Zachary Tumin Addresses Gathering of eGovernment Ministers in Uruguay

March 12, 2009

Zachary Tumin, executive director of the Leadership for a Networked World Program, addressed the recent annual meeting the Organization of American States’ eGovernment Ministers. The meeting was held March 5-6, in Montevideo, Uruguay.

“It was a privilege to meet with the OAS eGovernment leaders and learn first-hand of their issues and challenges," Tumin said. “Latin American and Caribbean nations have made tremendous strides in recent years, with a strong emphasis on transparency and efficiency in operations, and citizen engagement.”

The Ministers convened to Montevideo to confer the annual "excelGOB” awards for innovations in eGovernment. Uruguay won for its implementation of “One Laptop per Child,” Mexico for its mobile phone-enabled “Government Gateway” portal, and Brazil for its e-PING architecture for interoperability of services.

Tumin addressed the group on the challenges of cross-boundary leadership.

“There is strong interest in gaining insight to the challenges of design, implementation, and leadership of complex IT initiatives which can achieve important public purposes,” Tumin said. “We committed to further dialogue and to exploring ways Harvard Kennedy School's teaching and research could help the eGovernment Ministers on these crucial matters.”

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Photograph of Zachary Tumin

Zachary Tumin, executive director, Leadership for a Networked World program

“Latin American and Caribbean nations have made tremendous strides in recent years, with a strong emphasis on transparency and efficiency in operations, and citizen engagement.” -- Zachary Tumin