ITU, Estonia, Germany and DIAL join forces to accelerate digital transformation of government services

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia (MFA Estonia), the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ), and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at the United Nations Foundation, have signed a joint declaration to accelerate digital transformation and digitalization of government services, particularly in low-resource settings.

The partnership will establish a framework for digital cooperation among governments to assist countries in implementing scalable digital services and applications in a cost-efficient, accelerated, and integrated manner.

The aim is to scale the framework to a global level for all ITU Member States to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as to facilitate the development of transformative and paperless citizen-centric services that are accessible and available to all members of society.

“In the last few months, digital transformation has accelerated at an unprecedented speed and scale, and governments are on the frontline,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. “This new partnership between ITU, Estonia, Germany, and DIAL is an important step in advancing digital government services, in particular in low-income countries, in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

One of the main goals of the partnership is to implement a reference digital government platform, called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Digital Platform, as a digital public good based on reusable, standards-driven, secure and interoperable building blocks in line with the whole-of-government approach to building and deploying digital services and applications.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau said: “Successful digital transformation efforts require cooperation across all actors. ITU welcomes the opportunity to work with Estonia, Germany and DIAL to continue to advance ICT-related solutions that can power country-level action to achieve the SDGs.”

Furthermore, the partnership aims at facilitating fundraising to support relevant and interested stakeholders who can contribute to deploying and scaling up digital services by building shared digital infrastructures that will power future innovations centred around citizen needs.

Other goals of the partnership include contributing to the work of the international community to power digital transformation by sharing expertise, guidelines, best practices, and case studies on relevant topics, and undertaking joint actions, such as thematic meetings, capacity building workshops, and knowledge sharing and exchanges.

Original source: ITU