Panama

 

Panama hosted from 15-16 November 2018 the 5th e-Government Ministerial Meeting of Latin America and the Caribbean and the 12th Annual Meeting of the Latin America and Caribbean e-Government Leaders’ Network (Red GEALC). The meeting was opened by President Varela of Panama and attended by ministers and senior representatives from IDB and OECD, 23 Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as Estonia, Italy, Portugal Republic of Korea and United Kingdom. The ministerial meeting revolved around the theme of “The Value of e-Government”.  A copy of the 2018 E-Government Survey was also presented to the President of Republic of Panama.

The presentation included a call from the Secretary-General to obtain feedback from Member States to address the potential of digital government to promote sustainable development as part of the SG’s Strategy on New Technologies. From 13-14 November 2018, the National Authority for Governmental Innovation of Panama co-hosted a series of meetings designed to advance the digital agenda of Panama within the context of a technical cooperation project on capacity development for digital competence executed by UN DESA. Representatives from the United Kingdom and Mexico discussed their experiences with senior officials in charge of digital service delivery infrastructure in Panama, including the national 311 number, digital municipalities, Digital Transactions (Panama Tramita), Business Intelligence for Public Services, Open Government, Panama Online, among other features.

The Project is also funding the translation of the UN e-Government Survey 2018 into Spanish and updating the ICT governance manuals and digital master plan for Panama, which will include a strategy for the development of a single-window digital architecture for the country.  The lessons learned from this experience will become a Capacity Development Policy Note on integrated multichannel public service delivery.  The Project will therefore benefit not only Panama, but also other countries engaging in the modernization of their digital architecture on public service delivery for the SDGs.