Date: Friday August 30, 2024

Time: 10:00 a.m. (Washington DC – EST) 1 hour and 30 minutes long.

Language: English

Platform: Zoom

Registration: LINK

This webinar seeks to analyze the situation and outlook of digital transformation in the Caribbean region at the light of current practices to contribute to the digital transformation of Caribbean member states.

The webinar will be inaugurated by the Ambassador of Grenada to the OAS as Chair of the OAS Permanent Council and will host high-level authorities on the subject from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Estonia, the UK, and the Republic of Korea.

About the session

Digital transformation has proved to be a necessity and a requirement after the COVID-19 Pandemic for better public service delivery in response to the pandemic, governments faced the need to accelerate the adoption of digital government strategies and new technologies to provide adequate and timely services to citizens.

In the Americas, countries face great challenges of legitimacy, trust, and democratic stability, which depends largely on the perception of effectiveness of the State in matter of compliance with objectives and quality of its services. This effectiveness finds in digital government a historic opportunity to improve, for example, integration and quality of digital services for people and companies in a transversal and sustainable way.

Additionally, accountability and transparency are key elements to strengthen democratic governance and to enhance citizen trust in public institutions. the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) establishes in Article 4 that “Transparency in government activities, probity, responsible public administration on the part of governments, respect for social rights, and freedom of expression and of the press are essential components of the exercise of democracy”.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the overall Caribbean region (tourism and non-tourism dependent) is the region of the Western Hemisphere with the best economic growth outlook for 2024 and 2025 with 9.7% and 6.9% respectively. This economic growth is projected to be caused by the increase of tourism and commodities export. With that projection, public institutions would be facing an increase on government services to citizens and visitors such as licenses, government procurement, taxes, registration of business and properties, and others alike.

Together with this amount of growth comes the demand for government institutions to deliver services efficiently and transparently; in particular, taking advantage of the adoption of existent and new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to cope with the demand. The lack of adequate institutional response in service delivery is detrimental to citizen satisfaction in democracy. Efficient and transparent government service delivery is paramount on high economic growth scenarios to increase citizens trust in public institutions, strengthening rule of law, and democracy.

Objective

This webinar seeks to analyze the situation and outlook of digital transformation in the Caribbean region at the light of current practices and challenges with the objective of providing tools and good practices that can contribute to the digital transformation of Caribbean member states.

Audience

Government officials, Directors and other government executives, technical digital and open government teams, academia, and general public.

Agenda (Washington D.C. time)

10:00 a.m. Opening Remarks 

Ambassador Tarlie Francis, Chair of the OAS Permanent Council, Permanent Representative of Grenada to the OAS

James Lambert, Secretary for Hemispheric Affairs, OAS

10:10 a.m. Introduction

María Fernanda Trigo, Director, Department for Effective Public Management, OAS

10:15 a.m. Discussants

Trinidad and Tobago: H.E. Senator and Minister Hassel Bacchus; Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Jamaica: H.E. Senator and Minister Dana Morris Dixon; Office of the Prime Minister, skills and digital transformation.

Guest speakers: Uk government: Christine Bellamy, CEO, UK Government Digital Services.

Moderator: Mike Mora, Specialist, DEPM, OAS

11:10 a.m. Questions and Answers

11:30 a.m. Closing remarks