Implementing Sustainable Development Goals with Digital Government – Aspiration-capacity gap

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a commitment by all United Nations Member States to pursue development efforts, including ending poverty and hunger, promoting well-being and education, reducing inequalities, fostering peace, and protecting the planet. Member States and their governments are supposed to take ownership of the SDGs, strengthen the implementation means, and improve public governance as both the means and the end to development. Their capacity to undertake these tasks is critical for implementing SDGs. This editorial develops three lines of arguments: 1) that the Member States should strengthen the SDG implementation by building Digital Government capacity; 2) that according to the Digitization, Transformation, Engagement and Contextualization stages of the Digital Government Evolution model, 87% of the 169 SDG targets require Digital Government capacity at the highest Contextualization stage; and 3) that less than 31% of the Member States reached this stage and 55% did not advance beyond the lowest Digitization stage. The editorial concludes that Digital Government should play a key role in the implementation of the SDGs but, at present, the gap between aspiration (SDGs) and capacity (Digital Government) is affecting more than 69% of the Member States. Understanding and eventually addressing this gap requires further research efforts and adaptation of research results to different national circumstances and policy contexts.