Digital technologies are now a common feature of our day-to-day lives. Governments are increasingly adopting purpose-built tools for the delivery of public services and for engaging the public in decision-making processes.
However, even those operating within the public sector and using digital tools may struggle to define the somewhat broad terminology that is ‘govtech’. The following article discusses the term, the benefits govtech has had for public bodies, and how it is being used to enhance service delivery and processes like public consultations.
What is Govtech?
Govtech (or civic tech) is a catch-all term used to describe technology that is purpose-built for local, regional and central governments. Short for Government Technology, it’s perhaps no surprise that the term extends to a broad range of technology-based solutions used by governments. Just some examples of govtech include:
- Citizen/Civic Engagement Platforms, like Citizen Space
- Government service-based applications, like the NHS app.
- Open data services, like London Datastore
Governments have been using technology-based solutions for at least as long as the internet has existed. In fact, much of the early internet was developed in order to meet the needs of governments around the world to connect with each other to more easily meet their defence needs.
In recent years however, demand for technology-based solutions in almost every sector of public life has grown rapidly. There is no single reason for this. Instead, it is driven by a combination of advancing technology in cloud computing, the ubiquity of high-spec mobile technology, and recently the availability of AI products. Governments are increasingly using govtech to improve efficiency, transparency, and citizen engagement.
Benefits Of Using Govtech In Public Engagement
Govtech allows public bodies and government services to reach wider audiences, collect meaningful and representative data, and significantly reduces the administrative load previously associated with public engagement. They are creating a new standard for how governments and public bodies should interact with their citizens and tackle public sector challenges.
The following explores the specific ways govtech can improve government operations, public participation, accessibility and understanding within public service:
Improving Government Efficiency & Resource Management
Perhaps the most obvious benefit of govtech in public engagement is that it allows governments and public bodies to use their resources efficiently. There are a number of ways public engagement activities can be made less resource-intensive with technology:
- Data handling: In the past, a great deal of human effort would go into compiling, sorting and analysing data from public engagement activities. Now, purpose-built govtech programmes can do the majority of this work, with humans mainly providing expert oversight.
- Engagement: Although communication requires a human touch, govtech engagement platforms can automate many of the tasks associated with reaching out to stakeholders, communities and the wider public.
- Consolidation: In the early days of using technology for public purposes, facilitators often had to use multiple different tools and platforms for every activity. Now, it is increasingly common for both facilitators and participants to use one single engagement platform for most aspects of the process.
- Reducing physical output: Although some people will always need to be reached via traditional channels, like posters, newspaper articles or even a knock on the door, a large majority of the population are now online and relatively tech-savvy. This reduces the need for “physical” i.e non-digital output, and means it can be focussed where it is most needed.
While one may expect that this increased efficiency would speed up the process of public engagement, and to some degree has, it has also gradually raised expectations. As govtech solutions improve the ability of public bodies to reach out, the public now anticipate a more comprehensive engagement. This in turn makes the use of engagement tools essential.
Demonstrating Transparency
Another clear benefit provided by civic tech is the public perception of increased transparency. When participating in a public engagement activity, these tools allow data gathered to be fed back to participants in an ongoing, responsive manner. Later, they can be used to provide analysis of this data to the wider public.
For example, if a govtech platform is used for a public consultation by a local government, participants can be given ongoing updates on the status of the consultation in real time. At the close of the consultation, an anonymised and usually aggregated version of response data can be provided to stakeholders or even the general public. This demonstrates transparency on the part of those running the consultation.
Building Trust
Demonstrating transparency has the effect of building trust with the public. With the help of govtech platforms, citizens can easily see:
- That their views were heard by decision-makers.
- How their views correspond to the views of the wider public.
- How their responses were used as part of the decision-making process.
- How the issues or concerns they may have raised were acted on or mitigated.
Over time, this transparency in the process generates greater ‘buy-in’ from the public. If the public feel included in decisions made by governments and public bodies, then they are more likely to trust the process to be fair and considered.
Accessibility and Inclusivity
Before the use of Government Technology became common, public engagement would often disproportionately engage certain groups over others. Middle-class professionals, often older and more inclined to have pre-existing knowledge of government processes, were usually over-represented. This could lead to data that assumed the position of only a small section of the community was more universal than it is.
However, the increasing prevalence of technology alongside a greater awareness of the importance of inclusivity in government processes, is changing this. For example there are tools with the ability to flag – through demographic tracking – when responses may be skewed towards specific groups. Those running these activities may then need to do more work to engage certain community members. This leads to more representative and reliable data.
Accessibility is also greatly improved by govtech. A purpose-built govtech platform should meet all current accessibility standards. This includes various requirements, including being suitable for people using screen-readers and other disabilities that may otherwise impair use of digital tools.
However, accessibility can mean more than just accounting for disability. It includes everything that allows people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds can engage equally with a given engagement activity. Digital tools that can help ordinary people understand and visualise the policies, plans and projects that affect them are also part of accessibility.
Using GovTech to Create Mutual Understanding
Govtech allows data to be understood and visualised in a way that would previously have been very difficult to do on a large scale.
For example, through the use of geospatial data, activities like participatory mapping have been transformative for how governments and citizens can collaborate on public policy with greater insight. This allows citizens to visualise how spaces will be used, and to feedback information visually, leading to a greater mutual understanding.
Digital Government Transformation In Consultation
Public consultations have been transformed by the advances in digital engagement tools. Processes that once generated enough paper to fill a large room; in-person meetings that required dozens of staff; analysis that could take hundreds or even thousands of hours, can now be completed with relative simplicity with just a computer and some expert oversight.
This shift has significantly reduced the administrative burdens associated with public consultations. This quick turnaround and reduced man-power has allowed a larger number of consultations to take place, and for results to be analysed, reviewed and fed back in record time.
Govtech has meant that participants can receive real-time updates, response summaries and be given data they can easily visualise. The benefits of this – transparency, trust and accessibility – are outlined above. However, the increasing number of public consultations and the speed at which they are delivered has also raised public expectations. Where once, waiting months for the results of a consultation was expected and accepted, now such a wait would likely lead to consternation from participants who are waiting on an outcome.
Equally, there is now an expectation that governments and public bodies should be the ones putting in the legwork to engage stakeholders, both digitally and otherwise. This means that not only are digital engagement tools helpful for those running government consultations – they are now essential.
Case Study: Scottish Independence Referendum
The Scottish Independence Referendum was described by many as Scotland’s “most important decision in 300 years”. It was therefore essential that the Scottish Government consult with citizens ahead of time on how the vote would be structured, what information would be provided ahead of time and the timing of the vote.
For this consultation, the Scottish Government used Citizen Space. As a Govtech platform, Citizen Space had all the tools necessary for the Scottish Government to conduct a complex, large-scale consultation in a way that was accessible and user-friendly.
As a modern Govtech platform, Citizen Space allowed them to include multiple documents, to cross-integrate with other platforms including social networks, all while using a consistent interface to avoid confusion from participants.
Before Govtech was a common tool for public bodies, a consultation of this scale would be the work of months if not years. Despite the size, complexity and importance of this consultation however, the initial set up was live within just two days.
“We wanted to make the process of responding to the consultation as simple as possible – simple for users to express their views, and simple for us to redact, analyse and publish those responses… We were very happy with the outcome.”
Christian Storstein, Digital Engagement Manager, The Scottish Government
Citizen Space is the go-to platform for connecting governments, developers, and citizens. If you’d like to learn more about how our software can become an integral part of your govtech ecosystem, book a free demo and we’ll walk you through it.
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