The past two decades of working on digital government is a very long journey that has brought us to identify some of the key fundamentals that need to be in place to make governments more digitally mature and capable to deliver better services in response to the needs of our economies and societies. We can all agree with the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated in a very undoubtful way that societies and economies have to go digital. Governments have to be capable to demonstrate that they are up to the expectations of the users of services who are able to interact with governments online. Being digital becomes a reality that was a necessity and not an option for all governments around the world because citizens and economies have to go digital overnight. This is not an easy task for governments around the world. There’s no single government that still does not feel there are many challenges that need to be overcome so as to be fully digital in a meaningful way.
Many complex challenges are being dealt with around the world that connects with the fact that the overarching context from an economic social environmental perspective is very challenging and complex. There are crises of different kinds that emerge almost on a daily basis that impose on the government the capacity to be very agile and responsive on how they understand the needs of the societies and economies. In coming up with solutions, there are budget constraints that often are not easy to handle the feeling that investing in new opportunities requires reshifting the priorities when it comes to spending on digital. It’s also very important to assure that governments are capable to identify what’s better to spend but they are also capable to show in a transparent way how they are spending money on digital. Many recovery funds are being at the moment provided to governments to support their capacity to use digital to keep continuing operating and delivering services even in moments of certain circumstances and this is the context in which more than ever societies expect governments to be able to show accountability on how money is being spent. This also requires the need to prove capability to deliver results which means making sure that public sectors are equipped with the right talents and skills which is needed to use technology to respond to the needs of societies in ways that are also fair and equivalent. This is at the core, let’s say at the shift that the OECD has been encouraging since 2014, from a new government approach to a digital government approach. Going from a context in which often governments were using technology to transfer online processes that existed in the analog world to a context in which data and digital technologies are leveraged to change how processes are run, and now services are designed and delivered to be able to better respond to the needs of economies and societies. This is not an easy task for governments we know, which is why the OECD in 2014 fostered the development of the recommendation of the council of digital government strategies that were adopted by the council in 2014, precisely with the idea to provide a normative instrument for governments to guide the evolution from a new government approach to a digital government approach.
The digital government index, which is the measurement tool developed by the organization to complement the set of tools that were made available to governments to enact this shift towards digital government, shows that there are still many progresses that need to be made by governments around the world even the top-ranking countries. And the idea is really to understand that it’s not about where a country stands in the ranking but what is the main action in every different scene of the six dimensions that the government can take to be able to advance comprehensively towards a more digital government maturity. This has been really a way for the OECD to be objective in providing tools that support all governments around the world, member and non-member countries towards a higher digital government maturity that delivers results. We don’t like using the term accelerating digital government maturity without looking at the outcome of what this digital maturity can bring. This has been a way to provide these tools for member countries but also non-member countries as part of our global leaders initiative which frames all the different initiatives including the one that we are having today to make sure that the knowledge and experiences that are built within the OECD family can be shared with countries around the world and can benefit governments around the world. What are the tools made available for governments to be able to advance in this digital government maturity? We look at the governance for digital government and the capacity of governments to embrace an approach towards service design and delivery that connects the two elements. Often we see governments focusing on wanting to improve the delivery of services without understanding the kinds of advancements that need to be implemented in the design and how the services are being designed. We look at the data as a core/ key strategic asset for governments, the governments moving towards more data-driven approaches. We look at the skills and talents needed for governments to be more digitally mature and we look at the challenges that still exist in improving the management of the financial resources towards digital governments.
So when it comes to the governance of digital government recognizing the essential importance of having the right governance for digital government in a country to be able to secure strategic objectives, alignment of actions, alignment of decisions across the public sector, sense of collective ownership, and accountability because we know that digital government cannot be a reality promoted only by one institution but we need to have different stakeholders within the public sector to work together in the specific area in line with the joint objectives of a government for the digital maturity to grow. The handbook on governance for digital government produced by OECD has the purpose of helping governments understand what is the most suitable governance model that makes sense in a specific country. We look around good examples across OECD member countries but we acknowledge that the contextual factors in a specific country are extremely important to identify what is the institutional model that makes more sense, what kind of organizational structure can be set in place to make sure it’s clear who makes the decisions, has the right mandate, has the right resources but also is supported by the right institutional mechanism to connect with the rest of the administration and we look at the specific policy levels that can help the authority responsible for guiding the development and implementation of a digital government strategy and agenda to bring all the different parts around the table and ensure a cohesive and coherent digital government maturity across the administration. We look at the strategy being in place, we look at the tools available for making sure that all the public sector is capable to run projects in an agile way, we look at the tools available to improve the financial management of the digital government resources and we look at the standards for instance and regulations in place to make sure it’s clear that is needed across the whole administration. We have been conducting measurement work also in Southeast Asia as part of our flagship publication “whole government at the glance Southeast Asia” that was released in 2019 and what is very interesting to see is that when we look at Southeast Asian countries, we do see government – digital government strategies which are extremely relevant if we acknowledge the fact that governments have recognized the importance of setting common goals and guiding actions towards the achievement of those common goals and we see that most Southeast Asian countries including Viet Nam have digital government strategies that cover other policy areas, for example, health, education, justice, the digital economy culture, and social protection.
Now what is very important is to make sure all these strategies are very much connected with each other and that there’s a clearly identified digital government strategy that keeps supporting advancements towards more digital government maturity. When we look at the user and the services and angles the framework that we have produced working since I would say over the past four-five years, more on the services angle it’s a framework that acknowledges again the fact that improving services and delivery needs to be understood as a challenge that is implemented within a specific context, for example, there are countries that are more centralized for now they provide services, countries that have a more decentralized system of service delivery where local government plays a key role that cannot be taken as a secondary element together with the fact that some countries have a geography that makes it very difficult to provide the same quality of services around the country. Second, we need to consider what we call the philosophy of design and delivery meaning what is the understanding of the whole problem from the top leadership, what are the different approaches that exist within an administration to improve services and delivery. When we think about improving the delivery of services, we need to understand what is the vision around the improvement of services within a specific administration. Is there a strategy that the focus is in particular on improving public services? the type of enablers that are in place, for example, common standards for designing and delivering services? best practices, and guidelines that can be used across the administration so that the quality of services across the whole administration is ensured? the type of talent that is brought around the table, for instance, having multi-disciplinary teams that bring together data scientists with the AI experts, psychologists, people who are capable to see how to bring on board the users of the services? All the elements need to be taken into account, but the key message is that to improve the delivery, we need to remember that the end-to-end approach to the design of a service and delivery of the service needs to be seen as a priority. We cannot improve the final outcome if we don’t change how service is being designed; if we don’t recognize that it’s extremely important to overcome silo-based approaches in how we improve service design and delivery. And if we don’t remember that shifting towards more user-driven approaches where the needs of the users are put at the center of the work that the teams designing services conduct is essential, this needs to be very much connected to the whole conversation around. How do we procure all the bits and pieces? We need to be able to improve the delivery of the service. How do we also test an experiment in the implementation of the service so that in a way all the providers from outside of the public sector. We have to work to deliver a better service, become partners. This is extremely important. Why? Because I think especially in the Covid-19 pandemic context, governments have been experiencing a public trust crisis, meaning the public has not always been trustworthy towards the capacity of governments to respond to their needs which have been changing overnight as I said at the beginning in most of the cases. Well then improving the delivery of services and making the most of the opportunities provided by digital government to improve the finance services is essential to increase the level of citizen satisfaction, with the responses provided by the government which can have a very strong impact on public trust, and therefore on the overall legitimacy of governments. What we see in Southeast Asian countries are advancing establishing platforms for delivering authorities at the national level, and also there have been important efforts to increase the availability of tools like digital identification mechanisms integrated as part of the national portal to improve public services. So the point is that this is an area that will require further attention and efforts in Southeast Asia not only in across all countries the OECD has been working lately a lot on digital identity seen as a tool to improve access and deliver public services, slightly the Southeast Asian countries, seven of the ten which were part of our study have a digital identification mechanism. We’ll have to keep focusing on the availability and the usability of digital identification mechanisms to improve the management of identity as a service. So it is to say that the overall conversation on services design and delivery is extremely important especially if we link digital government as a lever to a stronger democracy.
I really think the participation from the Vietnamese authorities in sharing the great advancements that have been done, have been made in Viet Nam and that you saw some of the comments and experiences shared by the peers from Canada, Colombia and Korea. This is to say that I really think the most important thing to notice at the end of this capacity building workshop is to see to what extent Viet Nam is in the right direction. Many of the actions that are being taken at the moment to make sure that you build on the strong bases that you had in place for higher digital government maturity are actions that mirror and are very similar to the actions taken by the more advanced countries when it comes to digital government. I really think that you are trying to make the most of the challenges and opportunities also provided by the Covid-19 pandemic. So, building on the policy and legal basis for digital transformation that you had and your strong focus in trying to make sure that you remain capable to serve citizens and secure day-to-day operations are some of the demonstrations that you have shown in the past 18 months to demonstrate that you really want to advance digital transformation for delivering better results and increase public trust. So in particular, I think that the emphasis that the government of Viet Nam has placed on the governance for digital government is to be commended. First of all, I really think that the moment is the right moment to be even more ambitious and to build on the momentum that the pandemic has created and the good developments that you have made in the context of the pandemic. For example, the comprehensive and holistic approach to digital transformation through the government development strategy towards digital government is really quite an opportunity to make sure that you continue advance delivering high quality public services broadening the public engagement and strengthening the capacities of agency to maintain operations which deliver social economic impact. For example, you should continue in the right path of improving the legal environment, developing cloud-first digital infrastructure, developing digital platforms and systems focusing on data and the basis so using data as a key strategic asset, developing national applications and services, and not forgetting security and safety of national networks. These are all priority actions that you envisage as part of your strategy for which we would like to say that we commend your vision, your ambition and the very strategic asset of the path that you have prepared for your next steps. This is a very important initiative that is part of the broader work that we have done with KPC of the OECD Korean policy center to build capacity in the region for advancing the digital government maturity. It is very important to remember that this can open up future opportunities to keep working together and to keep assisting you in the work you are doing on digital government also through the OECD network on open innovative government in Southeast Asia.
The next meeting will take place between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 that is a key opportunity to keep exchanging knowledge and practices between countries in the region but also between Southeast Asia countries and OECD member countries. This is also the core of our global leader initiative. The idea is let’s make this like a recurrent opportunity for us to help you out so we really look forward to helping you. We mentioned a number of policy frameworks that you are already using to guide your decisions. The digital government index and the open data index are the measurement tools that the OECD produces support actions policy, actions to help you see how you are progressing and perhaps identify gaps that you can still work on to make sure that you advance. We will be very happy to keep working with you also eventually through your participation in these measurement exercises that are a very nice complement to policy actions and capacity building. Thanks to our speakers and in particular our peers from OECD countries that showed their commitment in a couple of cases like Canada and Colombia considering the time difference and Korea that we can always count on to make sure that we learn about the latest developments of digital government and thanks to the speakers from Viet Nam.
I really think that this conversation has helped to put some concrete flavor to the more general introductory presentations that we provided from the OECD to share a little bit of our knowledge. I’d really like to thank all the participants, all the speakers, the Sanjomark and Marcela for the contribution, the colleagues from the OECD Korean policy center, the colleagues from NAPA and their teams for making the capacity building program possible, and also my team that has been working to the organization of this meeting with the usual commitment and passion. So we really would have liked much more to be in Viet Nam. The covenant team still represents a challenge but also has provided an opportunity for us to keep working together despite the threat that we cannot travel. We really look forward to keeping supporting the government of Viet Nam and to keep working with you towards a higher digital maturity of your government. Thank you very much for this opportunity and we will remain in touch.
Barbara Ubaldi
Head of Digital Government and Data Unit; Acting Head of Open and Innovative Government Division, Directorate for Public Governance, OECD
References
- OECD (2020), OECD Digital Government Index, https://oe.cd/dgi-2019
- OECD (2020), Good practice principles for data ethics in the public sector, http://www.oecd.org/gov/digital-government/good-practice-principles-for-data-ethics-in-the-public-sector.htm
- Perez, J. A. R., Emilsson, C. & Ubaldi, B. (2020), Government at a glance 2019, OECD Policy papers on public governance 1, March 2020.
- OECD (2019), Government at a glance: South East Asia 2019.
- OECD (2019), The path to becoming a data-driven public sector, OECD digital government studies, OECD Publishing, Paris.
- OECD (2018), Digital Government Performance Survey.
- OECD, Digital Government in Chile: Improving public service design and delivery, https://www.oecd.org/gov/digital-government-in-chile-improving-public-service-design-and-delivery-b94582e8-en.htm
- https://oe.cd/il/diggovframework.
- http://datosabiertos.gob.pe retrieved 06 November 2020.
- http://fr retrieved 06 November 2020.
