In this limited series, we explore the progress, challenges, and future trends in GovTech through conversations with leaders across all levels in the sector.
Beth Simone Noveck is a professor at Northeastern University, Director of The Governance Lab (The GovLab), author of Solving Public Problems: How to Fix Our Government and Change Our World, Core Faculty at the Institute for Experiential AI (IEAI) at Northeastern, and a CitizenLab Board Member. Previously, Beth served in the White House as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama, and UK Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her senior advisor for Open Government.
Q: How would you describe your role in the GovTech space?
A: I help senior political and government leaders understand how to use technology, data, and community wisdom more effectively. Rather than focusing on a specific platform or tool they use, one way I help them is to explore how to use tech to garner community insights and make decisions in a more equitable and engaged fashion. Together we answer questions like, what are the problems weâre trying to solve, and how do we co-design the solutions with community engagement?
Q: In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges GovTech currently faces?
A: I see three main challenges. The first is shifting the focus from platform to problem. Tech is a tool to accomplish a purpose, but itâs not the end-all solution. Usually, tech is acquired by one part of an organization whereas another works on the problem/solution, and thereâs often a disconnect between them. So, itâs important to upskill decision-makers to become more educated consumers of new technology. The second challenge is the division between platform and process. Tools embody a way of doing things – whether asking residents to comment on something or codesign or engage in collective action – and you have to design a process that works for both the institution and the residents it serves. The tech used should implement that process. The third challenge, and the most frequent complaint I hear, is procurement. Even when a government wants to do something in a more innovative and equitable way, it can be really difficult to acquire tech efficiently and affordably. So when 90% of the time is spent on contracting the tool, thatâs a challenge. I see a big role for philanthropy to step up and help procure tools so they can be used in new ways and institutions can make use of new platforms more quickly.
Q: Weâre seeing more funding allocation like ARPA to the infrastructure bill come into play – how can governments ensure theyâre spending those dollars well?
A: Governments need to engage communities to spend funding well. Through engagement, they can understand their priorities, codesign solutions, and involve them in implementing and evaluating new programs. At every stage, governments should engage their communities to ensure money is being well spent to solve problems as people experience them. Whether youâre fixing a road or a website, it needs to be responsive to citizen needs. Tools for engagement are so crucial because while we have access to more money, we need to spend it right. This isnât a time when governments can risk further eroding already fragile trust.
Q: What are the GovTech advancements that youâre most excited about?
A: Overall, Iâm very optimistic about the GovTech space because there is a deeper and more widespread understanding of the way technology can help create policies and deliver services. We no longer have to make the case for tech or why itâs right to do things online, and Iâm optimistic the sector will see even more growth and expansion in the next decade. Especially due to COVID, our understanding of what is possible expanded as we saw the urgency to deliver services to people online. Weâve even seen policy direction out of Washington with federal legislation for the public sector to use more human-centered tech to deliver services and policies. All of this is creating a framework that encourages the use of technology, and it helps that thereâs more money available to modernize how governments deliver services. Combined with the greater realization that equity matters every step of the way, Iâm optimistic that weâll see much more community engagement.
Q: What sets apart successful community engagement?
A: GovLab and Nesta have done a deep dive into the communities that use engagement as a standard operating procedure rather than a one-off pilot. Along the way, we asked: what makes for communities and leaders that really see the value over time? In the City of San Pedro, for instance, they legislated the use of co-design as a standard operating procedure rather than a ânice to haveâ or pilot. The big difference is in the way they tell their residents how they will use their feedback, with an articulated need and an ability to communicate progress. Having a well-defined process to communicate with residents, as well as with internal teams, how their input and actions will be used is key. Itâs when the use is not clear that participation really drops off. The successful places are the ones that donât engage with residents unless they know the âhowâ and âwhyâ, and they see engagement leading to a positive real-world outcome. Itâs not enough to do it because itâs the right thing to do, it has to be a more effective way of working together and new tech really makes it a must-have. Community engagement, put simply, is a better way of doing business that fosters better decision-making. For example, using CitizenLab to help define a problem leads to better outcomes in policy results than compared to sitting in a town hall with residents fighting to get a word in. Itâs no wonder there is a reluctance to undertake engagement when there is a lack of understanding on how to design good processes that foster meaningful engagement.
Q: Whatâs the role of online engagement in all of this? How can digital help local governments?
A: First, online community engagement helps in terms of equity. It is expensive for people to participate in face-to-face deliberation – if they work, have elderly parents to take care of, childcare responsibilities, or a number of other factors. New tech, especially when itâs mobile responsive, makes engagement more equitable and fairer than offline processes. Of course, online options should also be combined with outreach to wider communities to raise awareness. Digital community engagement helps governments understand problems as residents actually perceive them, and helps them tap into the solutions they have in mind as people on the frontline who have expertise about the problems and how to solve them. Itâs not window dressing – community engagement is the more effective way to solve problems and deliver services, and doing it with tech makes it more efficient and cheaper. You also get much better data.
Q: Whatâs been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on engagement?
A: Covid has helped accelerate a move from analog to digital processes across governments. It started with a realization that we needed to develop ways of understanding how the virus was spreading to predict its trajectory and know how to respond. Then governments needed to understand residentsâ thinking on wearing masks and getting vaccines. The urgency of the virus spurred the most forward-thinking leaders to create a more conversational government with a two-way communication channel with residents.
Q: How do you see global or national trends impacting local level engagement?
A: Thereâs more collaboration, and definitely more borrowing of learnings and good practices to do things more effectively. Widespread issues like the pandemic, economic inequality, and racial injustice left governments scrambling at the highest and lowest levels. That led to a realization that as many national governments are paralyzed by political partisanship in dealing with these issues, the heavy lifting of moving things forward is falling to local and state governments so they matter much more in this equation. Local governments are also increasingly embracing technology and creating policies to digitize, equitably use AI, and more. The tech that once seemed so fancy, expensive, and inaccessible is now affordable for local governments, and they can tap into digital platforms that use AI to tap into big data and easy analysis for more efficient processes.