Singapore's AI Trailblazers, Pakistan's Smart Villages, and Combatting Nuclear Disinformation in Japan
Edition #25 Singapore's government agencies have banded together to test 100 Gen AI solutions in 100 days, while Japan is using AI to combat disinformation about Fukushima wastewater...
In our previous edition we were thinking about cybersecurity, in what was a difficult week for digital government. With failures in Japan and Bangladesh undermining trust in GovTech in those countries, we looked at the good, the bad and the ugly of the relationship between digital government and cybersecurity.
This week we are more upbeat, with a focus on using data in development. A few months ago, we explored how AI might be used in Foreign Policy, but less cutting-edge technology is also proving pivotal in advancing development around the world. In Pakistan, Gokina has become the UN ITU’s first Smart Village in the Asia Pacific, while Germany is this week showcasing how its IDEaL app has become the cornerstone of the country’s efforts towards evidence-based development.
Our main stories this week:
100 Solutions in 100 days: Singapore’s Government jumpstarts its Generative AI capabilities
Gokina Smart Village in Pakistan: Digital transformation at the community level
Germany’s IDEaL app is leading the country’s charge for evidence-based development policy
Don’t forget to check out our GovTech news in brief, the theory behind the practice and upcoming GovTech events.
100 Solutions in 100 days: Singapore’s Government jumpstarts its Generative AI capabilities - Yogesh Hirdaramani, GovInsider
A coalition of digital government agencies in Singapore have announced an “AI Trailblazers” initiative to identify and address 100 real world challenges with generative AI solutions.
Over the course of 100 days, representatives from across Singapore’s GovTech landscape will use innovation sandboxes and mandatory workshops to upskill its civil servants, build generative AI prototypes and bring them to production.
The project is taking place in collaboration with Google Cloud, with the agencies able to use the company’s ML development platform (Vertex AI), pre-trained AI models, low-code developer tools and high performance graphical processing units (GPUs).
Compared to using off the shelf solutions like ChatGPT, these custom-built models will ensure tools only draw information from accurate and government approved sources, preventing generative AI “hallucinations”.
Our Take: As the article mentions, Singapore has already emerged as a leader in public sector generative AI solutions, with a customized writing assistant prototype being used day-to-day for more than 4,000 civil servants’ writing tasks. The real test for the country will be consolidating these 100 use cases, not to mention the 88 government chatbots that are already in existence, into one streamlined offering.
Gokina Smart Village in Pakistan: Digital transformation at the community level - Atsuko Okuda, ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Okuda outlines how Pakistan’s Smart village is helping to close digital divides, and make government services more accessible to its population.
Gokina, a city 25 kilometers from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad and with a population of around 2,000 people, has become the first Smart Village of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Smart Villages and Smart Islands (SVSI) initiative was first launched in Niger in 2020, and aims at connecting unconnected people and communities by 2030. Infrastructure for connectivity is coupled with digital upskilling and access to a range of online services, aimed at supporting the village in education; healthcare; and digital skills.
Newly acquired connectivity has paved the way for e-learning and improved medical consultations. In the local girls’ school, e-learning has allowed the students to learn science for the first time, while telehealth has reduced the need for patients to travel all the way to Islamabad for healthcare services.
Germany’s IDEaL app is leading the country’s charge for evidence-based development policy - KFW Development Bank, Digital.Global
The KfW Development Banks’s IDEaL app has been working since 2007 to provide easy access to more than 1,000 evaluations of development projects in an effort to support more evidence-based development policy.
The Interactive Database for Evaluation and Learning contains around 1,100 evaluations on its database, consolidating disparate PDF reports into one digital dashboard. The app offers individualized answers to questions around factors for success or failure of development interventions, as well as information on indicators, targets and lessons learned from completed projects.
Users can search for projects with free text, entering keywords and filtering the results by region, sector and type of executing agency. The most important lessons learnt from each evaluation have been processed separately and can be accessed directly without having to open a single document.
The data in the app comes from evaluations of completed projects by the KfW Development Bank Evaluation Department.
GovTech News in Brief
How Ukraine Is Involving Citizens In Its Reconstruction Efforts - Sarah Kiegeland and Laura Giesen, Democracy Technologies
Ukraine is developing the DREAM platform, a tool designed to allow citizens to shape the country’s rebuilding process through live updates at each step of reconstruction projects (from accounting for the losses to the general supervision of the process).
Philippines’ #BetterThanCash Alliance initiative: how the nation advanced its digital economy - Rachel Teng, GovInsider
Through institutionalizing data systems, a bespoke policy simulator, and proactive attempts to focus financial inclusion efforts on women, the Filipino central bank has taken the country’s share of digital payments from just 1% to 30.3% in just a decade.
Mayor of London backs projects on poverty prevention tech - Mark Say, UK Authority
As part of the Poverty Prevention Challenge, winners including an AI grocery assistant and a Social Impact Bot aiding refugee charities have been granted up to £50,000 to develop solutions for London’s cost-of-living crisis.
The Human and Economic Impact of Digital Public Infrastructure - UNDP
A recent UNDP report draws upon case studies from 70 developing nations to illustrate how inclusive DPIs help to drive impact in fields spanning forest management to online dispute resolution.
Bangladesh's Sanitation Data Governance: Unleashing Opportunities and Tackling Challenges for Improved Sanitation - Global Water & Sanitation Center, Bangladesh
A newly-launched Sanitation Data Command Center is the latest in a set of interventions by the Bangladeshi government aimed at reaching its goal of safely managed sanitation and hygiene for all.
Our Take: In a forthcoming article, interweave will explore how blockchain solutions can reduce waste and enable the Circular Economy. This example from Bangladesh is a reminder that such efforts are predicated on laying the right foundations first. The initiative is an important one, but needs to now be backed up by concrete examples of how this data is going to be used in policymaking.
Advancing the next generation of SDG geospatial indicators - Guilherme Iablonovski, SDG Transformation Center
Nearly eight years after they were announced, data around many of the UN SDGs is still too scarce to generate measurable insights. In response to this, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has created new geospatial indicators to fill these data gaps.
The Robodebt report offers stark implications for the Australian Public Service - Tim Fish, Global Government Forum
The report, published on 7th July, has found significant failings across the Australian Civil Service, making 57 recommendations on reform to prevent digital failures of this magnitude from recurring.
How Dutch citizens are using AI to ask their government questions - Netherlands AI Coalition
More than 3,000 parliamentary questions are submitted to the Dutch government each year, with thousands of civil servants involved in the task of answering them. Codi, an AI-driven policy assessment, compares the questions with all the available government information and produces a file review for the civil servant tasked with responding to them.
Qatar launches AI program in the Government Sector - Qatari Civil Service and Government Development Bureau
Qatar’s government has launched a new AI training program for all of its civil servants, building on its government GPT announced earlier this year.
Japan’s government uses AI to expose misinformation on Fukushima wastewater purge - Jack Aldane, Global Government Forum
The Japanese government is employing AI to identify and combat false claims made online about the Fukushima nuclear power plant clean up.
The Theory Behind the Practice
AI in aid: Framing conversations on humanitarian policy - Kristin Bergtora Sandvik and Maria Gabrielson Jumbert, Global Policy
With AI engagement in the humanitarian aid sector currently lacking, Sandvik and Jumbert consider how it can be used to enhance remediation efforts without compromising on the values and priorities which dictate current development strategies.
Using regulatory sandboxes in developing artificial intelligence - OECD Digital Economy Papers
The OECD explores how regulatory sandboxes can supercharge innovation by allowing firms to test innovative products with a temporary waiver from compliance processes.
Upcoming GovTech Events
UN Datathon - United Nations Committee of Experts on Big Data
Registration for November’s UN Datathon, taking place in Montevideo Uruguay, is now open.