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Tech consortium and UN agency join forces to advise on digital government strategies

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Vendor-neutral technology consortium The Open Group and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs) have announced a collaboration to achieve better citizen outcomes for ICT infrastructure projects.

The Open Group and ITU say they aim to promote, guide, and build capabilities for digital government strategies and citizen-centric Enterprise Architecture (EA) across the globe.

“Never before have digital public services had such a profound impact on the lives of citizens around the world,” said Houlin Zhao (pictured), secretary-general, ITU. “With this partnership with The Open Group, ITU is redoubling its efforts to help governments everywhere accelerate the deployment and scaling up of impactful citizen-centric digital solutions in support of economic recovery and the United Nations sustainable development goals.”

The strategic alliance between the two organisations looks to fill the gap between digital investments and best practice architectural approaches for the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Through providing guidance and materials, resource-constrained countries will be better placed to convert digital strategies into implementable large-scale systems.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of ITU explained, “The use of digital solutions and technologies to upscale digital public services is fundamental for supporting the response to, and recovery from, the Covid-19 pandemic. EA allows governments to meet the needs of sectors with varying requirements, while at the same time facilitate the organisational change process and the modernisation of government services as a whole. Alongside The Open Group, we can create the tools and guidance needed for countries to put an EA approach into action.”

Steve Nunn, president and CEO of The Open Group, added, “Together with ITU, we will strive to democratise the use of methodologies and tools required to establish future-proofed digital architectures and infrastructures, particularly for countries with limited resources.”