GovTech Growth in Colombia: MiLAB

The current situation has highlighted the need to rethink the operation of the civil service and the obligation to digitize institutions. The technological capabilities of some governments seem to be obsolete and insufficient to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Today, citizens are more demanding in terms of the quality and delivery of public services.

Therefore, it is essential that governments accelerate the digital transformation of their administration, in order to increase operational efficiency, improve the delivery of public services, consolidate digital infrastructure and promote public integrity, through investment in infrastructure, knowledge and digital capabilities.

In this context, countries such as Colombia have implemented different alternatives to accelerate GovTech growth, that is, growth that offers more efficient services through the use of technology. In this regard, the technology company Nuvu created an application for the public sector, which turned all the financial and accounting information of Colombian companies into a compass, allowing sector comparisons and customized reports, with the task of making decisions and taking specific actions according to the information processed.

Thus, through startups, scaleups and digital MSMEs with public vocation, using data intelligence, digital technologies and innovative methodologies, the National Government has bet on digital public services, online procedures and connectivity infrastructure.

In September, iNNpulsa and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) signed an agreement to promote the GovTech agenda in Colombia through MiLAB. The latter is a public innovation laboratory of the National Government that works to generate timely solutions to the challenges of the administration.

According to CAF, as part of this agreement, MiLAB will adopt a 100% GovTech approach. In this regard, Carolina España, representative of this entity in Colombia, said that this initiative will contribute to boost the GovTech ecosystem in the country, improve the efficiency of public policies and offer better services to citizens. 

In addition, within the framework of this agreement, the methodological and operational model of the laboratory will be designed, the first cohort of public entities with digital transformation challenges will be accompanied, and the use of emerging technologies to provide solutions and improve interaction with citizens will be strengthened, CAF said.

For its part, MiLAB will carry out the first mapping of Colombian ventures and startups that use disruptive and emerging technologies. According to CAF, this will make it possible to get to know them, know which sectors they belong to, link them to the activities of the GovTech community and connect them with the main challenges of public innovation, among others.

So far, MiLAB has accompanied 11 public entities in the process of characterizing their needs and connecting them with the ecosystem of solvers, including: implementation of renewable initiatives for Non-Interconnected Zones (ZNI) and the promotion, access and use of deposit and credit products for MSMEs and low-income people, to name a few examples.

In short, Colombia has taken steps towards digital transformation and is implementing alternatives to accelerate GovTech growth in the country, with the aim of moving towards a more agile, resilient and sustainable administration.today, Colombia ranks seventh in the Iberoamerican GovTech Index of CAF and Oxford Insights, which measures digital solutions in the public sector.

In the study, CAF and Oxford Insights highlighted the efforts of the National Government to strengthen the GovTech ecosystems in the country. In particular, they highlighted the enormous digital and technological potential for startups to emerge as an option to develop applications that contribute to the improvement and efficiency in the provision of services by the public administration. Thus, they recommended the establishment of public-private partnerships to accelerate the digital transformation of the National Government.