#en2wiki

Government

(Source: The SDG Partnership Guidebook (page 26))

How to connect

Connecting to the right people in government can be tricky. As with all stakeholders, the best approach is usually through an existing contact. Alternatively, a formal approach / letter from the highest person in your organisation to someone at the appropriate level, should hopefully cascade down to someone willing to meet who may then take it further up.

Role and interests

• Ensure democratic representation of the people
• Deliver national defence
• Maintain law and order
• Provide a stable, regulated environment for trade
• Collect taxes
• Provide public services
• Provide public infrastructure

Resources brought to the table

• Democratic legitimacy
• Convening ability
• Mandate for long term development planning
• Public budget / spending
• Public services delivery infrastructure
• National ‘hard’ infrastructure (roads, rail, water, power etc.)
• Policy, taxation and regulatory framework
• Education / skills and capacity building (e.g. agricultural extension services)
• Provision of land
• Ability to operate at scale and integrate approaches to deliver sustainably

Organisation

• At the top, an elected national government, led by a prime minister or president, and with a cabinet made up of ministers heading departments (ministries) across every area of government responsibility.
• Depending on the size of the country, a similar structure, with separately elected fficials, may be repeated at geographic levels (e.g. State and County) or within major cities.
• Depending on the level of decentralization there will be different levels of autonomy and responsibility for collecting and spending budget at each geographic level.
• Each department is staffed by civil servants, with the top layer or layers usually being political appointees.

Considerations

• In most countries, if you don’t engage governments and secure their buy-in it will be difficult to create a scaleable partnership. Their “sanction” or implicit endorsement is required since ultimately they are responsible for all their citizens. When a small level partnership or pilot works well and government embraces it, the partnership can be massively scaled in short amount of time - and therefore generate huge impact.
• Governments are generally risk averse and necessarily have bureaucracy and regulation in place which might stifle (or even prevent) innovation or slow down decision-making and implementation. The role of high-level champions can make a major difference in helping to drive non-traditional approaches (for example, by engaging directly with Mayors at city level). Governments generally have a macro outlook on the country, and will have trouble dealing with “niche” social issues.
• The public sector ability to develop and commit to partnerships is strongly affected by both political and public spending cycles. It is therefore important to be aware of, and sensitive to, such cycles and, wherever possible, use them to best effect.
• Much of the public sector around the world has limited resources, often with over-committed capacity, making it challenging for the government both to engage and, in some cases, to fully deliver the resources it might commit to a project.
• Also, depending on the country, political circumstances and levels of concentration of power may all cause significant challenges to partnership development.

Government and Information Integrity

This Information Ecosystem (xy) stakeholder is active in #isic84 - Public administration and defence; compulsory social security¹.

States shoulder an indispensable responsibility for fortifying the Global Principles for Information Integrity. This begins with State obligations to respect, protect and promote human rights, in particular the right to freedom of expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information.

States play a central role in shaping information spaces owing to their legal and regulatory authority, control over public resources and ability to build domestic and international coalitions, among other factors. As part of their human rights obligations, States must protect against human rights abuses within their territory and/or jurisdiction by businesses, taking appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress such abuse through effective policies, legislation, regulations and adjudication.

States have different technical and financial capacities when engaging with the information ecosystem. Gaps in infrastructure and in access to technology and financial resources have contributed to a digital divide. At the same time, many large technology companies, while achieving near global market penetration and dominance, are based in a small number of countries in the global North.

To ensure that all States can contribute to and benefit from the information ecosystem, urgent and sustained initiatives are needed to increase the ability of States to expand digital connectivity, proactively head off the potential emergence of an “AI divide” and strengthen their capacities to adequately address risks in information spaces, while respecting human rights. Ultimately, these efforts will strengthen information integrity, promote human rights and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

For this stakeholder, the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity - Next Steps gives these recommendations:

• #gpii84a - Respect, protect and promote human rights(j)
• #gpii84b - Safeguard integrity(xy,j)
• #gpii84c - Protect populations(j)
• #gpii84d - Provide access to information(j,xy)
• #gpii84e - Ensure media freedom(j,xy)
• #gpii84f - Protect researchers and civil society(j)
• #gpii84g - Provide transparency(j)
• #gpii84h - Strengthen global solidarity, capacity-building and development assistance(j,xy)
• #gpii84i - Promote political participation(j,xy)
• #gpii84j - Prioritize inclusive, public-interest research(xy)
• #gpii84k - Foster literacy(j,xy)
• #gpii84l - Empower children, parents, guardians and educators(j,xy)

Source : United Nations Global Principles For Information Integrity