Donald Radingoana, Anup Pradhan
Abstract
The focus of this study was on exploring the potential ways in which local government can leverage technological innovation to address service delivery challenges. The study adopted a literature review approach. The study uncovered an array of opportunities for transforming local government service delivery capacity and efficiency through emerging technologies such as AI, ML, big data analytics, and Blockchain. By integrating these technologies into their systems and processes, municipalities can go a long way in improving citizens engagement, decision-making, public participation, and procurement processes. However, despite the increasing realisation that digital technologies are capable of changing the face of service delivery, the adoption and implementation of such technologies is impeded by a number of barriers such as lack of financial sustainability, rising corruption, human resource challenges, the skills gap, poor leadership, bureaucratic organisational structure, and a rigid regulatory environment. The insights obtained from this paper provide municipal management and other stakeholders with innovative strategies for dealing with some of the challenges hampering effective service delivery and revenue collection. Furthermore, policy makers who are battling to come up with the best policies that can successfully lead to improved service delivery by local government will gain some insights from the findings and recommendations of this study.