Our social impact
Along with the CIO Summit 2016, the fourth version of the E-Experience , an event on digital public innovation, is held, which recognizes local actors who develop digital experiences in the public sector. It is supported by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MinTIC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The opening conference of the E-Experience was given by Inka Mattila, deputy director of UNDP in Colombia, who focused on explaining how digital public innovation helps achieve recent sustainable development goals. These goals were included in the Global Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) , and are a guide for countries wishing to bridge the gap between decision-makers and their citizens.
Mattila delivered to the attendees (digital entrepreneurs and CIO of public entities) six recommendations on how you can innovate in society with the help of technology. We share the following:
1. International experience: Promote open innovation days, in which different entrepreneurs and developers try to solve the 'most difficult development problems'. This methodology was tested by the UN in 2013 in Bosnia in order to find solutions that would facilitate people's access to energy and was a great evidence of the knowledge generated by the innovation challenges.
2. Focus on change, not solution: UNDP invited people who lead digital application development processes in the public sector to evaluate methodologies that prioritize the citizen, rather than technology. "The technology builds only a part, sometimes small, of the public services that are offered. The new approach to service delivery focuses on the needs of users, " added Mattila.
3. Formulate and test hypotheses: It is important to believe in the transformative role of technology. In Papua New Guinea, the UN was accompanying a project to counter corruption and the solution to this crisis ended up being a low cost CMS system developed with the support of the Australian Government.
4. Less pilots and more scale: Like Minister David Luna, who referred to the importance of 'building on the built', UNDP recommended that attendees not wait to pilot tests of various technological tools, but to start What already exists and devising ways to improve this infrastructure.
5. Take advantage of policy: Despite innovation efforts and industry optimism, it is important that innovations leverage the 'political force'. For this, it is necessary to see the relationship between politics and the satisfaction of the needs of the most vulnerable people. In this way, initiatives can be proposed to help local governments generate a better quality of life for their population.
6. Making systemic thinking practical: The Global Agenda for Sustainable Development was designed under the model of systemic thinking. For this reason, a major challenge for governments is to ensure that the goals (sustainable development goals) are not addressed in isolation, and in this technology can help them. Digital entrepreneurs, developers, and CIOs of state institutions should ask themselves: How to take advantage of assets that citizens already have, to improve the services that are traditionally provided by the government? And how to harness the relationships between citizens, to channel them towards a more effective service delivery?
At the end of his speech, Mattila emphasized the need for a new approach to service development in the public sector: "The provision of public services has traditionally been a task of the government, but today it is also up to the Citizens: we talk about platforms for co-creation of public policies " .
The results of a recent study by the MinTIC, which showed that 82% of citizens and 79% of entrepreneurs interact with the Colombian State through electronic means , confirm the above and focus the look of digital entrepreneurs And the CIOs of public entities in the citizen's experience.
Currently, the UNDP works hand in hand with the ICT Ministry in a Center for Digital Public Innovation , which seeks to strengthen the innovation capacity of state entities.