The public sector requires to be digital by design to fully adapt and take advantage of the digital age for better serving people, improving policy making and maximise government performance (OECD, 2020a). Becoming digital by design requires: 1) setting a strategic vision and clear mandate for digital government; 2) securing solid organisational leadership to steer digital government policies and actions; and 3) establishing effective co-ordination and collaboration within and outside the public sector for government-wide digital transformation in a coherent and inclusive manner.

Proactive governments anticipate people’s needs and respond to them rapidly, increasing accessibility and satisfaction with public services and reducing administrative burdens. The strategic and ethical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), such as that promoted by the OECD AI Principles and the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence, can help governments achieve this vision.

Access to data generated by governments is fundamental to facilitate data-driven decision making, user-centred service design, and evidenced-based policies. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, open government data supported countries’ crisis responses, proving that it can contribute to boosting resilience in the face of shocks and emergencies by enabling better communication and services to address new needs. The release of reliable, standardised and timely open data also offers opportunities to improve climate policy making and transparency around climate action, in line with the Paris Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF). It enables stakeholders from across the public, private and third sector to collectively monitor and respond to critical vulnerabilities related to climate change, using information drawn from, for example, open geospatial data, climatological observations, emissions, and pollution levels (Grinspan and Worker, 2020; UNFCCC, 2023).