How can standardization support governments around the world in taking ownership of their digital future? With the aim of answering this critical question, Dr. Thomas Zielke participated in the Partner2Connect (P2C) Digital Development Roundtable at the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) in Rwanda.

There, he had the chance to present the German pledge and contribution to the P2C Digital Coalition, the GovStack initative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Together with ITU, this initiative was started to collect and promote global best practices for critical technological elements of a government’s digital architecture. Dr. Zielke shared the GovStack pledge together with Björn Richter, Head of Global Programme Digital Transformation at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany.

He strongly believes that a digital government, building on standardized and reusable services, can add considerable value to the life of citizens. The German development cooperation pledges to support the ecosystem with the specification of 12 building blocks that reach up to 2 million citizens in partner countries. They also want to double their support for the initiative itself and pledge an additional German GovStack contribution of 12 million euros for 2022 and beyond.

The Digital Development Roundtable on 9 June brought the world together in Kigali. It was a great opportunity to advance digital transformation for all. Dr. Zielke gained interesting insights into both the needs and resources available to bridge the digital divide and to forge new partnerships for universal meaningful connectivity. He enjoyed listening to the pledges of Tula Ducasse Beltran, Steve Song, Philomena Gnanapragasam, Sidi Mohamed Raliou and many more.

Building bridges – with ITU and beyond!