop policies and strategies by those governments in charge. Among the limitations of this thesis are information sources that include only previous studies in addition to websites and in-situ surveys that were not conducted. The legal, economic and cultural aspects of the HCI are not studied. The HCI and ICT skills indices are found to play unique roles in closing the digital divide and this effect can be observed even in rich Arab countries not found in the list of world e-government leaders. Keywords: E-government, Digital Divide, ICT Skills Index, HCI, Middle East.