The all-African panel that took place at the e-Governance Conference 2023 brought into the spotlight country cases of digital transformation from the continent. An enlightening sessions, where everyone attending – both online and offline – got a unique chance to hear, at a glance, the most salient developments in digital taking place in Uganda and Namibia, among others. In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, we host one of the speakers of that session – Dr. Amina Zawedde. As the...

The Tallinn Summer School of Cyber Diplomacy returns for its fourth edition, keeping up the pace with global developments in diplomacy and cybersecurity. But it’s not just about the mainstreaming of cyber diplomacy as a foreign policy topic, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In both war and peace times, it has become evident how international collaboration can set the world to create a safer and more secure cyberspace – from attributing cyber operations, to applying international law on...

The upcoming book by e-Governance Academy, “Twenty Years of Building Digital Societies”, brings into focus the role that digitalization played in Estonia, in the countries eGA has collaborated with – and what such expertise adds to the digital development strategies of countries worldwide.  Vision, sustainability, people, security. We take the long view here, in a publication absolutely not to miss, into both the past and the future of digital transformation.  A peak into it is offered today...

For the first time, the 2023 e-Governance Conference is set to feature an all-African panel showcasing case studies from the continent. Exactly: both moderator and speakers will present examples of inter-sector cooperation from Namibia, Uganda, and the West African region. Collaborative partnerships for digital policy implementation are core to their experience, and there we stand to learn from them. The African Union – European Union (AU-EU) Digital for Development (D4D) Hub is giving the...

The ongoing conversation and development around artificial intelligence are bringing data policy back into the spotlight, as we will explore in a dedicated session at the e-Governance Conference 2023. Perhaps it’s also a signal, an indicator of how much work and care is needed before AI starts convincingly scaling to the public sector. Because while it is true that technological advancement can unlock new levels of digital governance, the great reliance of AI models on enormous amounts of...

Not just talks and panels, at the upcoming 2023 e-Governance Conference. As always, we didn’t forget about the practical side of things – workshops. One of them will focus on the design of public e-services. Designing and re-imagining public services takes effort and knowledge, but it becomes less intimidating when expert show how much common sense actually goes into it. Piret Saartee, Senior Expert on Smart Governance at eGA, joins us for today’s episode of the Digital Government Podcast,...

We are well over one year into Russia’s ongoing threat to Ukrainian state sovereignty. And from terrain to the digital sphere, it is now more evident than ever before that the aggression has been total. If, in the beginning, the war seemed to take on a more traditional, kinetic shape, cyberattacks have intensified with the passing of the months – and with the staunch resistance of Ukraine’s forces. This postulates the key takeaway, for international observers and governments alike, that...

Nothing about us, without us. From foundational principle of representative democracy, to inclusive approach to service design. The journey of this quote is long and spans across centuries, but gains renewed relevance today – when digitalization is ubiquitous, and public services must be designed for all, not just the ‘most’. Margus J. Klaar is a strategist, service designer, and founding partner of agency Brand Manual. Services that are accessible to the most vulnerable, improve usability...

A review of technological change in the past 20 years, applications and narratives, sweet birthday wishes. We have it all in this week’s episode of the Digital Government Podcast, where we head to distinguished technology experts of e-Governance Academy (eGA) for another expert chat dedicated to eGA’s 20 years anniversary. Programme Director Heiko Vainsalu meets Mark Erlich, Senior Expert on eID. From popularizing tech talk in government and society, to novelties and black boxes to unpack,...

Costa Rica is all but new on the world map of countries that took digital transformation as a priority. Over there, in Central America, this relatively small nation started investing in digital-related development and education already more than 20 years ago. Almost similarly to Estonia – and as similarly, they have come to create a crisis-proof digital society. Jorge Mora Flores, now expert consultant and account manager in cybersecurity, is the former Director of Digital Governance in Costa...

Preparations for the 9th e-Governance Conference are well under way, for what has come to be one of the highest level e-governance events globally. In the past few years, we addressed ever-so-salient topics such as resilience and crisis management, with the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine inevitably driving the agenda. In the 2023 edition we look at what are the sustainable and distributed societal returns that come from technological development. “Digital Innovation as Catalyst for...

Digital development has gone fast in the past two decades. Largely on its own momentum, as tools and their applications come to impact both more deeply and extensively different spheres of life. Also, due to unprecedented events and circumstances – see, the pandemic – that sped up digital adoption.  The question is, what fell in the cracks of such transformation? Who, if at all, has been left behind? Two of e-Governance Academy’s top e-democracy experts come together in this podcast episode –...

The last time we started with a question “Is i-voting here to stay?”; this one around, we move on from a strong statement. One week ago, national elections were held in Estonia, and more than a few important records have been set. Among these, the highest ever overall turnout, and the highest ever amount of people casting their ballots through the national i-voting system. In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, we welcome back Priit Vinkel, Senior Expert on Smart Governance. He...

How long do 20 years of cybersecurity actually feel? Quite intense and intensive, for sure. It’s unlikely that anyone thought that with internet and ICTs would come no risks, no maliciousness, no actors aiming to exploit vulnerabilities of digital systems.  Two of e-Governance Academy’s own cybersecurity experts are here to remind us how far we’ve come. With them, we recap events and lessons learned on safeguarding digital spaces from two decades of activity. But also, how future strategies...

Sweden is perhaps one of those countries that, in international rankings on government and digitalization, you sort of expect to do well – and indeed, so they do. Estonia figures among them as well, and we regularly see the interest this draws in understanding how development takes place, where, what’s next. To take us there, and discover lessons learned, today we invite Johan Magnusson – professor, author, and Director of the Swedish Center for Digital Innovation (SCDI) in...

It may sound like a paradox, but there is much, much more to it. In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, we return to the Asian islands – southeast in the continent – to address public service development in Timor-Leste. Piret Saartee, a Senior Expert on Smart Governance, was part of the team that drew up our study on the path to creating effective service centres in the country. With her, we dig into why limited network reach shouldn’t hold back e-governance projects, and how...

Making national cyberspace more secure does not pertain only to protecting it from cyber-attacks. It is a day-to-day job, a commitment to small best practices too that do make a difference – and help prevent disruptions in our work activities, and the functioning of the public sector. Epp Maaten, Team Lead on Cybersecurity, joins us from Chișinău, Moldova, to explore how e-Governance Academy assisted Tonga in its digital recovery from a natural disaster and the place of cybersecurity within...

That’s right. e-Governance Academy is turning 20 years old this year! Two decades of digital transformation; of understanding societies through the lens of technology; of advising governments worldwide on how to reap the benefits of digital development. And who better than Hannes Astok, Executive Director at eGA, to draw a bit of a retrospective. In this episode we take a look back, between personal memories and organizational milestones, to what has been a two-decade journey into the future...

Another year has passed. Another year in which e-Governance Academy has been involved in digital transformation projects worldwide. Most might have expected calmer waters after exiting the emergency situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, with 2022 came a number of events that saw our experts at the centre of the international scene. Executive Director Hannes Astok joins us to paint a picture of what year 2022 has been for our centre of excellence, and what topics defined it in the...

Digital skills are essential for the development of a full-fledged digital society. We can – and should – expect both companies and governments to develop their services in the most user-friendly way, to actually serve customers and citizens. But how to empower people further, and give them the tools to navigate effectively the information age? Kristi Kivilo, in-house Senior Expert on Smart Governance, joins today’s episode of the Digital Government Podcast to talk the skills people need in a...

Based on essentially all wiki facts and general information, Brazil and Estonia could not be more different. Geographically, culturally, and socially. And still, as we luckily very often saw happen in the past years, these too have a joint meeting point – digital transformation. Interest in Estonia’s digital journey remains constant among policy and changemakers from the Latin American country, while Brazil’s own digital development probably picks up pace probably more than ever before....

It was just June that we were talking about improving cybersecurity capacity in the Western Balkans area. And a few months later, between August and September, the countries of Albania and Montenegro respectively suffered disruptive cyber attacks. Merle Maigre, Programme Director on Cybersecurity at eGA, joins us again to take stock of the situation. Together with Klaid Mägi, Cybersecurity Strategist at Estonian company RaulWalter, we explore the importance of investigating the attribution...

Digital citizens in a digital Europe? We are not quite there yet, but significant steps forward have been made in recent years with eIDAS. And progress doesn’t stop at the borders of political Europe, as a bilateral agreement between the Union and Ukraine is set to enhance the mutual recognition of trust services. We hear all the latest from Mark Erlich, eGA’s Senior Expert on Digital Identity, and Business Architect at the Electronic Identity Department of the Information System Authority of...

We could never say it enough – digital identity is a must-have to make societies more digital. It has been around for some time already, so it is natural that types and approaches to its development vary, between contexts and country specificities. To explore these, Mark Erlich is the speaker of choice for a mini-series of podcast episodes on digital identity. He is the Senior Expert on Digital Identity at e-Governance Academy. And with his 15-some years’ experience on the matter at Estonia’s...

In Borneo Island, Malaysia, the largest of the 13 states making up the country has an ambitious plan – to turn the region into a digital economy powerhouse of the area. Through the works of the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) as its implementing agency, the government in the region is driving initiative to give the state a digital economy and society. During his last visit to Tallinn, we caught up with the Chairmen of the SDEC, Mohamad Morsidi, to hear about the premises and...