During a session on public sector innovation at Google Cloud Next ’24, leaders from the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations Office for Project Services shared strategies for boosting productivity by fostering operational consistency and shared understanding. They also stressed the importance of transparency and continuous feedback and focused on the tangible benefits of eased workloads and enhanced efficiencies.

Enhancing collaboration

Public sector agencies operating worldwide are adopting cloud-based collaboration tools to create a more integrated work environment where documents and projects are easily accessible anytime and on any device. This shift not only boosts productivity but also enhances the flexibility of working environments by giving employees more universal access to agency resources and reports from offices around the world. It also helps overcome language barriers by providing translation services. And it helps ensure communications with international partners meet agency standards across different time zones and geographies. 

Justin Waugh, head of platforms, ITG enterprise platforms team at UNOPS, highlighted the transformative impact of Google Workspace in managing extensive infrastructure projects involving frequent account and project turnover. By leveraging Workspace tools like Google Docs and Sheets, UNOPS has streamlined project management and data handling and significantly reduced operational friction while enhancing user experience.

“The key thing to remember is to reduce friction for people using the systems that we’ve got, and we’ve been heavily into the book to do that,” said Waugh.

Waugh’s comments underscored the importance of integrating various Google products within organizational applications. Doing so facilitates more seamless project communication, budgeting and reporting. This strategic integration has allowed UNOPS to maintain standardized procedures across projects, fostering consistency and understanding throughout the organization.

Leveraging AI enterprise search solutions for efficient and confident information access

One of the standout applications of AI within the public sector is improving information access through enterprise search solutions. AI-powered search tools within Google Workspace can easily access vast amounts of data to find relevant documents, emails, and files. This capability is particularly transformative for government agencies, where quickly retrieving and correlating information can influence policy-making and public service delivery.

Raman Pugalumperumal, senior IT officer and lead for AI and ML platforms at the World Bank, discussed how Vertex AI and Google Cloud Search have revolutionized their data management practices. The World Bank, which manages extensive financial and economic analysis datasets, has benefited from the enhanced speed and accuracy these tools provide.

“We can measure things with quantitative information… we’re able to do [certain things] faster, or maybe things which we weren’t able to do — they’re able to do it because of the volume process,” said Pugalumperumal.

Pugalumperumal explained how AI is being used to quicken information retrieval, creating a more responsive and productive environment. This shift towards leveraging AI in its operations has unlocked new avenues for global access and sharing the World Bank’s wealth of knowledge, positioning AI as a pivotal asset in its mission to distribute developmental knowledge.

At UNFPA, IT Director Nayanesh Bhandutia said they’re working on developing an AI-powered search experience product. “We aim to break the data silos. We don’t want our users to worry about the data source when they’re looking for something,” said Bhadutia.

“This will be very time-saving because now the global population is not going through the pain of finding information.”

Maintaining the flow of multilingual work with AI-assisted translation 

Another significant advantage of integrating AI with Google Workspace in the public sector is overcoming language barriers. AI-driven language translation tools embedded within Google Workspace allow government employees from different linguistic backgrounds to collaborate effectively.

At UNFPA, IT Director Nayanesh Bhandutia highlighted the transformative role of the Gemini AI interface within Google Workspace. Introduced initially to simplify operations, Gemini has evolved to solve more complex challenges, particularly in multilingual settings. The AI-driven tool has been instrumental in helping staff draft clear and concise communications in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic.

“The introduction of Gemini has solved the [fluency] problem. Our users are getting more confident, and they’re spending less time making revisions, but we want to take it to the next level. We noticed many potentials,” said Bhandutia.

The potential for AI to extend beyond basic translations to fully integrated document management systems is vast. Bhandutia shared ambitious plans to leverage Gemini AI to automate the generation of critical documents, such as requests for proposals and job descriptions, which would reduce administrative overhead and enhance responsiveness.

For example, teams can use AI to translate documents and emails directly within the Google Workspace environment when collaborating on international aid programs or global policy initiatives. This seamless integration of translation services helps maintain the flow of work without the interruptions typically caused by language differences, fostering stronger connections and more cohesive teamwork.

“It is a fantastic stepping stone in the technology sector — [the capability] to deliver what people need…this is an excellent step towards accessibility,” said Waugh.

The future of AI and public sector innovation

The ongoing advancements in AI are expected to introduce more sophisticated tools for predictive analytics, supporting complex decision-making and personalized public services. These developments will not only drive greater efficiency within agencies but also enhance the quality of services provided to the public.

By leveraging these tools, government agencies are enhancing their operational capabilities and setting new standards for accessibility, efficiency, and collaboration in public service.

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In a letter issued last week, John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction said “substantial inaccuracies” in geospatial coordinates are hindering oversight of the System Enhancement for Health Action in Transition (SEHAT) program — a World Bank-administered health program to which USAID contributes $238 million.

The data, Sopko says, is vital to make sure the facilities are actually serving the local communities the health services are designed to benefit.

Of the 23 facilities SIGAR examined in Herat province, seven were found to to be more than five kilometers distant from the coordinates provided by USAID. Of those seven, four were further than 10 kilometers from the coordinates.

For 40 other facilities attached to the program that SIGAR was tasked with examining, USAID provided only two to four photos for each facility, none of which had any geospatial data. From the photos, SIGAR could only determine that 19 of the 40 clinics actually existed.

“None of the USAID files included any site visit reports or other supporting documentation,” the report read. “As a result, we could not determine the basic operation of any of these clinics based on the USAID data.”

SIGAR also took issue with the conditions of some of the facilities their inspection teams visited, noting that four of the 23 clinics lack water or power, which is needed to refrigerate some pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Teams also found at least 16 facilities disposing of medical waste in open-air kilns, some of which were publicly accessible.

“This method of unsecured disposal does not adhere to best practices and raises the risk that patients seeking treatment—or children we observed playing outside at several facilities—could be accidentally exposed to contaminated waste,” the report reads.

The office did not visit 39 of the remaining unidentified 40 due to “security conditions” that prevented the group from performing a site inspection.

“The documentation provided by USAID to identify the location and existence of the remaining clinics in Herat was generally quite poor,” the report concluded. “We encourage USAID to require its monitoring teams and partners to use cameras that are capable of producing photos with embedded geospatial data and conduct more robust site inspections that include descriptions of facility condition and operations.”

Sopko also mentions how important accurate data flaws can be, referring to the controversial bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz earlier this month that was believed to be under Taliban control.

The SIGAR letter states that, while it’s unclear exactly what role geospatial data might have played in the Kunduz bombing, it illustrates how important GPS data is to the government.

Sopko called on USAID to confirm and update the coordinates for the 23 clinics his office visite, particularly those facilities that were more than five kilometers away than what was reported, and share that information with the World Bank.

USAID had no immediate response to the letter Wednesday evening.

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Open Data — data that is freely available online for anyone to use and republish for any purpose — is becoming increasingly important in today’s development agenda driven by the Data Revolution, which has been recognized worldwide as the key engine for achieving the post-2015 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

Data is probably one of the most valuable and least-used assets of modern governments. In that context, Open Data is being widely recognized as a resource with high economic and social value and as an effective approach for smarter data management.

The primary purpose of Open Data initiatives worldwide is to help governments, businesses and civil society organizations use the already-available digital data more effectively to drive sustainable development. Many Open Data initiatives involve taking data that is already publicly available and putting it into more usable formats, making it a powerful resource for private sector development, jobs creation, economic growth, and more effective governance and citizen engagement.

World Bank

In recent years, several studies — including those led by the World Bank — have shown a growing number of Open Data applications around the world, from water management social enterprises in India to agro-businesses in Ghana. The Open Data Impact Map, developed as part of the OD4D (Open Data for Development) network, has more than 1,000 examples of such use cases from over 75 countries, and the list is growing.

The World Bank has now published a new policy paper, “Open Data for Sustainable Development,” that highlights the ways Open Data can be used to achieve development goals through a range of applications such as improved medical care, financial access and management, urban planning, agriculture, and many other areas.

The World Bank has identified four broad types of benefits of Open Data, which are illustrated throughout the paper with specific examples, some of which are highlighted here:

Fostering economic growth and job creation: Open Data helps fuel new companies and helps existing companies operate more efficiently and profitably. New lending organizations in several countries use Open Data to make loans to borrowers with no credit history. In addition, Open Data about available jobs and workers’ skill sets, job-matching platforms are helping employers staff up and individuals find employment. And Open Data can improve the foreign investment climate, creating new growth opportunities.

Improving efficiency and effectiveness of public services: Social service agencies are using Open Data to help prospective patients find medical clinics or emergency care; to improve access to high-quality education; and improve agricultural programs and food security.

Increasing government transparency, accountability, and citizen participation: Open Data plays a critical role in improving governance by exposing and preventing corruption. Several national governments are considering open contracting standards, which would bring new transparency to government contracts — a move that could increase trust in those governments among citizens and for foreign investors.

Facilitating better information sharing within government: Municipal governments are using Open Data to coordinate efforts that improve transportation and other aspects of city infrastructure, and also to manage recovery efforts when hurricanes or other natural disasters damage that infrastructure.

These applications of Open Data and others are relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will be adopted by the U.N. General Assembly next month. The SDGs cover a range of issues, including economic, health, education and environmental factors. Open Data can play a critical role in helping to achieve the SDGs and can also support the U.N. Data Revolution initiatives now underway.

As the world is becoming more data-driven, governments are uniquely positioned to provide some of the most valuable types of data to businesses, civil society and the general public. To make their Open Data programs successful, governments will need to do more than simply open the gates and make data public. They need to engage with the current and potential users of their data, provide legal and policy structures for data use, and focus on the quality of important datasets.

But we now have more evidence than ever that these Open Data programs will be worth the effort. With the right focus, approach and implementation, Open Data can have a high economic and social return on investment for countries in all regions and at all stages of development.

Joel Gurin is president and founder of the Center for Open Data Enterprise and author of the book Open Data Now. Laura Manley is an open data consultant with the World Bank’s Transport and ICT Global Practice. Oleg Petrov has been promoting Open Data, e-government and ICT for development at the World Bank since 1996.

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New Delhi, India at sunset. The World Bank, with the help of Govini, helped uncover more than $10 billion in open government contracts inside India ( cc-licensed Jochen Hertweck | https://flic.kr/p/bEPSSu )

Landing a government contract in the United States can be a laborious, bureaucratic and tangled mess with various stages of information gathering, ethics hurdles to clear and lengthy bid processes followed by an even-lengthier protest period. So if the process can be convoluted in the world’s largest economy, imagine how difficult it can be around the world, especially in emerging markets.

As more and more countries are embracing an open data ethos by posting their contracts online, a lot of that data is fragmented or otherwise hard to find for small and medium-sized firms who want to compete in developing economies.

With the help of the World Bank, uncovering these contracts is becoming easier. Partnering with business analytics firm Govini, the World Bank recently released its Open Government Contracts platform, which enables smaller companies to leverage data for a wealth of business opportunities in emerging markets, leveling the playing field in countries where more than half the GDP is public sector money.

Part of the World Bank’s Open Private Sector platform, Open Government Contracts takes Govini’s for-profit system and gives small companies a free way to crawl various public sector databases for contract opportunities. Through the pilot platform, the World Bank was able to identify 12,000 open contracts in India, totaling more than $10 billion in business.

A screenshot of the Govini platform that allows users to research open government contracts in India (Govini)

Benjamin Herzberg, World Bank’s program lead for Open Private Sector, said the platform can ultimately drive more transparency, more governance and more entrepreneurial behavior in developing economies.

“This initiative is not about what development can do for the private sector, it’s about what the private sector can do for development,” Herzberg said. “The idea is that while we work with governments at the World Bank, we also work with civil societies to help build up their voice and make sure that the governments have some form of accountability. We can also work the private sector, not only in terms of an investor or a job creator, but as well as the foot that can drive the movement.”

Beyond injecting money into rising countries, Herzberg looks at the platform as a way of improving the procurement process, reducing corruption and opening both the private and public sector to a degree of transparency never before seen. By focusing on all three of those tenants, the platform gets the World Bank closer to its core mission of eradicating poverty.

“It’s a revolution in terms of governance and revolution in terms of competitiveness for companies,” he said. “There is a lot of money that’s funneled through government contracts for graft and corruption around the world. In a civil society, whether it is media, the private sector itself, business associations or NGOs, people should have access to this [contract] information. The more transparent the information is, the more clean the information will eventually become and the transactions will become.”

Eric Gillespie, CEO and founder of Govini, said bringing transparency to the contract process was a value the company shares with the World Bank.

“You begin to see a more effective, robust and frictionless economy emerge where there is competition,” Gillespie said. “Some of those economies have been inefficient and have abuse involved. With transparency, it’s pretty easy to begin to eliminate that.”

Gillespie said the platform plans to add Nigeria and the Philippines in the future, with Herzberg saying the ultimate goal is to put every open government contract in the world into a free massive international database.

“There’s nobody right now in developing countries gathering these contracts and putting in out there, free, for the people,” Herzberg said. “That’s a source of wealth and people need to be able to access that. Open data and big data is very important, but it has to be integrated for people.”

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The theme of the event, “Putting Data to Work,” is organized into two main tracks: policy and technology.

Attendance is free, but preregistration is required. A live webcast will be available for those unable to attend in person.

The official Twitter hashtag for the event is #IOGDC.

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