We invited Carlos Santiso, a leading figure among our Top 5 GovTech Groundbreakers, to share his insights into the GovTech ecosystem and how he's been spearheading it globally from various international organizations
📌 About Carlos Santiso
Carlos currently serves as the Head of the Division for Digital, Innovation, and Government at the OECD and is a member of the Advisory Group on Public Governance at the United Nations. Previously, he held prominent roles, including membership on the Advisory Council on Anti-Corruption at the World Economic Forum, the position of Director of Digital Innovation in Government at the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and Division Chief of Innovation in Citizen Services at the IDB, among others. Carlos boasts an impressive academic background with multiple degrees related to the GovTech ecosystem from prestigious institutions, including Harvard Kennedy School and Columbia University.
In recognition of his remarkable contributions, Carlos earned recognition as one of the "World's 50 Most Influential People Navigating Disruption in 2021" and was honored as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Digital Government" by Apolitical.
📌 Do you think startups and governments are engaging in more dialogue, or is the gap between them still evident?
"A common thread, not a common concern, that has always propelled me forward in my career has to do with overall state reform, how public administration modernizes, and how it becomes much closer to the concerns of citizens to meet their expectations and dreams. I believe these GovTech startups and administrations form a very interesting space in which, in no less than 20 years, we are talking about the reform and modernization of the state. This is not something that was usually considered possible; that startups would delve into this space to invigorate and accelerate innovation in public administrations. I think if there is a conversation, it's a slow one. It's not an easy conversation, but I believe it's a conversation that progresses in terms of resetting new patterns or principles guiding public action."
📌 Can you share a specific case you've seen that has truly disrupted the GovTech ecosystem?
"I think this acceleration is a global movement—meaning all countries worldwide, not just the more advanced ones. It's something seen in many countries in different ways, with different approaches, but it's global. Not only in terms of technological innovations but also a mindset shift towards more experimentation and innovation in the public sector. At the same time, it's interesting because it's also local: a global movement but also at the local level. A lot is happening at the city or municipality level in particular. This can be observed in different cities worldwide, from cities like Barcelona in Spain, which pioneered a digital citizen participation platform many years ago, to cities like Córdoba in Argentina, which has made progress in these matters. When you look at it this way, it's both global and local."
"In Paris, from the OECD, we've often thought that in Latin America, we're a bit behind, but I don't think that's the case. Countries like Brazil have just launched a very interesting, innovative GovTech participatory platform. It's not just a matter of Latin America always lagging behind what's happening worldwide. Sometimes it's ahead."
"Another crucial aspect we're working on in the GovTech space involves CivicTech, or civic technology for citizen participation and government transparency. Things are changing similarly to 15 years ago when it was more about transparency and the use of civic technologies by the city to make the government more transparent. In many OECD countries, many of these tools are being reimagined to reinvent democracy and the connection between citizens and states because there's genuinely a crisis in many of our democracies in terms of the trust citizens have in governments and their ability to have an impact and voice their opinions. Many of these solutions can be part of this reinvention or reset this relationship between the state and citizens. Barcelona's case has always been fascinating as a city where many of these CivicTech innovations, powered by technology, took place."
📌 Ibrahim Kohran, GovTech Lead at PwC Deutschland, asked: How can international organizations encourage collaboration and communication among GovTech groups across borders?
"It's a global market in the sense that many of our GovTech entities are businesses or startups that often have local governments as clients, and their solutions can be replicated in many other places, with other local governments and in different locations. The question is how international institutions can also facilitate this dialogue. I believe there's much that can be done in terms of regional data markets, more open public procurement systems, and an exchange of experiences. In Argentina, there's a startup called MuniDigital that has become a multinational. We're already talking about Latin American startups that have gone global, selling their solutions in Estonia and Spain. Clearly, it's a global market, and many of these solutions can be replicated in other areas."
"A theme we're trying to push at the OECD, as an international organization, is also a deeper exchange of public policy tools that governments can deploy to facilitate and promote these ecosystems: having GovTech strategies, having procurement frameworks for innovation, having innovation funds for their companies, even those that export. This effort led to a need to create international standards that could also guide governments in this framework. It's a very dynamic process. International organizations can also be more active as impact investors in these companies, which isn't always easy, but there are many ways in which their engagements can be facilitated."
📌 What would be the futuristic trends regarding what governments can do with GovTech?
"GovTech can be approached in different ways. One way is to have your own GovTech within your administration. Not necessarily going to the market of digital startups in the private sector, but also building your own startup. This means creating spaces for fairly disruptive innovation and experimentation in the public administrations. It's a model in which there are different approaches, and through which administrations can embrace GovTech as a mindset or as an approach to innovation, not just as a business."
"We see this in the deployment of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sector, which is a significant challenge overall but also for public administrations. Many times, many of these AI solutions, for the judicial sector or the Tax Administration sector, are developed with GovTech startups or through GovTech creation mechanisms within the administrations. For administrations that truly want to innovate with new technologies, this public-private partnership with GovTech can often be a way to integrate these innovations more effectively. We see that this is working well. In Germany, for example, there's the GovTech Campus Deutschland, which is also a way through which the federal government's public administrations are working on incubation mechanisms. That's another model of public-private collaboration. But there are models, for instance, in the German army, of creating GovTech within the same ministry. It's interesting because, beyond GovTech as a business, GovTech is a way of driving technological innovation."
📌 In about ten years, where do you think we'll be? What do you anticipate as trends in public policy?
"We can't even dare to predict what will happen in 2 years anymore. Last year, who was talking about chatGPT? And that's almost like ancient history now. The times of technological change are pretty mind-blowing. I have the impression that in the last 5 years, we've been experiencing this brutal acceleration of new technologies. I believe the most significant challenge we face is political and human: what kind of disruption do we want or can we tolerate as societies? That's a broader debate related to AI regulation and such."
"A couple of weeks ago, the Spanish government, always at the forefront of digital rights and a humanistic approach to digital transformation with Carmen Artigas as Secretary of State, has the presidency of the European Union these months, and in León, they adopted one of the first declarations of the European Union on the need to think about the governance of new technologies. I'm thinking about what we're going through with AI; can you imagine, in 5 years, with neurotechnology where we won't be talking about misinformation but about chips influencing your thoughts? It's pretty intense, but I think the challenge is more political and social than technical."
"In our GovTech realm, I believe the biggest bet is the cultural change in governments that GovTech innovation is driving. It's the best chance we have to change the culture of them and return to the essence of serving the public—public service for the public, not the public for the service. Governments should be in service to the citizens, not the other way around. The ability to center citizens is now possible. I think with this GovTech acceleration, we can make that leap to put the citizen at the heart of public services. For instance, envisioning governments around life events so you don't have to run around fulfilling everything. Those events that require interaction with multiple administrations. The GovTech transformation will enable us to make that leap."