GovStack overview

What is it?

GovStack initiative is an expert community-driven multistakeholder effort aimed at deriving common technical practice and understanding of the Building Blocks approach as seen in implemented countries.

What does it aim to achieve?

By unpacking and simplifying the technical approach that goes into building holistic digital government, GovStack aims to accelerate countries’ ownership of e-gov. solutions and in doing so improve services for social well-being.

Where did it come from?

GovStack model is an extension of the SDG Digital Investment Framework, an earlier effort by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at the UN Foundation.

What is the SDG Digital Investment Framework?

The SDG Digital Investment Framework helps governments and their partners to take a whole-of-government approach to invest in shared digital infrastructure to strengthen SDG programming across sectors. The framework accomplishes this by defining four interrelated layers:

• SDG Targets define high-level objectives to which governments systematically align their development goals.

• Use Cases define the steps necessary to achieve a business objective contributing to one or more SDG Targets.

• WorkFlows are generic business processes, such as "client communication" or "procurement", that support the delivery of a Use Case.

• ICT Building Blocks are reusable software components that enable WorkFlows and Use Cases across multiple sectors.

Example architectural map using the SDG Digital Investment Framework (ITU, DIAL, 2019)

A primary aim of this framework is to assist decision-makers and enterprise planners in the identification of common business processes and ICT solutions that can serve as the basis for a shared information architecture. A Use Case is an effective starting point for this analysis, because each step in a Use Case is comprised of one or more business processes, each of which may be supported by ICT solutions.

The example below illustrates the business processes and supporting technologies for an illustrative Rural Advisory Service Use Case.

Rural Advisory Service Use Case (ITU, DIAL, 2019)

What is the relationship between Digital Public Goods and building blocks?

GovStack building blocks are interoperable, generic Digital Public Goods that enable digital public infrastructure.

Source: https://digitalpublicgoods.net/blog/unpacking-concepts-definitions-digital-public-infrastructure-building-blocks-and-their-relation-to-digital-public-goods/