RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil has been recognized by the World Bank as the world’s 7th most mature country in Digital Governance. The result was assessed in the GovTech Maturity Index 2020, a ranking that evaluates the current state of digital transformation of public services in 198 economies worldwide.
There is no other country ahead in the Americas, even including the United States and Canada. Among the top 10, Brazil is the only country with over 100 million inhabitants.
The achievement is largely due to the progress of the gov.br platform, which currently has over 115 million users, or more than half of the Brazilian population – in January 2019, the figure stood at 1.8 million. Gov.br allows single access to thousands of digital services and simplifies information gathering and the citizen’s relationship with the government.
“This result is due to our focus on gov.br, everyone’s commitment to fighting bureaucracy, modernizing public administration, and the State’s digital transformation,” stresses Secretary of Debureaucratization, Management and Digital Governance of the Ministry of Economy Caio Mario Paes de Andrade. “By adopting this strategy, the whole country has taken a huge leap forward, tackling even the Covid-19 pandemic through digital public services.”
The World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index evaluated 198 global economies under 4 aspects: supporting core government systems; improving service provision; integrating citizen engagement; and encouraging the digital skills of people in the public sector, the appropriate legal and regulatory framework, training and innovation.
Brazil has demonstrated progress in these four areas – only 43 nations scored ‘very high’ by the World Bank. Brazil outperformed the average of the so-called ‘GovTech leaders’ in all items assessed.
Brazil provided massive impact digital solutions to the population, such as: Emergency Aid, Meu INSS, Unemployment and Domestic Employee Unemployment Insurance, Digital Work and Transit Cards, and PIX. Aspects such as the incentive to innovation in public services, the focus on the Digital Governance Strategy, and the role of gov.br as a citizen-centered platform also contributed to this recognition, according to the World Bank.
The only countries ahead of Brazil were: South Korea, Estonia, France, Denmark, Austria and the United Kingdom. “We provide services to Brazilians 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Digital Governance Strategy aims to simplify the country’s relationship with citizens, with transparency, efficiency and trust in government initiatives,” reinforces Secretary of Digital Governance Luis Felipe Monteiro.