CivicTech - Transparency, Engagement, and Collaboration for Better Governance

Mr. Herrera, a Mexican National, has extensive experience in governance, as a practitioner and from the development and academic perspectives. He joined the World Bank in 2010 as Senior Public Sector Management Specialist in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. He held various positions in the Bank including as Sector Manager in LAC, Practice Manager in Governance Global Practice for the LAC and East Asia and the Pacific regions in the Global Unit before leaving the World Bank Group in 2018. Between 2018 and 2021 he has held leadership positions in the Government of Mexico as Co-Head of the Finance Team in Presidential Transition Team, Deputy Finance Minister and, most recently, as Minister of Finance and Public Credit.

As Global Director for Governance, Mr. Herrera’s priorities include leading the formulation of strategy and engagement of the Bank’s work on public institutions and country-level governance, especially in fragile, conflict and violent settings; maximizing the effectiveness of operational support for public financial management and public procurement; fostering excellence in the Governance Practice’s work on public sector administration and operational support for legal and judicial reforms. Mr. Herrera has also taught Monetary and Banking and Macro and Microeconomics at both El Colegio de Mexico and New York University where he completed his doctoral studies in Economics.

Delfina has been associated with the Operating Unit since 2015, when she joined as Adjunct Associate Professor. She has strong ties to UNU-EGOV’s host university, the University of Minho, where she has held various positions over the past 18 years, including Lecturer and Assistant Professor at the Department of Information Systems and as a Researcher with Centro ALGORITMI.

She holds a PhD in Information Systems and Technologies and a MSc in Informatics, both from the University of Minho. Her areas of research and expertise include electronic governance at a national, local and sectorial level, electronic government interoperability and cross-agency collaboration, electronic democracy and electronic participation, and electronic governance measurement and monitoring. She has been member of organizational, programme and scientific committees of multiple conferences, tracks and workshops in the Information Systems and Technology (IST) area and, particularly, in the e-Governance area. Delfina has also participated and supervised national and international research projects in the area of IST in governance, and delivered talks, seminars, and presentations on the theme of e-Governance to postgraduate students and to public administration practitioners.

Roby Senderowitsch currently serves as the Practice Manager in the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice. Previously he has held various positions, including Manager for Leadership, Learning & Innovation; Manager of the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA); and Country Manager in the Dominican Republic. His work in the Bank included a strong focus on political economy analysis, building coalitions for change, anti-corruption, and performance-based management of public institutions. He has been a lecturer in Human Resource management in nonprofit organizations, as well as director of educational programs and community development and HR management in the private sector.

Roby’s publications include “Building Effective, Accountable, and Inclusive Institutions in Europe and Central Asia,” “Democratic Governance in Mexico: Beyond State Capture and Social Polarization” (with Yasuhiko Matsuda), “Performance Informed Budgeting and Trust in Government” (with Nick Manning and others), and “From the International Financial Crisis to Inclusive Growth in the Dominican Republic.” Senderowitsch holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Buenos Aires and a Masters in Policy Studies, Public Administration/Nonprofit Management from the Johns Hopkins University.

João Ricardo Vasconcelos is a Senior Governance Specialist in the GovTech Global team of the Governance Global Practice of the World Bank. His areas of expertise include whole of government approaches for public sector digitalization; green GovTech, CivicTech, interoperability, inclusive GovTech and service delivery.

Before joining the World Bank, João was a digital government policy analyst at the Open and Innovative Government Division, Public Governance Directorate of the OECD, being the lead coordinator of several cross-cutting activities in the Digital Government team.

Previously to the OECD, João led the Innovation and International Relations Unit of AMA - Agency for the Administrative Modernization, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Portugal, coordinating projects such as the EGOV Innovation Hub, Dados.gov and the Common Knowledge Network.

António Tavares is associate professor w/ habilitation at the School of Economics and Management of the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. He is also adjunct associate professor at the Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance of the United Nations University in Guimarães, Portugal. His research interests comprise topics in the fields of local government and urban politics, including territorial reforms, service delivery, transparency and accountability, and political and civic engagement. His research has been published in a wide range of journals in political science, public administration and urban studies. Between December 2013 and December 2019, he served as co-editor of the Urban Affairs Review, the journal affiliated with the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. He is the author of the book essay Administração Pública Portuguesa (2019, Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos). 

Dr. Carlos Santiso has devoted his career to improving lives through better governance and digital innovation. He is a seasoned manager and thought leader with extensive experience in public governance and development finance. He has worked in over 40+ countries in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Carlos currently heads the Division on Digital, Innovative and Open Government at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He is a member of the advisory group on public governance of the United Nations and the advisory council on governance and anticorruption of the World Economic Forum. In 2019, he was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in digital government by Apolitical and one of the world’s 20 govtech leaders in 2020 by Creators. In 2021 he was recognized as one of the 50 most influential people in agile governance by Apolitical and the World Economic Forum. He previously managed the governance practice of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the Innovation in Citizen Services and the Institutional Capacity of the State divisions of the Inter-American Development Bank, and the governance division of the African Development Bank. He also worked in government as a governance advisor to Britain’s international development ministry and as a policy advisor on the French Prime Minister’s office. He holds a PhD in political economy from Johns Hopkins University and is a graduate in public policy of Columbia University and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris.

Sana HADZIC-BABACIC is a European Democracy Advocate & Climate Activist based in Luxembourg. Passionate about the power of civic innovations and Tech-tools such as CivicTech, she is convinced that the environmental and energetic transition will be done BY and WITH citizens. In 2017, she commits to put Luxembourg on the map of CivicTechs in Europe and co-founds in 2019 the organization ETICC (Europe Technology & Collective Intelligence for Citizens) www.eticc.org, a European Sustainable Democracy Builder that is aiming at promoting participatory projects in Luxembourg & Greater Region. Holding a background in Economics & Law, Sana has a strong experience in the investment fund industry and worked in the Luxembourgish social sector for several years. Her areas of expertise are Corporate Societal Responsibility (CSR), Democratic Innovations, Citizen Engagement and Sustainability, which led her to join in 2021 the Master of Science in European Governance at the University of Luxembourg as a Student Researcher to work on including collaborative models of governance in the trilogy of CSR, which is an essential element to reach a Sustainable Society. 

Tiago C. Peixoto is a political scientist and a Senior Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank. Since joining the institution in 2010, Tiago has been working with governments to develop digital solutions for better public policies and services. Prior to joining the World Bank, he managed projects and consulted for a number of organizations such as the European Commission, OECD and United Nations. He has been honored as one of the 20 Most Innovative People in Democracy, and as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government. He is also a recipient of the Louis Brownlow Award of the American Society of Public Administration. Tiago’s work has featured in both mainstream and specialized media, and he has published in The British Journal of Political Science, Public Administration Review, Journal of Information Technology and Politics, UCLA Law Review, among others. Tiago holds a PhD and a Masters in Political Science from the European University Institute, as well as a Masters in Organized Collective Action from Sciences-Po Paris.

Saki Kumagai is Governance Specialist with the Governance Global Practice in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. She specializes in supporting governments create and strengthen more transparent, accountable, and participatory government systems that sustain and deliver citizen-centric public services. Saki leads the Governance Global Practice’s citizen engagement and CivicTech work and its collaboration with the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice to support governments deliver more citizen centric social protection delivery systems. Saki currently leads the Governance Global Practice’s engagement in Yemen on civil service salary payments, payroll assessment, third party monitoring, and political economy analysis on key reform areas and supports service delivery and GovTech work in Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza, Egypt, and other countries beyond the MENA region. Prior to joining the World Bank, Saki worked in the private sector, academia, and civil society organizations. She holds a BA in International Relations with a minor in Sociology from American University and a MA in Human Rights from LSE.