Comprehensive Challenges to E-government in Iraq

In recent years, governments and commercial organizations all over the world have endeavored to explore new searches, opportunities, and investments for making their services more vibrant, independent of space and/or time, comfortable, and modern. These initiatives have also been implemented to enhance the caliber of their services by leveraging the potential provided by Internet technology. E-government is a digital transformation or digital innovation defined as the use of ICT by government offices to make available public services, boost management effectiveness, efficiency, and openness, and promote transparency, accountability, and democracy. After 2003, Iraq initiated the development of an electronic government system with assistance from the Italian government. The Italian government supplied the necessary technology and expertise to implement ICT in Iraq, along with training staff to operate this equipment. Despite the passage of more than twenty-one years since the implementation of Iraq’s e-government plan, Iraq remains ranked 146th out of 193 nations in the 2022 e-government development index. However, several obstacles are limiting the successful deployment of this technology. The methodology used in this study is to review previous literature on e-government, its definition, benefits, models, stages of establishing e-government in Iraq, and the challenges it faces. We focused on the technological, political, and legal challenges, corruption, and lack of transparency. In addition to that, e-government projects have changed the ways in which government agencies collaborate, exchange information, communicate, and engage with citizens. The purpose of this study is to present an overview of the current state of e-government in Iraq, the specific challenges Iraq confronts in developing its e-government initiatives, and the e-government projects that Iraq requires to improve e-government services.