GovTech: Putting People First

"Trends in GovTech Solutions for Public Financial Management" e-Learning course explores the role of digital technology in the modernization and enhancement of Public Financial Management (PFM) systems, and the associated risks, challenges, and opportunities with a focus on fragile and low-income countries. It also looks at the innovative GovTech solutions and trends for budgeting, tax administration, public procurement, and financial fraud detection.

“GovTech: Fundamentals and Key Concepts” e-Learning course introduces the GovTech concepts, focus areas, solutions, and good practices to support digital transformation reforms of governments around the world.

*Enrollment status: 550 participants (307 country officials/practitioners and 243 WBG staff from 70 countries) are registered, and 60 participants successfully completed the course. Join the learning journey!

Apolitical’s Building GovTech & Digital Government Skills field guides, which was also supported by the World Bank's GovTech Global Partnership, are designed to help public servants understand an important policymaking issue, approach, skill or trend. It covers a range of topics from citizen engagement, the gender pay gap and government innovation to the GovTech and digital government skills.

Each field guide has between 10-15 learning materials: a mix of in-depth reporting, expert editorials, resources and, at the end, an assessment — so keep an eye out for key details.

GovTech Spring Series highlights practical guidance and examples on modernizing public services through the adoption of GovTech approaches and deep dive into the three reports that have been recently published by the GovTech team: “GovTech Case Studies: Solutions that Work”;  “Service Upgrade: The GovTech Approach to Citizen Centered Services”; and “Tech Savvy : Advancing GovTech Reforms in Public Administration”

• Session 1. GovTech Impact in EAP: Efficient Government Systems and Citizen-centric Services in Cambodia and Myanmar
• Session 2. Tech Savvy: Advancing GovTech reforms in Public Administration
• Session 3. Service Upgrade: Modernizing Services for Efficiency and Accessibility

This GovTech Case Studies webinar series  aims to share GovTech implementation stories including the challenges, objectives, digital solutions, results, and lessons learned. The first BBL will introduce mobile-based GovTech solutions adopted in Nigeria and Brazil. The Kaduna State in Nigeria created a citizen engagement mobile app with other participatory mechanisms designed to make government investment more responsive to citizens. In Brazil, the SOL app for the smart community procurement was developed as an open-source software and blockchain technology was adopted. 

As part of the GovTech Talks Series, this webinar will present policies and cases of digital government in Korea based on the three aspects of the GovTech. The Digital Government Master Plan 2021-2025 includes government-wide strategies and key tasks with a vision of “Digital, the door to a better world”, so it can facilitate the engagement and coordination of all players. The Virtual Assistant Service for the Public (GoodPy) launched in 2021 is an example of the citizen-centric public services. It informs citizens the administrative information they need in advance and handles inquiries based on the Artificial Intelligence and Private-Public Partnership. The e-Government Standard Framework (eGovFrame) provides a predefined set of features and functions required for the development and management of public information systems to enhance the efficiency of ICT investment and interoperability of government systems.

A key challenge for blockchain and distributed ledger systems adoption in public sector digital transformation projects is think about the application and adoption of blockchain and DLT holistically to avoid misalignment among the social, information and technical aspects of blockchains and DLTs. To address this challenge, this talk will present and discuss the application of a novel high-level conceptual model (“The Three-Layer Model”) and accompanying question-led framework for the design and implementation of blockchain and distributed ledger systems illustrating how the framework can be used to improve the design of blockchain solutions and overcome barriers to adoption. 

The World Bank has developed the Core Management Information System (MIS), a web-based application that can be quickly adapted and deployed to support delivery of social protection programs. The tool is currently being piloted in selected low-income countries in Africa affected by COVID-19 to improve the delivery of benefits, empower beneficiaries and form the basis for effective, long-term national delivery systems. This webinar provides an introduction to the CORE-MIS initiative, showing the main functionalities and potential applications. 

The GovTech Maturity Index: The State of Public Sector Digital Transformation report was launched through a global event on September 16. The GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) measures the key aspects of four GovTech focus areas—supporting core government systems, enhancing service delivery, mainstreaming citizen engagement, and fostering GovTech enablers—and assists advisers and practitioners in the design of new digital transformation projects. The launch event featured a panel of experts from the government, international organizations to academia to discuss the key findings and recommendations of the report

The 2021 IFMIS Capacity Building Program virtual workshop organized by the Korea Public Finance Information Service (KPFIS), the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the World Bank Group (WBG) was held from May 11-20, 2021. This international workshop provided an opportunity for the officials involved in GovTech/digital transformation activities in Public Financial Management domain to learn more about the trends in transition to Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS), new/advanced features of next generation dBrain (Digital Budget and Accounting System), online analytical processing tools, cybersecurity, and other relevant topics. The government officials invited from 11 countries (Angola, the Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria-Kano State, Philippines, Rwanda, Somalia, and Tunisia) presented their IFMIS good practices and modernization plans. Several other countries (Algeria, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lao P.D.R., Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, and Nepal) joined as observers. There were 200 participants from 63 countries attending the events.

In this event, experts from the World Bank discussed the most promising current and new technologies that can be applied to detect and prevent fraud and corruption in public administration were discussed.

Cloud Computing has huge potential to save costs, strengthen cybersecurity, improve resilience, and promote local jobs. The objective of this BBL is to demystify cloud computing and its potential for developing countries. 

In this webinar, presenters introduces the recently published paper titled “OPTIMIZING THE UNIFIED CHART OF ACCOUNTS DESIGN.” Recorded Dec. 10, 2020.

Austria has adopted a mobile first approach and pursues a holistic whole of Government approach when it comes to design and usability, infrastructure, security, and other. Learn about Austria’s transition and whole-of-government approach.

This webinar is organized jointly with the Korean Public Finance Information Services (KPFIS), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank’s FMIS Community of Practice as a part of the IFMIS Capacity Building Program (funded by the KDI School TF) initiated in 2019.

This session provides an opportunity to learn more about the dBrain (Korean FMIS platform) operations and the KPFIS responses to the COVID-19 pandemic with digital technologies and specific policy measures.

Case Study Armenia: Mikayel Pashayan, Deputy Chair of the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

Case Study UK: Julian White, Senior Adviser, Government Digital Service, Cabinet Office, UK. 

The GovTech dataset contains a rich set of data covering important aspects of the GovTech focus areas and initiatives in 198 economies. The GovTech Dataset is an expanded version of the Digital Government Systems and Services (DGSS) global dataset, originally developed in 2014 and updated every two years during the preparation of several WBG studies and flagship reports (e.g., 2014 FMIS and Open Budget Data Study; WDR 2016: Digital Dividends; 2018 WBG Digital Adoption Index; WDR 2021: Data for Better Lives; and 2020 GovTech Maturity Index).

The World Bank has financed more than 1,400 digital government projects (since 1995) to support the implementation of digital technology solutions in our client countries. the full range of projects can be reviewed in the DG GovTech Projects database. 

Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS) Database contains a rich set of operational data and performance ratings related to all completed and active FMIS projects funded by the World Bank (investment lending with large ICT components) since 1984. The latest version presents the details of 152 projects (122 completed + 25 active + 5 pipeline) funded by the WBG in 84 countries. 

The FMIS Data Mapper (on Google Maps) was updated to reflect the changes made in FMIS database. You can get a quick access to ongoing/completed activities and to download project documents from relevant WBG external web sites. 

The West and Central Africa GovTech Community presented the GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) 2022 survey. The group discussed the progress of 22 West and Central African countries on GTMI dimensions, including supporting core government systems, enhancing service delivery, mainstreaming citizen engagement, and fostering GovTech enablers. The 2022 survey results allowed updating the initial GTMI dataset collected in 2020.

The GovTech Global Partnership has launched three technical Working Groups that bring together experts with the aim of providing thought leadership, facilitating the exchange of ideas, and supporting the development of quality GovTech approaches, products, and country engagements.

Working Groups Overview

The objective of this Community is to establish and start operating a regional GovTech Community to share knowledge, build capacity, and potentially incentivize collective action to advance GovTech reforms in the Western and Central Africa Region. Membership includes representatives of national level government organizations leading on GovTech agenda from countries of the World Bank West and Central Africa region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Rep., Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo. 

• Replay Launch Event (meeting passcode: %z722yzV)
• Interactive Data and Analytics Dashboards Session (English) 
• Interactive Data and Analytics Dashboards Session (French) 

Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS) CoP established in September 2010, as a platform for exchanging information, good practices and experiences gained in the design and implementation of FMIS solutions. FMIS CoP is also focused on the development and dissemination of leading edge knowledge products, as well as the creation of a discussion platform to assist in improving the quality and performance of ongoing activities. For access to the FMIS CoP website, kindly submit a request during initial sign in.

With World Bank support, the Nigeria GovTech Community (NGC) was launched by the Honorable Minister of Communication and Digital Economy in May 2020 as a forum for sharing of good practices and capacity building across the Federal Government and the 36 state governments in Nigeria. 

The GovTech CoP is an internal knowledge sharing and learning platform supporting the cross-practice delivery of the GovTech approach.

GovTech Innovation Lab, a joint initiative of the World Bank Governance Global Practice and ITS Technology & Innovation Lab, is to provide a safe and hands-on exploratory environment for testing and learning innovative technologies to solve problems, specifically focusing on GovTech focus areas, at both country and global levels.

For more information, please contact: 
Asami Okahashi (aokahashi@worldbank.org), Youngseok Kim (ykim22@worldbank.org), Charles Victor Blanco (cblanco@worldbank.org), Khuram Farooq (kfarooq@worldbank.org), Stella Mocan (smocan@worldbankgroup.org).

The Digital Government Readiness Assessment (DGRA) Toolkit is a knowledge product developed as a global public good to help client countries leaders in digital agenda and ICT sector assess their current status, as well as their aspirations in digital development of the country and transformation of the public sector by leveraging digital solutions.