2020•11•09     Guimarães

This year’s OECD e-Leaders meeting took place online, from 15-16 October 2020, and UNU-EGOV attended through Delfina Soares (Head of the Operating Unit). The main theme was Digital Government Maturity: Accelerating a Sustainable Transformation. The event was built on four principal fronts of work to show how countries can and should scale-up in their path towards digital maturity:

• International Co-operation and Solidarity in the Digital Age
• Data Governance and Data Ethics
• Governance of Digital Government and Relevant Policy Levers
• Measurement of Progress and Maturity

Day 1 focused on international digital co-operation, digital and data governance, while day 2 discussed recent developments and efforts undertaken by the Secretariat on the measurement of digital government maturity; and on the organisational restructuring to secure synergies with the work on open government and innovation.

On a long-term horizon, continued efforts are critical to define and implement a strategic vision and plan on how to capture the value of digitalisation to deliver benefits to all segments of the population. This implies securing the capabilities to leverage digital technologies and data to foster governments that are more agile, responsive and resilient.

The discussions were also be guided by the OECD Digital Government Policy Framework to identify and compare good practices of user-centred design, user- and data-driven public service design and delivery and service-oriented policies towards building a sustainable, inclusive and trustworthy digitally-enabled state – keeping in mind the reforms that could and should be undertaken to ensure a sustainable and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.