Our Approach

Our primary goal in creating the Digital Government Mapping Project is to equip policymakers and leaders pursuing systemic digital transformation with a reference guide to the work of other actors building integrated digital ecosystems for government services. The Digital Government Mapping Project aims to accelerate the design and development of platforms for the public sector by helping technologists and policymakers learn from leaders in this field and lay the groundwork for future discussions about open standards and platform interoperability.

Our research approach follows the conceptual architecture of the “digital government stack” initially discussed at the 2018 Rockefeller Foundation Center convening in Bellagio, Italy. This framework identifies three foundational layers of digital protocols (digital identity, data exchange, and digital payments) that underpin other digital government applications (public registries, land titling, taxation, procurement, benefits management, and civic participation) and facilitate government service provision. Since the Bellagio convening, there has been widespread acknowledgement among government leaders that digital transformation will be a key driver of economic development and institutional modernization. Our hope is to help leaders familiarize themselves with this nascent field.

New America’s Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI) conducted informational interviews with stakeholders in philanthropy, multilateral organizations, and government. The conversations illuminated key considerations for digital transformation leaders and helped identify platforms of special interest. Based on these conversations, the DIGI team developed a set of questions to identify projects that could assist government leaders seeking to understand different approaches to building a civic stack:

• Does the digital government platform address a significant challenge for a large population?
• To what extent is the digital government platform sustained and legitimized by a political or institutional mandate?
• Does the digital government platform have a framework for multi-stakeholder oversight?
• Is the digital government platform backed by institutional funders and implementers who can support long-term development?
• To what extent does the digital government platform embrace public benefit technology principles such as open architecture and open data, interoperability, and open source software?

Based on these considerations, our team conducted research to identify and catalogue platforms with the greatest potential to inform the work of policymakers. A number of organizations including Civic Hall, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, Digital Square, and the Digital Impact Alliance have assembled impressive field guides that display a broad array of digital solutions and organizations that leverage technology for social impact. We encourage readers to explore these resources further to find digital tools to address social needs such as health, education, and job skills.

Our objective is narrower in scope: we’ve assembled a curated toolbox of digital government platforms that leaders can reference as they build more effective institutions. This report does not attempt to delineate the boundaries of the field or establish a comprehensive framework for how to design and deploy digital government platforms. Instead, it functions as a Step 0 that we hope can inform future efforts toward those ends.