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December 7, 2021
Over the last decade, civil service digital and commercial leaders have begun introducing technology buying frameworks – curating lists of pre-approved tech suppliers, products and services to aid purchasing across government. As countries shift towards platform services and SME procurement, such frameworks are becoming more common and better used: spending through the UK’s digital frameworks, for example, rose by a record £800m (US$1.1bn) to £3.2bn (US$4.4bn) in 2020-21.
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December 14, 2021
Learn how you can assess the digital-readiness of your team The term ‘digital transformation’ implies a journey, an evolution on a spectrum of less digital to more digital. But how do you assess how digital your team or department already is, and how do you prioritize the skills and capacities that will move you furthest along that spectrum? Building on the work of Public Digital and the Harvard Kennedy School, Code for Canada is developing a new Digital Capacity Assessment for government teams. Currently in alpha, the tool helps public servants identify the digital competencies that are most important in their unique contexts. This workshop was first presented at FWD50. Here, we'll introduce the Digital Capacity Assessment and help attendees apply it to their own departments and projects. Participants will get an early glimpse of the tool, and actually contribute to its testing and development. They’ll leave with a renewed sense of how to think critically about digital transformation in their roles.
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January 20, 2022
Few global events in recent history have created as much uncertainty for so long a period as the Covid-19 pandemic. No country has been immune to its effects, and governments everywhere have had to change direction virtually overnight and divert huge effort and resources to respond to the crisis. While the full story of the pandemic’s impact will not be known for some time, it is clear that certain countries have been better able to respond and adapt to the ongoing public health emergency than others. Against this backdrop, Global Government Forum and PA Consulting conducted a survey of more than 850 civil servants across nine countries to assess levels of confidence in their respective civil service’s agility and responsiveness to change. The aim of the research was to assess how civil servants rate their own organisation’s capabilities in this area, improve their awareness and understanding of the factors that drive adaptability, and pinpoint aspects of international best practice that they can apply to their own strategic planning and operational delivery. This webinar will explore the study’s key findings and what they mean for public sector organisations keen to improve their ability to make good decisions in fast-changing circumstances. Does having a long-term strategy that covers adapting to change help in a crisis? Does involving digital experts from the outset make for better policy and services? Could identifying a greater pool of data sources better prepare your organisation to deal with emergencies? And what can be done to improve collaboration between departments and agencies? By highlighting pockets of best practice and identifying barriers to progress, this event will help delegates to understand the drivers that contribute to their own organisation’s responsiveness and consider where adjustments might be made to achieve both quick wins and longer-term improvements.
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January 25, 2022
As the world reopens following the coronavirus pandemic, many governments are revisiting their plans for public investment. Plans of what to build, and where, may no longer match the needs of the economies that have been restructured by COVID-19. Many also do not reflect plans to get national economies to reduce their carbon emissions to net zero, which will radically change what governments should – and should not be – investing in. At this Global Government Forum webinar, the expert panel will discuss how to reshape public investment strategies and decision-making frameworks around today’s economic and social priorities – navigating through the short-term uncertainties created by the pandemic, and forging a path to long-term growth and renewal through green investment. It will examine how governments can use infrastructure spending to produce the greatest – and broadest – returns within economies permanently altered by the pandemic. What forms of investment would best rebuild public services, equipping them for the challenges to come? And how can wider goals, such as the drive to net zero and public wellbeing, be built into funding decisions?
