New Joint Government Digital Strategy aims to overcome societal challenges

Denmark's central, regional and local governments have agreed upon a new Joint Government Digital Strategy for the period 2022-2025. The strategy includes initiatives, which will remedy worker shortage, support climate change mitigation and digital inclusion.

Denmark has one of the most digital public sectors in the world. This is very much due to a strong cooperation across the public sector in the last two decades. Central, regional and local governments have now agreed upon the sixth Joint Government Digital Strategy.

Clear-cut objectives made for the future’s digitisation

The latest strategy focus on five long-term objectives, which will act as guiding principles for the digital development of the public sector.

The objectives emphasize how digitisation is a tool to solve societal challenges – not a goal in itself, and that everyone must be able to be a part of the digital society.

At the same time, the strategy emphasizes coherency, transparency and trust, and the objectives underline, how the digital development must be responsible, and how Denmark must proceed to develop legal foundations that ensure shared technological standards across the public sector.

Technology for societal challenges

Denmark face a number of great challenges in the coming years. Challenges such as worker shortage and the extensive climate crisis. With the Joint Government Digital Strategy, the central, regional and local governments will accelerate the use of new technology and data as means to solving some of these challenges.

Amongst other things, a 10-year plan supports the use of new technologies, e.g. robots or artificial intelligence that can perform administrative tasks and free hands for welfare close to home. Furthermore, a number of initiatives will contribute to the climate change mitigation by e.g. ensuring that more waste is reused and that the public sector purchases more climate friendly data storage and data processing.

New solutions will make it easier to help others

Thus, digitisation is an important tool to solving some of the challenges, Den-mark face as a society. However, digitisation is not equally easy for everyone, and a part of the Danish population is in need of assistance from e.g. relatives in order to use different digital self-service solutions.

As a part of the Joint Government Digital Strategy, the central, regional and lo-cal governments agree to develop two new digital solutions. New infrastructure will ensure that users, in one singular place, can give and take back permissions for authorities to use their personal data. Furthermore, new infrastructure will make it easier for e.g. relatives to manage digital contact with the public sector on behalf of citizens who find digitisation difficult. Thus, everybody can be a part of Denmark's digital welfare society.

The new Joint Government Digital Strategy runs from 2022 to 2025, and features five objectives.

Read more about the Joint Government Digital Strategy 2022 to 2025

Read more about the Danish Digital Journey

Objectives in the Joint Government Digital Strategy 2022-2025

Objective 1: Digitisation is a means, not a goal in itself

Data and new technology should be used actively in solving society’s great challenges, by e.g. remedying worker shortage, supporting climate change mitigation, improving the service in the public sector and making room for innovation.

Objective 2: Everyone is included

Everyone must be able to take part in the digital society, and there has to be help and alternatives for the citizens, who are not able to use digital solutions.

Objective 3: Focus on coherency, transparency and trust

Citizens and businesses should experience a coherent and trustworthy pub-lic sector, where one has access to all one’s data.

Objective 4: A responsible digital development

Responsible use of data and new technology happens within the scope of law and ethics. By doing so, the development of digital solutions can stay innovative as well as uphold citizens’ trust and legal rights.

Objective 5: Shared digital foundations

The development of future digital solutions focus on reuse of data, shared architecture and standards, that enable integration across digital solutions.