Improvement of Birth Registration System in Iraq with the Use of Electronic Government Services

E-government is considered to be a new phenomenon in the revolution of information and communication technology. In recent years, clear steps have been taken by many governments around the world towards the adoption of e-government in order to enhance the engagement of citizens and other parties with the government, thereby leading to efficiency, cost-effectiveness, trust, transparency and access to government public services. E-government adoption is surrounded by major challenges, including technical, social, legislative and administrative barriers. The digital divide, in addition to other social and cultural issues, are considered to be important factors that impact on citizens' willingness to accept or resist this new innovation. The scope of this research is to investigate in detail the birth registration system in Iraq, how it works and how the paper-based registration system can be transformed into an electronic system. As the research methodology, examples reported to the literature from similar countries are studied in addition to recent information published on those governments' websites. As a practical application, a quick design of interfaces has been carried out based on the roles of actors, places and actions related to the registration system. The findings show the benefits of using e-government services to reduce the cost, time and effort required to obtain those services. Moreover, the findings state the considerable barriers related to the adoption of e-government applications. Finally, they indicate the possibility of starting to apply electronic applications with preliminary work. Information resources, system analysis and design, legal issues and project management are the limitations of this research. Finally, the research question, "Can the government of Iraq take the advantages and successful experiments of precedent countries in adopting e-government initiatives to improve birth registration service?" is addressed and it is concluded that Iraq needs to study precedent examples from around the world and thus start transforming services from paper-based model to electronic model. Keywords: E-government, Birth Registration, Digital Divide, Iraq