Abstract:
In the path of improving the provision of public services, as one of the main objectives of the
reform of the Mozambican public sector, the strategic use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs), in particular the internet, has become an important vector for the
realization of main guidelines for administrative reform (CIRESP, 2001; CPinfo and CIRESP,
2005). In Mozambique, the Global Public Sector Reform Strategy (EGRSP) was an important
milestone in the digitization of public administration. However, the main actions of this
digitization process, in a first phase, were concentrated on central administration, excluding
local administration. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, public administration in its
entirety reinvented itself to continue providing services to citizens, with the main tool used to
achieve this objective being ICTs.
In this context, this dissertation sought to explore the digitalization of municipal services and
its challenges in the Municipal Council of Vila de Quissico (CMVQ). The dissertation also
described the dynamics of the implementation process of the Virtual Municipal Secretariat in
the Municipal Council of Vila de Quissico, as well as we analyzed the nature of the SMV
services provided to citizens in the CMVQ, and identified the gains, challenges and
perspectives of the SMV in the municipality of village of Quissico.
In order to reach the objectives of the dissertation, we resorted to a qualitative and quantitative
approach, which allowed us to collect elucidations and fundamental data for the research. From
the analysis carried out, it was possible to verify that the digitization of municipal services,
despite being a new phenomenon in the Mozambican municipal administration, brings
numerous benefits to the provision of municipal services. However, it still faces many
challenges for its implementation, namely the lack of financial resources on the part of the
municipalities to give sustainability to the digitization process; the lack of human and
institutional resources, the digital illiteracy of most civil servants, as well as the lack of popular
culture in the use of ICTs, among others. In order to reverse this scenario, it is important to
have a policy for the digitization of municipal services, as well as to carry out civic education
campaigns on matters related to ICTs.
