Reinventing development work: the role of Digital Transformation

April 12, 2021

Innovators explaining their concepts during the Hack4SDGs competition, UNDP 2021

UNDP Guinea-Bissau in 2021 is focusing its efforts on developing capacities related to digital transformation and understanding what it means to the future of development work

The COVID-19 pandemic has had dire consequences in all aspects of our daily lives. It has, however, also provided us with opportunities to innovate and reinvent the way we live, do business and interact with one another. It has also shown us that technology is not an end in itself, but that it should complement and improve systems that already function well (especially if we think about public services). Technology has become an integral part of our lives – now more than ever. In the past decades, we have gone through two main waves of innovation: digitalization and Internet, respectively. And, now, we are going through the wave of digital transformation. Unlike what we have experienced with digitalization and Internet, digital transformation is causing us to move from one way of working to a new one; it is transforming business models and opportunities across sectors. 
But what does “digital transformation” mean? According to Thomas M. Siebel (2019, 8) in his book “Digital Transformation: survive and thrive in an era of mass extinction”, digital transformation can be understood as the “confluence of four profoundly disruptive technologies – cloud computing, big data, the internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI)”.
Beyond these aspects, we should also understand digital transformation as a new way of working and operating across all levels of societal life. New technologies related to digital transformation will, for instance, enable economic growth, promote inclusiveness and have a positive impact in the environment. In all these areas UNDP has and currently works across the globe to make positive and sustainable contributions.  
 
Digital Transformation and UNDP
Aware of new trends and focused on accelerating the achievement of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNDP has developed its own Digital Strategy. The current context is fast-paced, requiring innovative and technological solutions to old and new development problems. UNDP’s Digital Strategy establishes a vision for evolution between 2019-2021 and two pathways of work (UNDP 2019): one that looks at “how we can use digital technologies to improve the way we work, including how we deliver, create, collaborate and advocate” and another that is more internally focused, aiming at improving “the quality, relevance, efficiency and impact of UNDP’s business through better knowledge sharing and improved data usage”. 
UNDP is currently working on a new Digital Strategy to cover the next years and UNDP Guinea-Bissau is taking advantage of these directives and guidance to reinvent how it works in the country and how it can improve itself as an efficient partner to local stakeholders. 
 
What Digital Transformation looks like for UNDP Guinea-Bissau
In the current scenario of innovation and technological development, UNDP Guinea-Bissau has adhered to UNDP’s Digital Advocate Network, which focuses on collective intelligence of distributed digital capacities. This is done through the empowerment of digital advocates appointed by each of UNDP’s Country Offices across the world, by enabling knowledge-exchange and by identifying digital opportunities in project design. UNDP Guinea-Bissau’s Digital Advocate has the role of supporting project design and delivery through the identification of digital opportunities and listening to government needs. 
Besides this new initiative, the Country Office has established a Digital Transformation Working Group in November 2020 and has carried out monthly meetings focusing on knowledge sharing and on looking for new areas of intervention. 
Since 2020, UNDP Guinea-Bissau has embraced the opportunities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and has started to develop a new way of doing business: harnessing innovation-focused initiatives and on enabling digital-related projects and activities. The Country Office has launched the digital platform “Na No Mon”, which serves as an online tool bringing together citizens with innovative practices, connecting communities and building networks, focused on solution-sharing to current challenges. In relation to e-Health, UNDP through the Global Fund has enabled and supported the use of the health platform DHIS2 (routine health sector database) and the incorporation of COVID-19 in the platform as well as ensuring the business continuity and digitization of the Ministry of Health. 
UNDP Guinea-Bissau is also developing an innovation journey in partnership with the Brazilian business accelerator, Fábrica de Startups Brasil, and four other PALOP UNDP Country Offices (Angola, Cabo Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe and Mozambique) focusing on the development and strengthening of a Lusophone innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Another major component of the Office’s work in regards to innovation and digital transformation certainly is the Accelerator Lab, which has the ability to monitor current trends, experiment and propose innovative solutions to development projects. 

The future of Digital Transformation for UNDP Guinea-Bissau
UNDP Guinea-Bissau has understood the urgency and the need to reinvent the way it performs and carries out development interventions. In a fast-paced, interconnected and ever-changing world, there is a growing sense of needing to keep up to date with current trends and adapting the context under which it operates, so that it can maintain its relevance, efficacy and efficiency. 
The digital focus of UNDP Guinea-Bissau’s team for this coming year lies with the development of a roadmap on e-governance and digital transformation; with the digitalization of the justice case management; with the development of a feasibility study on the usage of drones in Guinea-Bissau; with low-carbon bioenergy technologies; and with the application of the Digital Readiness Tool in Guinea-Bissau with the support of the Chief Digital Office. 
The results of the Digital Readiness Tool will provide us with the data to better understand, in partnership with local stakeholders, what the digital challenges, opportunities and strengths in Guinea-Bissau are. 
UNDP Guinea-Bissau is continuously improving itself, guaranteeing it stays a valuable and reliable partner to the country, focusing on digital transformation developments and on how to operate in an innovative and efficient manner towards the achievement of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. 

[1] Maria Julia Torres, Digital Transformation Focal Point and Digital Advocate at UNDP Guinea-Bissau, maria.j.torres@undp.org