Govtech Summit (FR0043)

Organize an international GovTech summit in France
Lead institution(s):
Minister of State for the Digital Sector, attached to the Prime Minister
New commitment
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Innovation and technology for openness
Challenges
If we want the open government mindset to catch on, we need not only proactive efforts on the part of Government itself, but also support for the stakeholders who are busy working in this sense. For the past few years now, these stakeholders have included specialist startups referred to as GovTech and civic tech, which are cropping up all over France and promoting both the digital transformation of public entities and the betterment of democratic and civic life through digital technology.
Ambitions
The Government's ambition is to bring the GovTech ecosystem fully into the limelight by cementing France's position as a country of authority on the subject and by showcasing the success stories.
The road map in detail

Organise an international summit on open government and support for GovTech startups as early as 2018 Semester 2 2018
Hold the summit again in 2019 and beyond 2019 and beyond

14. Organise an international GovTech summit in France

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

If we want the open government mindset to catch on, we need not only proactive efforts on the part of Government itself, but also support for the stakeholders who are busy working in this sense. For the past few years now, these stakeholders have included specialist startups referred to as GovTech and civic tech, which are cropping up all over France and promoting both the digital transformation of public entities and the betterment of democratic and civic life through digital technology.

The Government's ambition is to bring the GovTech ecosystem fully into the limelight by cementing France's position as a country of authority on the subject and by showcasing the success stories. [57]

Milestones

14.1 Organise an international summit on open government and support for GovTech startups as early as 2018

14.2 Hold the summit again in 2019 and beyond

Start Date: 2018

End Date: 2020

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to build on the work of the French tech industry, which has been increasingly involved in developing digital tools to facilitate e-government and improve democracy. By hosting a global GovTech summit in 2018, 2019, and beyond, the government aims to bring together public officials and French GovTech and civic tech actors to generate a dialogue. The government also expects the summit to give France a position of influence in the tech field. Videos of the roundtables are available on YouTube. [58]

The commitment concerns the organization of an event and does not provide any details about how such an event would contribute to open government. Thus, the IRM researcher considered the commitment, as written, not relevant to OGP values.

This commitment is specific enough to be verifiable. The commitment focuses on hosting events and the milestones contain measurable deliverables. The IRM researcher deems this initiative to have no potential impact beyond improving France’s reputation as a pioneer country in the digital innovation field. As written, the commitment does not provide sufficient information to gauge the potential impact.

Next steps

Given that this summit has already taken place, the IRM researcher suggests not carrying forward this commitment into the next action plan. If the summit becomes a regular event, the government could:

• Put more focus on technology for transparency, participation, and anti-corruption, to make it even more relevant to open government values;
• Include sessions for the wider public, such as trainings, workshops, and thematic sessions that would be of interest to other civil society organizations (e.g., from the environmental field, human rights).

14. Organize an international GovTech summit in France

Completion: Complete

Three GovTech Summits were organized in Paris in 2018, 2019 et 2020, with over 60 high-level speakers from governments, businesses and civil society organizations. The events included panels, workshops and pitch competitions. [xlviii]