Project management Digital governance: the public sector transformation

Digital governance is a very important matter in these days. Talking about what needs changed ruled by the Recommendations on Digital Government Strategies from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had become a hot topic in digital innovation debates.

The member’s efforts have been focused on the transformation of the former electronic government to digital governance. These changes are based in 6 dimensions of well-defined OECD public policy and are essential to everyone who wishes to fit into digital governance.

Before we name what the 6 dimensions of the digital government are, I think it is important to identify what it isn’t digital governance:

• Digital Governance is different from what we know as electronic government as well as digital government;
• Digital governance is not necessarily limited to a kind of IT governance;
• Digital governance is by no means a type of business strategy, neither digital or electronic;
• Digital governance is not limited entirely to provide citizens with technology and internet access in general. Even though that is part of the action cycle;

In view that we covered those important points, we can now look at the digital governance dimensions based on what the OECD recommends. 

6 Digital Government Dimensions:

1-  From management to use to now the user leading management:

A type of government which develops measures that enable citizens and business to define their specific needs to help enforce effective public policies.

2- From reactive to proactive when developing public policies and social welfare:

A government that can anticipate public policies and services when facing a socio-economic development. This fact also applies in the data sphere where data release should be proactive instead of reactive to the user’s requests.

3-  Government that relies on information to a data-driven public sector: 

The ability of a government to anticipate social trends to the point of understanding the necessities, taking action, establishing transformations, strengthening and monitoring the management, all thru data use.

4- From the digitization of existing process to the process of digital design:

It would be the government that can realize the full potential of digital and data technologies, recognizing the importance of their use from the beginning of the actions, monitoring until the accomplishment. Its main purpose is to promote process innovation, increase efficiency and improve the interaction of public actions with users’ needs

5- Government service provider to a government as a platform to co-create the public value: 

The government positions itself as a supporter to collaborate among the interested party who is part of the processes. 

6-  Open access to the information to the opening by default. 

Finally, the government must commit to the disclosure of data in a transparent and clean manner where the information will be available to those who might be interested in. Except in specifics situations where the restriction is legally valid.

Therefore, we can clearly understand that the digital government is quite different from digital governance, despite their converging goals. The digital government itself seeks to provide services to the population in a more modern, efficient and innovating way through the use of information.

On the other hand, Digital governance has a much broader goal: to commit to free and limited participation of the population in the state decision-making process which aims to bring the results closer to the real needs of society.