What is the UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI)?
The UN's E-Government Development Index, told as a story about an outside board measuring every school's online services, connectivity, and people's education level — all by the same ruler.
We believed our school's online system was the best.Believing we're "the best," with nothing to compare against.
Trying to compare with the next school, there was no shared standard.Without a shared ruler, you can't even tell which school is ahead.
EGDI is an outside board (the UN) measuring every school (country) by the same ruler.Every school gets compared by the same three measures.
EGDI is the average of three sub-indexes.Great online services won't lift the EGDI score if few people are online.
The EGDI score isn't everything.The EGDI score is a snapshot taken every two years — not the everyday reality.
EGDI = a UN index that compares e-government maturity worldwide by averaging three sub-indexes, measured by the same ruler — Online Service (OSI), Telecom Infrastructure (TII), and Human Capital (HCI).
The UN E-Government Development Index is published every two years by UN DESA for 193 member states. It averages three sub-indexes: the Online Service Index (OSI, government websites and services), the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII, internet use, mobile subscriptions, and affordability), and the Human Capital Index (HCI, education and literacy). It lets countries be compared by a shared standard, but being a two-year snapshot, it can't capture real-time change or actual user satisfaction.
When grown-ups say it
- EGDI (E-Government Development Index)
- An index that measures every country by the same ruler. Re-published by the UN every two years.
- OSI (Online Service Index)
- Measures the quality of websites and services. Of the three, it rates the services people directly use.
- TII (Telecommunication Infrastructure Index)
- Measures internet use, mobile subscriptions, and affordability. Even with great services, weak connectivity lowers the EGDI score.
- HCI (Human Capital Index)
- Measures the capacity of the people — education and literacy. Great tech is wasted if people can't use it.
- UN DESA
- The body that actually publishes this index. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
- e-Government
- Delivering administrative services online. The very thing EGDI is measuring.
- Digital Government Assessment
- A similar assessment by other bodies, like the OECD. EGDI isn't the only yardstick out there.
- Open Government Data
- One factor that helps raise the online-service score. Standardized data is easier to reuse once opened. → the shared standard the whole school uses