Public Digital #24 12 April: Digital for internation development, featuring platforms, pilot-itus and principles

Hi! I’m Emily, part of the core team at Public Digital. As this week’s guest editor, I’ll be bringing you some stories about digital & international development.

We’re excited by the growing interest in this sector in building common platforms and data standards, and in the culture, processes and business models of the internet era - not just the tech.

Talking of platforms…governments from Mexico to Romania are delivering common payment platforms in some form. We’ve been working with the Scottish government to learn from more than 20 jurisdictions - I’ve written about four themes that emerged from the research.

👇 There’s lots of news from us this week, including that we’re hiring. Also, Mike sets out why digital transformation is a leadership problem.

Emily
Emily@Public.Digital
@EmilyKMiddleton

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Global development in the internet era

Digitization is changing the world so philanthropy and development must change too: our friends at Caribou Digital share 5 reflections about how development and philanthropy must adapt to the digital era.

The Brookings Institution interviewed 94 leaders in global development about how they think their field is changing. Among the findings were frustrations at the “inability of development actors to adapt technology and keep up with its rapid change” and with funders who “are not willing to provide investment in the capacity to collect and analyze data”.

Pilotitis: an affliction that is particularly prevalent in digital development. This blog post is five years old, but still very relevant. So what’s the cure? Funding teams, not projects is surely a good place to start.

The ITU and the Digital Impact Alliance are advocating for a “whole-of-government approach to digital investment”. We like the focus in this report on building digital capacity in governments and development organisations, and on common platforms and data infrastructure.

Ways of working

🌍
How to work effectively with five different suppliers and with governments in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Southern Africa: GDS share 5 things they’ve learned from their Global Digital Marketplace work.

🦀
This week saw the launch of the new U.S. Government Web Design System. It’s built in the open, it has accessibility at the heart, and it’s based on user research.

💻
Employees are users too: from Australian Trade and Investment Commission, who carried out user research to find out how they might offer better tools for their staff.

🎥
How to stream Show and Tells on Youtube. We like this example from a UK local digital exemplar project because it’s a demonstration of how transparent you can be about ways of working. But also, that it’s hard, and sometimes goes wrong. That’s ok.

Events

Coming up in April and May:

Next week - and from the comfort of your own desk - you can join the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor’s webinar on digital banking and financial inclusion. 17 April at 9:30 am EDT.

This year’s Transform Africa Summit is in Kigali, Rwanda. 14-17 May.

Can data become part of a development strategy? The digital initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School is holding a workshop in Cambridge, United States. 23 May.

👋 Andrew and I will be at the Open Government Partnership Summit in Ottawa, Canada. Drop us a note if you’ll be there, we’re happy to share our experience of how digital teams contribute to open government. 29-31 May.

The Code for America Summit is coming up in Oakland, California: always a brilliant opportunity to consider how to tackle some of government’s biggest challenges in the digital age. 29-31 May.

News from Public Digital

4 things we’ve learned about government payments platforms: our research on government payments platforms from more than 20 jurisdictions around the world.

Digital Transformation is a leadership problem: Mike writes for UCL IIPP

Untangling your technology spaghetti: Part 4 of our internet-era CTO series

Mike and Tom have joined the Lisbon Council as Senior Fellows on Digital Government

Tom unpacks what digital really means for Apolitical’s leadership lab (a 10 minute video, which requires a signing up if you’re not a member).

In Spanish, an interview with Mike in Brazilian publication Globo on digital government.

👉 We’re hiring! We’re looking for a Principal Consultant to join the team. Closing date: 25 April.