How could the GovTech improve budget processes and execution efficiency? Could the GovTech strengthen redistributive function of public expenditure? Based on an event-study method, this paper finds that the introduction of digital budget payments and e-procurement could significantly enhance budget transparency and help expand the coverage of social assistance to reach the most vulnerable population. Exploiting staggered adoption of digital budget payments, a synthetic control regression identifies meaningful increase in pre-tax income shares among the bottom 50th percentile and female workers, especially for emerging market and developing countries, with effects materializing gradually over 10-year period. The paper delves into the potential mechanism driving these equity benefits, highlighting the reduction in business informality as a primary channel. However, the paper emphasizes that the mere adoption of GovTech strategies or digital technologies is insufficient to unlock its full potential. The outcomes are intricately linked to supporting policies, regulations, organizational and system integration, and robust digital connectivity. The paper underscores that inter-agency coordination facilitated by a dedicated GovTech institution emerges as a critical factor for reaping both efficiency and equity gains from GovTech initiatives.

The application of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) to reform governmental structures and public service is widely and perhaps naively viewed as the 21st century "savior", the enlightened way to reinvigorate democracy, reduce costs, and improve the quality of public services. This book examines the transition from e-government to digital governance in light of the financial exigencies and political controversies facing many governments. The chapters concentrate on strategies for public sector organizational transformation and policies for improved and measurable government performance in the current contentious political environment. This fully updated second edition of Digital Governance provides strategies for public officials to apply advanced technologies, manage remote workforces, measure performance, and improve service delivery in current crisis-driven administrative and political environments. The full implementation of advanced digital governance requires fundamental changes in the relationship between citizens and their governments, using ICTs as catalysts for political as well as administrative communication. This entails attitudinal and behavioral changes, secure networks, and less dependence on formal bureaucratic structures (covered in Part I of this book); transformation of administrative, educational, and security systems to manage public services in a more citizen-centric way (covered in Part II); the integration of advanced digital technologies with remote broadband wireless internet services (Part III); and the creation of new forms of global interactive citizenship and self-governance (covered in Part IV). Author Michael E. Milakovich offers recommendations for further improvement and civic actions to stimulate important instruments of governance and public administration. This book is required reading for political science, public administration, and public policy courses, as well as federal, state, and local government officials.

Governments have been using technology to modernize the public sector for decades. The World Bank Group (WBG) has been a partner in this process, providing both financing and technical assistance to facilitate countries’ digital transformation journeys since the 1980s. The WBG launched the GovTech Initiative in 2019 to support the latest generation of these reforms. Over the past five years, developing countries have increasingly requested WBG support to design even more advanced digital transformation programs. These programs will help to increase government efficiency and improve the access to and the quality of service delivery, provide more government-to-citizen and government-to-business communications, enhance transparency and reduce corruption, improve governance and oversight, and modernize core government operations. The GovTech Initiative appropriately responds to this growing demand. The GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) measures the key aspects of four GovTech focus areas—supporting core government systems, enhancing service delivery, mainstreaming citizen engagement, and fostering GovTech enablers—and assists advisers and practitioners in the design of new digital transformation projects. Constructed for 198 economies using consistent data sources, the GTMI is the most comprehensive measure of digital transformation in the public sector. Several similar indices and indicators are available in the public domain to measure aspects of digital government—including the United Nations e-Government Development Index, the WBG’s Digital Adoption Index, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Digital Government Index. These indices, however, do not fully capture the aspects of emphasis in the GovTech approach—the whole-of-government approach and citizen centricity—as key when assessing the use of digital solutions for public sector modernization. The GTMI is not intended to be an assessment of readiness or performance; rather, it is intended to complement the existing tools and diagnostics by providing a baseline and a benchmark for GovTech maturity and by offering insights to those areas that have room for improvement. The GTMI is designed to be used by practitioners, policy makers, and task teams involved in the design of digital transformation strategies and individual projects, as well as by those who seek to understand their own practices and learn from those of others.

Twenty-first century governments must keep pace with the expectations of their citizens and deliver on the promise of the digital age. Data-driven approaches are particularly effective for meeting those expectations and rethinking the way governments and citizens interact. This report highlights the important role data can play in creating conditions that improve public services, increase the effectiveness of public spending and inform ethical and privacy considerations. It presents a data-driven public sector framework that can help countries or organisations assess the elements needed for using data to make better-informed decisions across public sectors.

This report looks at new thinking and practice in OECD countries in using information and communications technologies to enhance government services.

?Financial Management Information Systems: 25 Years of World Bank Experience on What Works and What Doesn?t? was prepared as an updated and expanded version of the FMIS review report drafted in 2003, to highlight the achievements and challenges observed during the design and implementation of Bank funded FMIS projects since 1984.

Governments must innovate if they are to be effective. In a world of change, a government that stands still will soon be overtaken by events and shifting citizen expectations. This report explores the past, present and possible future journey of the innovation system of the Brazilian public service.