Citizens around the world are increasingly demanding to interact with their governments through digital platforms. At the same time, fiscal constraints force governments to operate efficiently and to create a competitive environment where citizens and businesses can manage their relationship with the public sector in the most convenient way. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), when implemented appropriately, have proven to be great allies in government efforts to streamline processes, eliminate paper-based transactions and set up single points of access to the public administration. International experience shows that the governments that have taken greatest advantage of the opportunities offered by ICTs to modernise the public sector are those that have undertaken a planning exercise (i.e. a digital strategy). This is a detailed planning exercise that includes the scope, financing, monitoring, rights and obligations of the affected parties, roles of the different actors and a governance framework providing coordination mechanisms. The exercise should gather as much political support as possible.

Measuring the effects of public policies allows policy makers and public sector managers to draw lessons and allocate limited financial resources where they can have the biggest impact, thereby increasing efficiency and effectiveness. In the case of ICTs this is particularly important since the business case to support digital government projects is usually based on the time and cost reduction that technology generates for governments, as well as the ease of access to services by businesses and citizens and the resulting level of satisfaction.

The procurement of ICTs has traditionally been a challenge within the public sector due to the ever changing nature of the products and services involved and the technical knowledge required to develop good terms of reference. The capacity to appropriately procure ICT-related products and services has a significant effect on the progress of e-government, making it of utmost importance for governments to have a strategic approach to the purchase of technology.

National online portals allow for a single point of access to government services, thereby facilitating the interaction of citizens with the public sector and the provision of a unified image of the public sector to the society. As technologies advance, these portals have evolved to become user friendly, interactive and multichannel allowing access via computer, smartphone, other mobile devices or even a regular phone. A relevant example of national online portals is the one established by the Government of the UK that has been a reference to many governments in the LAC region and beyond for its ease-of-use and accessibility.

An open government promotes a completely different relationship between the government and its citizens. It aims to build stronger democracies and improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of public services by relying on the use of new technologies. It is built on a citizen-centered approach to create public value by collaborative schemes to co-design and co-implement public policy. In parallel, it promotes public scrutiny so that there is greater integrity and accountability from government authorities, managers, and other officials.

The effective and efficient implementation of open government reforms requires the appropriate institutional setting. Therefore, the role of the centre of government (CoG) in providing leadership and effectively and efficiently coordinating policy-making across the government is critical for ensuring a proper implementation of open government initiatives. With the exception of Panama, all surveyed LAC countries indicated that open government initiatives are coordinated by the centre of government. The structure and working dynamics of the centre of government could be different, in 54% of LAC countries, including among others Mexico, it functions directly in the office of the head of government. A different structure was reported by 38% of countries (e.g. Peru) where the CoG operates in the cabinet office/ chancellery/ council of ministers.

The institutional and governance frameworks established to support policy implementation are key to secure results and impacts. Hence policy coordination is a crucial component of policy implementation. Effective coordination is hard to achieve and requires certain elements to be present in order to make it sustainable and suitable. However, while those elements may depend on each government’s specific situation, co-ordination calls for three specific components: policy communication, stakeholder consultation and institutional co-operation. Countries in the LAC region were asked about the main challenges they faced concerning the implementation and more specifically the coordination the open government strategy and initiatives.

Governments and public organisations produce and collect a wide range of data when performing their day-to-day activities. By sharing these data in ways that are easily accessible, useable and understandable by citizens and businesses, governments cannot only improve access to valuable information about public programmes and services, but also foster innovation and support economic and social development through multiple uses of these data.