This is arguably a seminal piece in the landscape of thinking about ‘digital government’. This Policy Framework provides the analytical foundation to the work that the OECD’s Digital Government and Data Unit performs with it providing the basis for structuring Digital Government Reviews and, perhaps crucially, offering the intellectual foundations for the forthcoming Digital Government Index and the efforts to measure digital government maturity around the world.
This framework is a joint effort with different members of the team contributing different chapters and Barbara providing the overall leadership to splice those efforts together. I’m quite proud to have contributed the chapter on Government as a Platform, which is a subject close to my heart (and one I first wrote about on this blog back in 2012),
The full framework is available as a PDF on the OECD’s website.
What’s the TL;DR?
The Six Pillars of Digital Government: Foundations for the Future
The OECD’s Digital Government Policy Framework (DGPF) is much more than a set of guidelines; it’s the foundation for how governments across the world can reimagine public service delivery in the digital age.
Why Digital Government Needs Six Dimensions
Governments are facing increasing demands to be agile, transparent, and responsive. The framework’s six dimensions – Digital by Design, Data-Driven Public Sector, Government as a Platform, Open by Default, User-Driven, and Proactiveness – provide the basis for public sectors to achieve these goals. These dimensions don’t stand alone; they are interdependent and essential for creating a government that is fit for the digital era.
- Digital by Design:
The heart of digital transformation is embedding digital in every aspect of government from the outset. This isn’t about bolting on technology to outdated processes; it’s about creating a strategic and systematic approach to policy-making, using digital as the backbone for every stage of government operations. - Data-Driven Public Sector:
Governments must recognise data as a critical asset. This dimension underscores the importance of data governance, ethical use, and openness. Data is more than a by-product; it is a core driver of how policies are formulated, monitored, and evaluated. - Government as a Platform:
Government as a platform moves away from siloed services and towards a more ecosystem-based approach. By creating reusable tools, services, and infrastructure, governments can empower service teams to focus on the unique needs of their users, driving both innovation and efficiency. - Open by Default:
Open government data, open decision-making processes, and transparency are key to creating trust and accountability. This dimension calls on governments to make openness the default setting, ensuring that public information is accessible and useful. - User-Driven:
Services should be designed with the user in mind, not based on the convenience of government structures. This dimension emphasizes the importance of designing services based on real user needs and ensuring that they are accessible, inclusive, and responsive. - Proactiveness:
Governments shouldn’t wait for citizens to come to them—they should anticipate needs and provide services proactively. Whether it’s using data to predict service demands or creating channels for continuous user feedback, proactiveness is about making government services as seamless as those in the private sector.
What Comes Next?
These six dimensions are not static. They are the foundation for the ongoing digital transformation that every government must go through. The OECD’s Digital Government Index is the next step, providing a quantitative measure of how well countries are performing across these dimensions. The framework will also continue to evolve, just as we must evolve our approach to digital government.
The full framework is available as a PDF on the OECD’s website.
The blurb
This paper presents the OECD Digital Government Policy Framework (DGPF), a policy instrument to help governments identifying key determinants for effective design and implementation of strategic approaches to transition towards higher levels of digital maturity of their public sectors. This analytical work builds on the provisions of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies and supports the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the Secretariat across countries and individual projects.
The DGPF provides the ground for peer reviews and frames the design of the methodology and the OECD Survey on Digital Government to measure countries’ digital government maturity across the six dimensions covered in this Framework: digital by design, data-driven public sector, government as a platform, open by default, user-driven and proactiveness. The document is enriched with countries’ practices to illustrate the concepts covered in each of the six dimensions of the DGPF.
The full framework is available as a PDF on the OECD’s website.