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The workshop ‘Governance in the AI Era: A focus on Problem Identification to Enable Digital Transformation’ brought together more than forty policy stakeholders from over 10 countries. The primary objective was to expand the understanding of the problems before developing or adopting digital transformation solutions. The event featured the utilization of a developed by GovLab at The New York University Tandon School of Engineering, to facilitate the process.

The workshop’s aim was to redirect the attention of policymakers towards the crucial step of problem identification. By using the Problem Definition Tool, the participants were encouraged to work more openly, collaboratively, effectively and legitimately to make better decisions and solve public problems related to digital transformation.

The participants engaged in various processes, such as ‘five why’s’, horizon scanning and hypothesis testing to gain a deeper understanding before developing potential solutions.

During the workshop, the policy stakeholders identified several key challenges they face including internal coordination within governments on AI policy, data management and sharing within government, lack of infrastructure and connectivity and human resource capacity gaps in governments.

Further discussions also shed light on essential elements for a thriving tech-policy ecosystem, as underlined by the Africa Asia Policymakers Network:

• Building trust between the government, private sector and civil society to develop effective and inclusive policies.
• High-level political commitment in taking digital transformation initiatives to their conclusion.
• Development partners to act as neutral facilitators for discussions instead of imposing their own agendas, ensuring a fair and balances approach to policy-making.

UNESCO’s workshop at the AfricAI Conference was an important step towards enhancing AI governance by emphasizing the crucial role of problem identification in the process of digital transformation.

The initiative is part of UNESCO’s programme on Digital Capacity Building for Governments and was organised in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation Agency GIZ’s .

Watch an explainer on what competencies civil servants need to develop to enable digital transformation today.