[digital.global] in dialogue

The global digital transformation of the public sector presents a challenge for international development cooperation to promote inclusive digitization with partners from the Global South. This discussion aimed to explore how mission-oriented policymaking and digital services can enable this transformation by examining two approaches that drive innovation and digitization: Mission Oriented Innovation Policies (MOIPs) and the digital building blocks methodology known as the GovStack approach. The discussion explored the synergies, potentials, and lessons learned of both approaches and how they can be leveraged for successful digitization.

This event of the [digital.global] network of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development took place on the Bowl stage as a fishbowl session, in which the audience could participate in the discussion depending on the topic.

Speakers were Noémie Bürkl (BMZ), Benjamin Kumpf (OECD), Yolanda Martinez (ITU), Maksym Shkilov (Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine) and Stella Deppe (GIZ).

As a cross-sector network that brings together players from politics, business, science and civil society, Initiative D21 aims to promote the potential of digitization and digital participation in Germany. At the last meeting of the working group Martin Wimmer, CDO BMZ, gave a keynote speach.

The topic of the webinar was the financial inclusion of women. What added value can blockchain and digitalization offer here? Peer-to-peer lending, microcredit for women’s savings groups, or community inclusion currencies – blockchain offers a range of use cases to reach people who have been largely excluded from the formal financial system. But can these technological solutions also help change gender norms and strengthen women’s financial inclusion and economic participation?

We discussed theese questions with partners from CGAP, WFP Innovation Accelerator and GIZ Cameroon, who presented projects from development cooperation and humanitarian aid.

More information

Towards a feminist digital development cooperation, the betterplace lab organized the online roundtable “Towards a feminist digital development cooperation” as part of a trend study on feminist digital development cooperation.

The Regional Forum for Digital Transformation was a hybrid space for dialogue and networking to exchange experiences on Digital Transformation, Digital Policy, Data and Public Policy, Digital Economy, Climate Action and Sustainable Development. During the three days of the Forum, almost 5,000 virtual attendees participated from 18 different countries such as Germany, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; and nearly 700 people attended in person. There were 58 sessions, including expert panels, keynote speakers, multi-stakeholder dialogues, and five workshops. The Forum, held in the Ministry of Economy in Mexico City, featured the participation of 120 speakers from 40 different public, private, and social sector institutions.

Organized by the Open Source Business Alliance (OSB Alliance), the Sovereign Cloud Stack Summit aimed to promote exchange on open source technologies, especially in the cloud space. The focus was on digital sovereignty and European core values in the digital space, which were significantly advanced by SPRIN-D. For the panel discussions and speeches, the broad ecosystem of open source stakeholders from politics, the private sector, academia and civil society was included. The BMZ highlighted the international perspective on digital sovereignty and open source through the policy initiative GovStack and the [digital.global] Network.

The Global Solutions Summit is the world’s leading forum for translating research-based evidence into policy recommendations for the G7/G20. Its goal is better global governance for the common good. The meeting brought together high-level government officials with academic researchers, NGO leaders and international CEOs. The BMZ participated in several sessions of the Global Solutions Summit, including the Advisory Board meeting and the High-Level Forum on Climate and Digital Architecture for the Public Good sessions.

With the aim of exploring strategic priorities for digital cooperation between Germany and Egypt, a strategic dialogue took place between the BMZ and Khaled El-Attar, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, Automation and Administrative Development.

Together with KfW, BMZ participated in the Blockchain Breakfast and presented the TruBudget tool with Piet Kleffmann, Department Director of KfW Development Bank.

The United Nations Development Programm (UNDP) is a long-standing partner of German development cooperation, while UNDP and BMZ share a longtime cooperation in the digital sector. The aim of the exchange in May was to highlight synergies in the field of innovation and digitalization. The United Nations Development Programme, represented by Robert Opp, Chief Digital Officer and Gina Lucarelli, Team Leader Accelerator Labs, met with the following representatives of the BMZ: Dirk Meyer, Head of Division Global Health, Economy, Trade and Rural Development; Martin Wimmer, CDO; Noemie Bürkl, Head of the Digitalization Unit.

The event was organized by the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice and was entitled “Governance in the Digital Era.” BMZ participated in the forum as a co-host through a logo partnership. A recorded video message from Dirk Meyer, Department Head, Global Health, Economy, Trade and Rural Development was broadcasted during the first plenary, which addressed the guiding question of how GovTech implementation can contribute to economic and social development.

The UN World Data Forum aims to drive innovation in the use of data, foster partnerships, mobilise high-level political and financial support for data, and develop a sustainable approach to data use.

Against this backdrop, the United Nations Development Programme, in collaboration with GIZ’s political initiative Data4Policy, has developed a Data-to-Policy Navigator for policymakers to use new data sources to support policy and decision-making processes.

The navigator focuses on the needs of policymakers to shape more inclusive, effective and sustainable policies and empower them digital public infrastructure (DPI). The beta version of the Navigatorwas launched at the fourth UN World Data Forum, which wich took place in Hangzhou, China, in April 2023.

More about the event