Person:

Eaves, David

This year’s convening marked the fourth Digital Services Convening jointly organized by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Public Digital, a disruptive digital trans- formation consultancy. The event has been described by a Cambridge University study as one of six seminal digital government conferences across the globe. The importance of having a space where digital government practitioners can learn, share, and discuss their experiences is only growing, as more and more governments are grappling with transformation efforts and the subsequent issues that such efforts give rise to.

Many digital service teams had made significant gains during the pandemic and were awarded more authority, remit, and funding. COVID-19 had also affected governments’ risk appetites across the world, leading to more experimentation and iteration. This has not always led to successful outcomes; in some cases, it might not be appropriate to bypass processes or use a magic wand as a lever. However, this general shift has meant that the entrenched ways of working and the prevailing speed of bureaucracy were challenged. It remains an open question as to whether all the gains made during the pandemic can or should be retained.

In June of 2019, the Harvard Kennedy School hosted digital service teams from around the world for our annual State of Digital Transformation convening. Over two days, practitioners and academics shared stories of success, discussed challenges, and debated strategy around the opportunities and risks digital technologies present to governments.

David Eaves, Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS), was engaged by the Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU) of the League of Arab States to conduct a critical review of the CAEU’s Arab Digital Economy Strategy. Experts from a variety of relevant backgrounds and profiles were selected from across Harvard schools and knowledge centers to participate in the review. Expert feedback was collected between May and July 2019 and compiled by David Eaves, Chair of digitalHKS. Reviewer biographies are available in the final sections of this report. In addition, interviews were held with representatives from a subset of Arab League countries to better understand the readiness of member countries to adopt programs proposed in the Arab Digital Economy Strategy, as well as surface any additional ideas or concerns related to digital and ICT strategic direction. The report is structured to highlight key strengths and weaknesses of the plan that emerged through expert evaluations of the Digital Economy Strategy, including considerations for the CAEU in the areas of technology policy design, economic growth and innovation, human rights, and governance. The report provides the authors of the Digital Economy Strategy guidance for where to focus further attention in subsequent rounds of strategic development.

“Digital government” is becoming simply “government.” As a result, an ever-increasing number of systems and processes critical to the operation of government—the core infrastructure of a state—are being digitized. This necessity creates enormous opportunities—to enhance, scale, and even standardize government services—and challenges—including a risk that building out this new infrastructure will impose costs that will reinforce global inequities.

In this light, it is no surprise that Digital Public Goods (DPGs)—an institutionalized sharing of “open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content” between government and other actors—are an increasingly discussed model. This presents an opportunity to share the burden of modernizing the core infrastructure of a state.

Inspired by the open-source movement, not only are DPGs non-rivalrous, but sharing them across jurisdictions could lower costs, speed adoption, and create standards to facilitate cooperation and trade. However, the joint management of any resource by sovereign entities—particularly of key infrastructure for the maintenance of public goods and services offered by the state—carries with it significant questions of governance.

In June 2020, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the digital transfor- mation consultancy Public Digital hosted digital service groups from around the world for their annual Digital Services Convening. The goal of the convening is to accelerate effective and equitable digital trans- formation in government by creating a space for digital service groups to share best practices and lessons. Now in its third year, the convening has become a place for honest reflection about the challenges facing digital service groups regarding what is and is not working in the field. Normally, teams gather in person on Harvard’s campus. This year, because of the COVID-19 pandem- ic, we gathered virtually. This online forum allowed us to convene over 100 attendees from more than 40 different digital service groups for three days of discussion. Each day had a theme. Day one focused on the “now,” examining digital teams’ responses to the pandemic. Day two focused on “later,” and highlighted long-term opportunities for digital teams. The final day was about what’s “next,” focusing on priorities and opportunities for the next six to 12 months. Teams that participated in the summit use different approaches and methodologies in vastly different contexts. Some of those—such as Estonia and Bangladesh—are building on a decade or more of experi- ence and are refining established, advanced practices; others—such as the state of Colorado—formally launched just recently. Some groups are embedded in the executive branch, while others are tightly focused within a single agency. A novel addition this year was digital teams that operate alongside, but outside of, governments— such as the Nordic Institute for Interoperable Solutions (NIIS) and the Bangalore-based Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP). As always, this diversity led to great learnings about the opportunities and challenges of digital ser- vices today. This report, prepared in consultation with some of the presenters, documents a few of these learnings in an effort to share some of the big picture insights raised at the convening with a broader audience. We hope you find these reflections useful and welcome continued conversation on the ideas presented here.