Roundtable on�“Public Sector Innovation”

TOKEN Project Contribution�19 June 2020�

Stefano De Panfilis, Judith Clifton, Andrés Sanchez

The TOKEN project �

• TOKEN ultimate goal is to develop an experimental ecosystem to enable the adoption of Distributed Ledger Technologies and to prove its value, via highly replicable Use Cases (public funding distribution; management of public accounts; urban logistics; and valorisation of data), as driver for the transformation of public services

DLT: it is a consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data geographically spread across multiple sites, countries, or institutions. There is no central administrator or centralized data storage. A peer-to-peer network is required as well as consensus algorithms to ensure replication across nodes is undertaken. One form of distributed ledger design is the blockchain system, which can be either public or private.

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• https://token-project.eu/the-project/

Project Status�

• Project start: 1st Jan 2020 → Project in its infancy … already remarkable results:
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• Systematic review on potential impact of blockchain in the Public Sector
• Bootcamp to gather requirements with adopters

Lessons learnt (1/3)

• How can your project help citizens, businesses and/or public administrations face the challenges of digital transformation of the public sector?
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• Raising awareness linked to TOKEN initiatives and providing very basic examples of which are the possibilities that DLT will bring to i) Citizens; ii) Businesses and iii) Public Administrations.
• Example 1: Citizen X wants to make data available in the data marketplace and trace its use by third parties
• Example 2: Company-P and Company-Q reach an agreement for data sharing aiming at improving services/processes which are correlated (for example, logistic and production chain). Data quality plays a key role in this framework. For such purpose SLA has to be fulfilled. Smart contracts will support the fulfilment of such SLA
• Example 3: Public Administration-Z wants to provide transparency for a process which implies accessing information that usually is “manually” provided by an official. Aiming at tracing the process, DLT brings the perfect solution, recording all the events and participants along the process.
• Organizing workshops and co-creative events aiming at identifying legacy processes carried out in the public sector that can be improved. Hence, checking if DLT can bring an improvement to such processes.

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• To start from the very beginning with basic deployments which enable to make understandable (to the relevant stakeholders) how DLT is transforming a specific domain (businesses or public administration).

Lessons learnt (2/3)

• In the experience of your project, which are the main challenges and opportunities that public administrations and citizens are facing regarding the use of new technologies?
• Project Aim: We conducted a systematic review of the literature to ascertain all we know theoretically and empirically about the challenges and opportunities of blockchain for public administrations and citizens (752 records, 81 records finally included following screening)
• Findings: Top Three Challenges & Opportunities of Blockchain for Public Administration and Citizens

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Source: Cagigas, D., Clifton, J. Díaz-Fuentes, D. & Fernández-Gutiérrez, M. (2020) TOKEN Evaluation framework on the potential implications of blockchain

in the public sector. A systematic review (D2.1).

Lessons learnt (3/3)

Would you have upcoming deliverables, events or policy briefs that could support upcoming EU initiatives in the area of digital public services?

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1. Deliverables: User Requirement Report (June), Testing environment (June), Deployment of infrastructure v1 (Dec) → start of PUCs
2. Events: SCCO 2020, SCEWC 2020, FIWARE Summit (May 2021, Vienna)
3. Policy briefs: National events: 8th July (Luxemburg)

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• We started a discussion on how to make TOKEN effective in COVID-19 fight

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General policy recommendations from your projects for future EU digital government policy (1/2)

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What are the three key enablers/strategies allowing governments at all levels to provide digital public services?

1. Requirement: multiple stakeholders involved → “Get out of the building”, i.e. understand the needs & context of the stakeholders
2. Requirement: Complexity of technology → Technology ideation, i.e. understand the possibilities of the underlying technology
3. Requirement: Technology Confidence → Technology (blockchain) is not a silver bullet, i.e. it will not solve all flaws in Public Services. Good management of implementation and continued use is key

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General policy recommendations from your projects for future EU digital government policy (2/2)

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• What are the three measures you would include in a future European policy in the field of digital government to help to achieve innovative, human-centric digital public administrations and public services?
• 1. Ensure social science & humanities expertise is well represented alongside technology experts and government agents when making digital policy
• 2. Conduct a thorough ex-ante analysis* of technological, socio-economic, legal, organizational needs prior to introducing new technology. This ensures the broader, human context is well understood and brings everyone involved on board and onto the same page
• 3. Conduct a thorough impact assessment of the socio-economic, legal, organizational and technological consequences of technology, including feedback loops to continually refine and improve implementation such as using experimental vignette interviews with government officials.

*For example, Clifton, J. and Díaz-Fuentes (2020) TOKEN Ex-Ante Scenario: Blockchain in the Public Sector (Delivery 2.2)

Policy recommendations on public sector innovation (1/3)

• How can European policy help ensure that governments reap the opportunities of new technologies?
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• The EU should make available a DLT infrastructure(s) and guidelines to MS.
• extend good practices and steps within the DLT [blockchain] space using a top-down approach.
• First with the signature of the European Blockchain Partnership, the creation of the EU Blockchain Observatory and infrastructures (EBSI, ESSIFf), PPP partnerships such as INATBA.
• Continue to promote interdisciplinary, high quality work to identify and capture key opportunities of new technologies via R&D instruments beyond Horizon 2020

Policy recommendations on public sector innovation (2/3)

• How can European policy help governments at all levels use new technologies to design/deliver digital public services?
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• Project: TOKEN has a dedicated WP for Impact Assessment and Policy Learning
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• Recommendations:
• Educate: to overcome the cultural clash of public administrations with technology
• Involve: through projects, trials, tests, to make public servants more involved in the process
• Adopt: facilitate technological adoption by making policy agile and adaptable, well-suited to government at all levels across different regions
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Policy recommendations on public sector innovation (3/3)

• How can European policy help ensuring that governments become agile and innovative organisations that are always looking to improve their digital public services by adapting to changing circumstances and new technologies?
• Project Aim: Token has a WP on Use Case readiness
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• Recommendation:
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• Train & educate governments
• On how to structure & organise an innovation process
• Focus on three lenses: desirability, feasibility & viability
• Think in terms of assumptions & validations
• Implement iterative short learning cycles
• Implement an operational cadence, where value is created,

delivered & tested

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