Do International Organisations Have a Role in the GovTech Ecosystem?

15.11.2021

Hyphen took part in the GovTech Baltic Leaders 2021 conference. Maciej Kuziemski moderated the panel exploring best international practices in developing GovTech ecosystems and addressing the industry’s main challenges.  

Organized by the Government of Lithuania, GovTech Baltic Leaders 2021 brought together leading policymakers, practitioners, and investors to share knowledge and experiences in developing GovTech ecosystems and enabling their sustainable growth. Maciej Kuziemski, Hyphen’s Foundations & Policy Advisory Lead and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, led a panel discussion on the role of international organizations in GovTech.   

The panel gathered representatives of prominent international organizations, including but not limited to the World Bank, Development Bank of Latin America, and Digital European Commission. By sharing knowledge and discussing use cases from diverse regional contexts, the panelists explored numerous aspects of international organizations’ involvement in GovTech development. Among others, the topics included the possibility of creating GovTech global marketplace, strategies of incentivizing regional procurement and innovation development at the local level, as well as leveraging knowledge, analytics, policy advice and technical support to facilitate the adoption of GovTech globally.   

We are witnessing an exciting moment in history when governments and startups are working together to solve people’s problems through innovation by leveraging data and technology”, – Carlos Santiso, Director of the Digital Innovation in Government Directorate at Development Bank of Latin America, emphasized.  

As experiences shared by the speakers demonstrate, regardless of the seemingly clashing logics of experimental startups and rule-based bureaucracy, we see more and more international examples of governments initiating innovation to put citizens’ needs at the center of providing public services through latest technological and data solutions. Facilitating the joint effort of governments and tech startups to make social impact and create public value is currently the major challenge in gGvTech ecosystems development around the globe.  

Watch the full panel discussion here.