This article is written by Enrique Zapata, principal specialist for data intelligence and new technologies of the Digital Innovation in Government Department at CAF, Development Bank of Latin America.

GovTech, understood as a public-private partnership between governments and tech related startups to solve public problems, is a relatively new area in public policy. For this reason, government’s teams that are exclusively dedicated to GovTech are still incipient.

In this sense, GovTech today is not that different from the emergence of Delivery Units in the early 2000s or Behavioural Science teams in 2014, since they all have the potential to change how governments work through new approaches to the design and implementation of public policies.

Multidisciplinary teams are bringing new things to the table

Depending on the context, bureaucratic structures, purposes and goals; governments from Chile to Portugal or Singapore, have implemented GovTech initiatives mainly in the form of public challenges, incubators, accelerators and investment programs. For example:

  • In the UK, the £20 million ($24,8 million USD) Govtech Catalyst Fund helps startups pitch tech-driven solutions to complex problems proposed by different areas in the public sector.
  • In Colombia, MiLab is a government lab in charge of generating new solutions to wicked problems by “articulating public entities with innovation communities in academia and the private sector”.
  • In Mexico, national open data teams implemented a Public Challenges program, to test and implement a new method of procurement of data and digital technology solutions from startups and micro-enterprises.

What lies at the core of these initiatives are multidisciplinary teams that are “highly delivery oriented, focused on deadlines and outcomes”, and are able to bring agility and flexibility to solve public problems. Usually, the teams are a mix of experts in public policy, data analysis and visualisation, digital, strategic communication and project management.

The GovTech skills of the future

Based on this, it seems reasonable to assume that GovTech teams in the future will look more or less like they do today. After all, they represent a wide range of skills that compliment each other well. However, I think that conclusion would be wrong because it fails to take the new roles that are emerging in the public service into account.

Bringing together the right team in any area of innovation is more art than a science

In particular, digital savviness — whilst always handy — will need to be supplemented by other skills. Looking some years into the future, it will be key that GovTech teams add three new areas of expertise to the skillset of government innovation:

  • Finance and investment, to cater to specific GovTech funds from the public sector and to catalyse and coordinate actions with the venture investment sector aimed at incubating and accelerating startups with new goods and services.
  • Business development and innovation, to consolidate programs that can create spaces for innovation by linking the public and private sectors, especially the micro enterprises, which comprise more than 99% of businesses in OECD countries.
  • Procurement and regulation, to bring innovation into contracting by supporting innovative public procurement frameworks, and supporting new “regtech” solutions and regulatory sandboxes to test new avenues for delivery of public policies in a safe and controlled space.
  • Soft skills, in particular social sciences, including psychology to integrate behavioural science insights into public re-engineering and user experience, to develop policies and services that really take into account what people need.

Lastly, although individual people and the teams they comprise are probably the most important ingredient for success, it is important to recognise that they need the adequate environment to thrive. For GovTech teams, this implies to have the support of at least four enablers to secure their success: i) high level political support, ii) the right location at the centre of government or sector, iii) permissive regulation, and iv) adequate and sustainable financial resources.

Bringing together the right team in any area of innovation is more art than a science. People, their skills and their motivations need to be aligned with institutional goals and the overall action space. Nonetheless, when done right, these teams can bring real change to the public sector. The GovTech ecosystem and their teams will have their go at proving this idea in the coming years.

Want to know more about GovTech and how it’s changing government? Read more here.

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