*Per Camila Cristina Murta
According to the American writer Nicholas Carr, author of the book “The Shallows'', we change according to the circumstances and trends that surround us. Undeniably, technological evolution impacts the daily life of modern society, demanding from us adaptations in uses and customs. And, likewise, it has an impact on the provision of services to citizens carried out by the Public Administration, largely because we have made public acts more demanding, interactive and participatory.
The use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is growing in the public sector, especially in the post-pandemic period, and brings concrete benefits to the optimization of internal processes, resource savings, increased productivity, improved service and communication with the population, democratization of the decision-making, increased governance, among others.
In this scenario, with the State being the largest buyer of products and services in the Brazilian economy and having, in recent years, included innovation and technology in its strategic plans, how can it promote digital transformation in the public sector? Over the last few decades, the Brazilian State has included the issue of technological development and innovation in the national political agenda. At the federal level, there has been the introduction of a legal framework for innovation, the substantial increase in resources for this area and the creation of new support instruments.
The intensification of the use of digital technologies, starting in 2016, with the institution of the Digital Governance Policy (Decree n. 8.638/2016) and the structuring of the Digital Government Strategy (EGD) in which it projects the government of the future as being: i) centered on the citizen, providing simpler, more agile and personalized services; ii) integrated into a single platform, reducing costs and expanding the range of services; iii) intelligent, using data strategically for the implementation of public policies; iv) reliable, promoting the efficient treatment of the citizen's privacy; v) transparent and open, allowing broad citizen participation; and vi) efficient, by optimizing information technology infrastructure and training public employees.
As well as the launch, in the following years, of Brazilian Strategy for Digital Transformation (E-Digital), a central public policy document that presents a diagnosis of the challenges to be faced and a vision of the future for the digital transformation of the Brazilian economy, government and society.
Despite the normative and legislative efforts, as well as the improvement of the Electronic Government Development Index (EGDI, its acronym in English, e-government development index)[1], in which Brazil jumped from the 54th position, in 2020, to the 49th position, in 2022, the country still has a high digital exclusion index, in which 15.3% of the population[2] (IBGE 2022) do not have access to the internet, especially in the poorest or most remote regions of the country.
In this scenario, both the implementation of these measures structured by the Federal Government and the recognition of the implementation of digital services have had as a turning point the lack of familiarity with ICT solutions and their way of contracting, which bring doubts, fears and make it difficult for the bodies to publics to innovate. Adding to the need for cultural changes of public servants, aligned with the use of new technologies, which involves changes in process routines, legal changes and behavioral changes.
It is understood that, to meet this growing technological demand, transversality applied to Technology and Innovation is the path for interaction and communication between different structures and the debate of common challenges, generating cooperative, integrated and convergent actions and policies.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) recently defended, institutional cooperation and encouragement of transversal projects to face global challenges. Highlighting the speech of the Secretary of Policies and Strategic Programs of the MCTI, Marcia Barbosa: “Science of the 21st century is collective, it is diverse, it is plural. The MCTI will encourage transversal projects”.
Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the public-private and public-public articulation, aiming to integrate investments and structural efforts in the face of growing technological ruptures, involving multiple actors - from the government, organized civil society and the private sector, aiming to obtain the plurality of ideals and core values to efficiently and effectively bring innovation to the public sector.
Finally, it is relevant to bring up the concept of an innovative mindset, which is being able to see each difficulty as an opportunity. In other words, seek solutions to the problems presented in an agile manner and with the lowest possible effort and cost, acting with empathy in the face of different perspectives and trying out new solutions.
[1] EGDI is a United Nations indicator that measures the degree of effectiveness of the 193 member countries in the provision of public services by digital means, calculated taking into account three other indicators: the online service offer index, the telecommunications infrastructure index and the available human resources.
[2] It represents about 28.2 million Brazilians aged 10 or over who did not use the internet last year.
Camila Cristina Murta is leader of the Public Procurement Working Group of the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES). Lawyer specializing in Tenders and Contracts, Public and Technological Governance in Public Administration, Camila Cristina Murta works as Specialist in Procurement and Strategies in the Public Sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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