Digital Government
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Broadband Policies for Latin America and the Caribbean A Digital Economy Toolkit © OECD, IDB 2016 Chapter 12 Digital government This chapter provides guidance on how broadband-enabled central and sub-national governments can become more agile, efficient and effective in fulfilling their roles, while responding to citizen and business’ demands for greater transparency and inclusiveness in public sector operations. It outlines the expected benefits of shifting from e-government to digital government, of increasing availability of open government data and of using data as a strategic asset for improved policy making. The chapter then introduces existing measurement and impact assessment tools and approaches for these policies, both for central/federal and city governments. It also provides an overview of existing efforts in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region to advance digital government, open government data and smart cities, and describes current trends across the OECD in these areas. Finally, it provides a number of good practices from LAC and OECD countries. These can serve as examples of forward-looking initiatives addressing the most pressing issues for the development of digital government in the region. 359 12. DIGital GOVERNMENT A key goal of this Toolkit is to promote the use of information and communications technology (ICT) by both the private and public sectors in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. This chapter addresses the perspective of the public sector. Generally, the framework conditions for the provision of high-speed Internet access, through the development of broadband infrastructure, should help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations, policy making and public service delivery. This will benefit governments, individuals and business in all their activities. This chapter presents a set of good practices to improve public sector use of broadband and encourage more innovative, participatory and open government. The pace of technological change in the digital economy continues to challenge governments in the LAC region and beyond. More connected and informed citizens and businesses have rising expectations about public service quality and convenience, and demand more inclusive and transparent decision-making. Governments in the region need to build strategic capacities to plan, steer and implement the use of digital technologies. Innovative and more collaborative ways must be found to meet these expectations in the context of scarce budgetary resources. Improving public sector use of broadband and ICTs can help make public services more effective and responsive, and enhance the interaction between citizens and businesses. However, incoherent and unco-ordinated use of technologies can lead to inefficient use of resources, duplication of efforts and platforms, lack of interoperability of government information systems and data, and consequently, poor public sector performance. The digital divide and a lack of suitability for users’ needs, a lack of ICT skills in the public sector, or privacy and security measures may reduce citizens’ ability to use online channels to interact with public authorities. Governments need to overcome such obstacles to capture the full benefits of broadband and digital government. Digital technologies can improve information disclosure, access to public sector information and improved public engagement. Strategies to increase capacities to use data more proficiently and to cover the use of ICTs should not be treated separately. By supporting a more strategic use of public sector data and information, such as through Open Government Data (OGD) policies and initiatives, digital technologies can benefit policy making, service design and innovative delivery arrangements, and enhance participation, accountability and transparency at all levels of government, whether local, regional or national. This chapter provides clear policy objectives for governments in the LAC region, describes tools for measuring progress in achieving these objectives and analyses the context of digital government in the region. Based on this overview, it offers specific policy recommendations illustrating good practices to address outstanding issues and help governments achieve new levels of maturity in their use of digital technologies. 360 BRoadbaND POLICIES FOR LatiN AMERica AND THE CARIBBEAN: A DIGital ECONOMY TOOLKIT © OECD, IDB 2016 12. DIGital GOVERNMENT From e-government to digital government E-government refers to the use of ICTs, and particularly the Internet, to achieve better governance (OECD, 2014a). Governments have increasingly put services online. However, often this has not significantly changed structures and back-office processes designed at a time when the focus was on achieving better operational efficiencies within specific policy domains. Neither has it necessarily made services and operations digital by design, for a more synergetic, co-ordinated and coherent use of technologies across the public sector. New digital technologies (e.g. social media platforms, mobile telephones/smartphones) and new approaches to using technology (e.g. open government data and big data) offer more collaborative ways of working within and across administrations, and better ways to engage with the public. This can help governments become not only more efficient and effective, but also more open, transparent and accountable to their constituents. This new stage of maturity of digital technologies and their increasing use by governments is marking a paradigm shift from e-government to digital government. According to the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies, digital government may be defined as “the use of digital technologies, as an integrated part of governments’ modernisation strategies, to create public value. It relies on a digital government ecosystem comprised of government actors, non-governmental organisations, businesses, citizens’ associations and individuals which supports the production of and access to data, services and content through interactions with the government” (OECD, 2014a). The major result of this shift is that digital government is no longer only about putting services online and achieving operational efficiency.G overnments are embracing a whole new conception of ICTs as a core element of public sector transformation. A key mechanism for strengthening public governance, they can help make governments more open, effective and efficient. Meanwhile, they can integrate service users’ preferences into the design and delivery of public services. Digital government is about new ways of delivering public value and making services and government procedures digital by design. This requires integrating ICTs in the public sector reform agenda right from its conceptualisation. Open Government Data Within broader strategic frameworks for digital government, a growing number of governments have adopted policies and initiatives to design and implement OGD. This refers to the release of data collected and produced by public organisations while performing their tasks, or data commissioned with public funds. The goal is that OGD is released in open formats that allow their free use, reuse and distribution, subject only to the requirement that users attribute the data and make their work available to be shared (Ubaldi, 2013). The amount of data produced by governments on issues of public interest has increased in recent years, and attention has been drawn to its potential not only for enhancing the transparency, accountability, integrity and performance of the public sector, but for creating economic and social value. OGD has the potential to improve the outcome of public policies, for example in education and public transport. In the education sector, for example, new programmes could be developed to increase the effectiveness of teaching by tailoring lessons to students’ records. Schools’ performance could be monitored directly by parents by providing open but anonymised data on students’ performance. Public sector data offers opportunities for new products and services, and steps could be taken to increase its availability in open and interoperable formats. BRoadbaND POLICIES FOR LatiN AMERica AND THE CARIBBEAN: A DIGital ECONOMY TOOLKIT © OECD, IDB 2016 361 12. DIGital GOVERNMENT The private sector now generates massive amounts of data in its daily operations on supply chain management, the social behaviour of its customers and government regulations (Herzberg, 2014). An open data ecosystem can help bridge public, private and civil society sectors, and allow them to collaborate and exploit data to capture available synergies. For instance, large Internet companies, such as Twitter, have opened part of the data created by its network in the form of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), allowing data reusers to combine this data with open government data to develop services and create value. Similarly, governments can use this data to perform data analytics, helping them identify social trends and calibrate public services and policies as needed. Civil society organisations can use data available in open formats to raise awareness of issues of public interest. This chapter will also address OGD policies and initiatives for LAC. Policy objectives in the LAC region To reap the full benefits of broadband and digital technologies, clear policy objectives are needed to guide decisions and investments made across the administration