US GaaP readiness

The United States is a leader in Government as a Platform readiness due to an entrepreneurial society, innovation-oriented businesses and the platform potential of public service. Readiness Index results showed:

• The United States ranked near the middle around having strong foundation, with room for improvement in building digital trust in society and addressing the quality of regulation.
• The United States scores well on entrepreneurship and business innovation dimensions. It can improve on the overall capacity for change and the level of technology absorption in public service.
• In terms of enabling economic growth, the United States scores well, particularly on the ambition of public service to become a platform player, and on inter-sector collaboration.
• The United States public sector has been successful in making services more citizen-centric.

Improving across pillars. To truly move from service provider to ecosystem moderator, public service agencies must transform across key pillars of readiness:

Build the foundation. A strong Government as a Platform foundation relies on workforce skills, information and communication technology infrastructure and regulation, digital savvy and trust in society. United States government agencies can improve readiness by:

• Implementing programs that support citizens in navigating the digital world with security and confidence
• Using existing partnerships to provide guidance on cyber security and data privacy
• Focusing information and communication technology regulation on coping with the accelerating pace of technology advancement

Foster a mindset of change and innovation. Government as a Platform requires an entrepreneurial, innovation-oriented culture that displays a capacity for change. To do so, the United States can:

• Involve the public service ecosystem in ideation through hackathons and tech-scans
• Devote more resources to innovation units and scaling emerging technologies throughout public service organizations
• Expand creative working methods (e.g., design thinking) within public service organizations

Enable economic growth. Government as a Platform plays a key role in enabling businesses to seize the opportunities of the rising platform economy. Government has the potential to play a “trusted broker” role:

• Bring start-ups and digital communities into partnerships, and promote this collaboration to citizens
• Partner with the start-up community to make open data more usable for the private sector

Innovate for Public Service Delivery. It is critical to innovate and improve public service delivery through ecosystem collaboration with citizens, NGOs and businesses. Agencies can increase GovTech collaboration when they:

• Support public service organizations in identifying new operating models, building on data and ecosystem participation
• Encourage openness toward emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, for service delivery and scale proven examples of transformation
• Design open digital platforms for public service, enabling public and private organizations to jointly strive for more innovative solutions to policy issues

How the United States measures up

• Where does the United States stand in its readiness for Government as a Platform? Singapore is the most Government as a Platform-ready country, with the United States ranking third. Countries that scored high showed strong attention and prioritization of the characteristics within each of the four pillars. See the full rankings in the graphic below.

GaaP readiness rankings