A Narrative Review on Designing End-to-End (E2E) Services for E-Government in Developing Countries

Developing countries worldwide are increasingly adopting e-government initiatives to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery. Despite limited financial resources, governments are implementing various strategies to meet citizens’ dynamic demand, often influenced by the seamless digital experiences offered by the private sector. However, the pursuit of fully online, end-to-end (E2E) e-government services is frequently hindered by technological, organizational, and regulatory barriers. E2E services refer to fully online public services from the beginning to the end of the process, accessible anytime and anywhere without requiring face-to-face interaction. This paper presents a narrative review to explore citizen-centric design elements in e-government for developing effective public service delivery systems that enhance user convenience and minimize the need for in-person visits to government offices. A literature search on different databases was conducted, including Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, using determined keywords and filtering criteria were included. The review highlights three overarching themes which are challenges of E2E services implementation, innovation in e-government practices, and essential design characteristics for E2E service delivery. The implementation of seamless e-government services in developing countries faces several challenges. However, designing end-to-end services can potentially open new venues for enhancing the service engagement journey for citizens while engaging with the public sector.