Announcing a new chapter for interweave.gov
Edition #72 Check out our sister newsletter, as we broaden our remit into a new direction...
After a few weeks off, the interweave team is back! Here at interweave.gov, we have some exciting content coming up - interviews with digital leaders in Italy, the Netherlands and the UNDP; thought pieces on Central Asia and Eastern Europe; and of course, our usual roundups.
But behind the scenes we have also been working on launching a second newsletter, interweave.africa. When interacting with our readers, one of the most common requests we hear is “when will you start to cover Africa”. Across such a large, diverse and dynamic continent, there is a huge amount of government innovation going on, and we are excited to expand our scope to cover it.
Below you will find a bit of an introduction to the newsletter. Starting from 2nd May, our interweave.africa newsletters will go out every fortnight. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an edition.
It is an exciting time for digital government in Africa. Increasing leadership in global telecommunications standards setting - as exhibited by Rwanda’s hosting of the ITU’s World Telecommunication Development Conference in 2022 - is being matched through trend-setting digital currencies like the eNeira in Nigeria or Ghana’s e-Cedi pilot; digital democracy efforts such as the Mali Electoral Transformation (MET); and government services like Uganda Revenue Authority’s e-tax electronic tax filing system.
Recognizing this pivotal moment for African GovTech, there have already been some fantastic book length studies and comprehensive papers, whether Nanjala Nyabola’s Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics or research from the likes of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Going forward, the interweave.gov team is excited to announce the launch of interweave.africa. Our contribution to these conversations will be to provide a fortnightly real-time commentary on developments across the continent, telling the stories of those trying to drive more transparent, equitable and efficient government. Expect us to alternate between thought pieces, interviews with digital government leaders, and roundups of the space.
A year and a half ago, we founded interweave.gov - a Substack focusing on digital government in Europe and Asia - to tell the stories of digital leaders beyond the usual suspects. In such a nascent field - where smaller countries are able to be more nimble and agile than some of their more resource-rich peers - we found that some of the most impressive government innovations were coming from the likes of Bhutan and Moldova just as much as G7 countries.
interweave.africa is an extension of that belief. Our team of three full-time writers - Melody, Fiona and Zoey - each bring their own lived and/or academic experience of different African geographies and digital government themes to their writing. Alongside major stories such as Kenya’s e-Citizen portal - which allows Kenyan citizens to access a wide range of government services online - we will also cover initiatives as broad as Mauritius’ “Maurice Ile Durable” (an e-participation platform to encourage citizen engagement in environmental and sustainable development initiatives) and Lesotho’s Mobile App for Civic Education.
Our mission - which we outlined a year ago in our pilot for interweave.gov - remains the same. We want to further collaborative attempts across governments and across continents to produce better digital services; connect the unconnected; and improve the accountability, transparency and efficiency of governments.
We encourage external submissions, broader feedback, and any further engagement with the newsletter, and look forward to exploring the frontiers of government innovation together.
To get involved with our work, please e-mail us at interweave.gov@gmail.com or contact us on Linkedin.