Denmark among the best countries to provide digital public services according to the OECD

Denmark is once again ranked at the very top of another survey on international efforts to digit-ize and improve the public sector. This time it is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who have published the results of their new Digital Government Index (DGI) which ranks Denmark 4 out of 33 in public digitisation.

OECD has just released their new Digital Government Index. The DGI report is the result of a two-year effort by the OECD to survey and benchmark the OECD members’ efforts to digitize their public sector. The goal is that member countries should increase the efficiency of their public service delivery and improve the way governments organise and manage their core functions, by utilizing and leveraging digital data and technology.

In this first edition of the DGI, Denmark is ranked 4th out of the 33 countries in the index. The top 5 is comprised of Korea, Colombia, UK, Denmark and Japan. The OECD praises all five countries for their consistent and comprehensive efforts to implement coherent digital government reforms.

The assessment in the DGI is based on six dimensions characterising a fully digital government, and while Denmark is ranked as having an overall good performance on all dimensions, especially the dimensions of user-driven digitisation and a data-driven public sector are stressed as outstanding. Denmark is ranked as number 1 in the index’ dimension for user-driven digital services, which address the needs of citizens. This does not surprise Signe Caspersen, Deputy Director in the Danish Agency for Digitisation:

In the Danish Agency for Digitisation we are very focused on how we can address the needs of our citizens and businesses, and how they can be included when we define the user needs and develop our digital solutions and services accordingly. For example, when we launch the new generation of our digital mail system - Digital Post – it is the user needs for both companies and citizens that are central to us. We are therefore happy to note that the OECD now confirms that we are doing very well in terms of user-inclusion and accessibility.

Signe Caspersen - Deputy Director, Danish Agency for Digitisation

The OECD Index also shows, that there is room for improvement in Denmark’s public digitisation efforts. Denmark is ranked 12th when it comes to the Government as Platform dimension, which represents the ability of government to use clear strategies, standardised models, and methods to engage the stakeholders in service delivery. According to Signe Caspersen, this is something that the Danish Agency for Digitisation is actively striving to improve:

In the Danish Agency for Digitisation we are actively working to improve the user experience across different public institutions, an example of this is our work with user-journeys. Here we are developing digital user-journeys for 11 different life-events. These user-journeys allow us to better understand the needs and challenges of our citizens, as well as how we can better address them digitally together with various public institutions. We are therefore also taking this OECD Index as a welcome reminder, that there is always room for improvement.

Signe Caspersen - Deputy Director, Danish Agency for Digitisation

Read more about the Digital Government Index at OECD's website

Participating at the E-Leaders 2020 Meeting:

The DGI report will be presented at the OECD E-Leaders 2020 meeting, which is held virtually on the 15th and 16th of October with attendance from the OECD member countries’ government officials with responsibility for digitisation. The Danish Agency for Digitisation will be represented by Deputy Director General Signe Caspersen.

The theme for this year’s E-Leaders meeting is governance of digital government and digital maturity during and after the corona pandemic. At the meeting, the Danish Agency for Digitisation will have the opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned from the past months, with other OECD countries’ officials.

Denmark has a very cohesive and well-functioning digital infrastructure, which made it possible to maintain and continue vital parts of the Danish public sector digitally throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Through participating in the E-Leaders meeting 2020, the Danish Agency for Digitisation hopes to inspire other member countries with our approach to digitisation, but also to learn from other countries’ experiences with digital governance in a time of crisis.