The central government, provinces, municipalities, water boards and public service providers want to accelerate change through political and administrative management to achieve breakthroughs and remove obstacles. The Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy will set the direction we want to take as a collective, providing both focus and acceleration. This should already be self-evident, but we rarely collaborate like this in practice. The following interventions are needed for the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy to succeed:
- The introduction of an enhanced approach to agreement, implementation and enforcement of digital and other standards, including support with implementing them. All government organisations must implement digital standards introduced by national and European law. We will help government organisations implement the standards, set a good example, and make it clear when organisations are not compliant with the common standards and initiate a dialogue with them about it. The use of standards is no longer optional; we will ensure that everyone adopts them, although the pace of adoption may vary.
- We will make certain collective solutions and building blocks mandatory. This will avoid reinventing the wheel in different places. We will provide support for the implementation. We will use what we make and will make that a requirement as well. We will work as 1 government under an architectural framework to control the recognisability and reusability of solutions. Logically, such obligations will not apply in the case of opposing interests such as national security or defence.
- We will develop a government-wide IT sourcing strategy and pool our purchasing power, enabling us to make risk-based, responsible and uniform decisions about what we buy and whom we contract. This will improve the continuity of our IT services, increase open strategic autonomy, enhance resilience and promote the efficient use of IT services.
- We will work together to implement digital legislation and remove legal bottlenecks. There are already dozens of sectoral laws that oversee government data management. Organisations are required to implement all legislation at high speed, which requires oversight, knowledge and pooled legal expertise. This is in line with the EU Competitiveness Compass, which includes the simplification of laws and regulations.
To ensure the success of the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy, we will manage the implementation differently:
- We will prepare a joint investment agenda for the transition to the digital government of the future through the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy. Existing budgets related to the priorities can be focused further on the implementation of the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy. A collective cost-benefit analysis will be conducted where it is deemed necessary. Accordingly, we will determine what is needed and how to fund it. This will be elaborated in the investment agenda, taking existing mandates and accountabilities into account. With regard to the financial implications of the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy, we will adhere to the principles of budget discipline; in principle, the necessary activities will be funded by the relevant department in accordance with normal budgetary practice. New initiatives will still be reviewed for implementation implications, including their impact on existing activities, resources and possible phasing. We will examine the benefits of joint funding and procurement, pooling resources where it is worth doing so. We will also consider which lessons from abroad may be useful to our context.
- There will be a Government Steering Committee on Digitalisation in which the national government, local authorities and public service providers are equally represented. The committee will define the management structure of the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy and hold participants mutually accountable.
- There will be an NDS Council made up of (external) digitalisation experts. The council will advise the cabinet and the Government Steering Committee on Digitalisation and will drive the implementation of the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy. The relationship between the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy Council and existing consultative bodies, such as the Intergovernmental Consultative Body on Digital Government, will be determined and formally established at a later date.
- An NDS Implementation Programme will be developed, in which execution and feasibility will be paramount, and collaborative efforts will be made to execute the projects. The programme will have several goals:
- directing and monitoring all components of the NDS, including promoting speed of execution, quality of implementation and efficacy of results;
- supporting government agencies, where valuable;
- ensuring knowledge sharing;
- coordinating structural roles resulting from the NDS.
Based on the tasks defined in the NDS, we will set clear goals through intergovernmental collaboration and identify the prerequisites. We will set and manage the collective standards.
