The 2024 UN e-Government Index, UN Pact for the Future, and the first Global DPI Summit

Edition #93 In this week's UN Week Special, we look at the latest coming out of UNGA and the Summit of the Future in New York, and the first ever Global DPI Summit in Cairo...

In our previous edition, we were thinking about the responsible use of AI in government, looking at Singapore's AI safety labels, India's digital courts, and North Macedonia’s attempts to tackle its grey economy.

This week, our focus goes global with the wrap up of UN Week in New York, where digital government was a major theme in the Summit of the Future. Digital Public Infrastructure played a particularly pivotal role and, if you haven’t already, we encourage you to check out our interview with UNDP’s Keyzom Massally just a couple of weeks ago.

Our main stories this week include:

• The 2024 UN E-Gov Index/Survey

• The UN’s New Global Digital Compact

• The Digital Public Good Conference in Cairo

In addition to our UN-focused stories below, here’s an interesting read on Indonesia’s digital modernization and growth.

As a reminder, we have recently begun to expand our digital government coverage away from just Substack and onto Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram. For original content, audience engagement, and roundups of all our pieces, feel free to follow us over on those channels. Also check out our sister newsletter, interweave.africa.

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UN releases new 2024 e-Gov Development Index - United Nations

The UN’s biennial digital government survey has just been released, with Denmark, Estonia and Singapore topping the 2024 ranking.

• The overall trend of the survey is that significant strides have been made across the globe in digital development, with Member States with “very high” index values (39%) comprising the largest group for the first time.

• Overall, 71.5% of UN Member States are now at high or very high e-Government Development Index levels.

• However, the index’s headlines belie an uneven pace of progress. Europe continues to lead in e-Governance, with Asia advancing rapidly, but most African countries still have EGDI levels below the global average (driven by disparities in infrastructure, connectivity and digital skills).

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United Nations adopts ground-breaking pact for the future to transform global governance - United Nations

The UN’s new Pact for the Future serves as the capstone of UN week, and contains a number of important provisions for the future of international governance.

• Highlights of the Pact include UN Security Council reform, a declaration on accounting for future generations in decision-making, and increasing equity in multilateral bodies such as the G20, IMF, and World Bank.

• Of particular interest to Interweave readers is the Global Digital Compact, “the first comprehensive global framework for digital cooperation and AI governance.”

• The GDC aims to utilize technology for the benefit of all, with provisions including expanded internet access, improved and responsible open-sourcing of data, and the first global commitment to data governance, with countries required to take “concrete steps” in this regard by 2030.

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Cairo hosts first ever Global DPI Summit - United Nations

Cairo’s Global DPI summit brought together representatives from more than 100 countries to discuss the safe and inclusive development of DPI.

• The first ever edition of the Global DPI Summit aimed to facilitate greater collaboration between UN Member States in the DPI space, and set out a roadmap for its future development.

• The summit outcome statement has prioritized 7 “big bets” for 2025, chief among them universal safeguards and better knowledge sharing.

• The outcome statement also links DPI’s future development to that of sustainability and green practices, including through green financing.

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GovTech News in Brief

Tuvalu on its way to creating a full digital twin - Spatial Source

Tuvalu, one of the most heavily impacted nations from climate change, is creating a complete online replica of the nation to help its government respond to natural disasters.

South Asian countries trial digital tool to streamline and strengthen biodiversity reporting - ICIMOD

Officials from 7 countries across Asia – including China, India, and Pakistan – gathered in Kathmandu to finalize an upcoming trial of the shared Data Reporting Tool (DaRT) for safeguarding biodiversity.

Latvian government advances widespread introduction of e-invoicing - Latvian Public Broadcasting

Latvia has introduced an e-invoicing solution for commercial payments - the format will be mandated at first for those suppliers invoicing the government, and then rolled out to all business transactions.

Oman unveils ambitious AI programme to drive digital economy and achieve Vision 2040 - Sindhu V Kashyap, Edge Middle East

In line with the country’s “Vision 2040” objectives, Oman has unveiled a new AI programme, which seeks to enhance youth digital skills, provide an Open Data platform, and establish  a national AI research center.

Digital ID wallet will soon be available to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Evie Kim Sing, Identity Week

Bosnia and Herzegovina is developing a digital ID solution for citizens that aims to streamline digital identification and authentication, with a rollout expected in mid-2025.

India and South Korea begin digital trade with electronic Bill of Lading - Archana Rao, India Briefing

India and South Korea’s new electronic bill of lading system looks to streamline trade between the two countries and eventually help set the stage for real-time tracking of goods shipments.

Open data and digitalization in the Western Balkans: the state of play - Tanja Maksic and Tijana Uzelac, Balkan Insight

Maksic and Uzelac look at the digitalization of the Western Balkans - including opportunities, challenges, solutions, and key stakeholders involved in transforming government in the region.

Our Take: As an example of the great progress in the Western Balkans on digitalization, we might looks at Montenegro’s new Data Portal. A previous iteration of the portal was taken down in the largest cyberattack in the country’s history back in 2022, but this week the government announced the introduction of a new portal.

Pairing with AI for public sector impact in Singapore - Bryan Ong and Gary Chew, Singapore Global Centre UNDP

UNDP deep-dives into Singapore’s Pair Suite, a collection of general-purpose AI tools for public service officers.

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The Theory Behind the Practice

Platformland challenges the orthodoxy of “seamlessness” in digital public services - Yogesh Hirdaramani, GovInsider

David Pope’s new book Platformland argues, amongst other things, the case against seamless design in order to better help segment digital government services.

The United Nations wants to treat AI With the same urgency as Climate Change - Will Knight, Wired

A new report from the UNSG’s High Level Advisory Body on AI recommends the creation of a body similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to monitor information on AI and its risks.