Driving Digital Transformation: Lessons from Seven Developing Countries

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.In one country, the prime minister pushes for the liberalization of digital finance as a central pillar of the country's national strategy, while the central bank almost makes it a criminal offence. In another, the digital minister tries to scupper the very process to support digital transformation that the president has asked them to co-lead. This book gives a ringside seat on seven developing countries' tumultuous early steps on the path to a reform of the economy and the government using technology. Written by a group of academics and practitioners from Oxford at the heart of the process, but foregrounding the voices of the policymakers and participants, this book documents and critically assesses efforts to assist a set of governments to kick-start digital transformation. In doing so, it offers lessons for policymakers in other countries who want to pursue similar efforts. Beyond that, however, it is also an exposition of the process of policymaking more generally in the 2020s, and offers broader insight into how outsiders can play a sensible role in other reform processes in developing and emerging countries.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Preface: Remembering Benno Ndulu Abbreviations and acronyms 1: Introduction to the Digital Economy Kit 2: Seizing opportunity for digital reform 3: Objectives: What is the Digital Economy Kit trying to do? 4: Assessment: Data and diagnostics 5: Multi-stakeholder dialogue 6: Strategy primer 7: A critical view on implementation 8: Conclusion References Index

About the Author :
Benno Ndulu served as Governor of the Central Bank of Tanzania from 2008 to 2018. Following his PhD degree in economics from Northwestern University, Ndulu taught economics at the University of Dar es Salaam, before joining the World Bank as a lead economist. He published and taught widely on growth, regional integration, adjustment, governance, trade, and investments. Most recently, he served as Academic Co-director of the Pathways for Prosperity Commission as a Visiting Associate of Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government. He passed away in February 2021. Elizabeth Stuart is a development practitioner. Before leading the Pathways to Prosperity Commission on Inclusive Development and its successor research and policy centre at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, she has been variously Director of Policy and Research at Save the Children UK; Director of the Growth, Poverty and Inequality programme at the Overseas Development Institute; and Head of Oxfam International's Washington Office. Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. He combines his academic career with work as a policy advisor, providing strategic economic and development advice. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), and he has served as Academic Co-director of the Pathways for Prosperity Commission. Since 2020, he has been the Development Policy Advisor to successive Foreign Secretaries at the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Peter Knaack is an Adjunct Professor at the School of International Service, American University. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford, Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Finance at SOAS, University of London, and Associate at the Council on Economic Policies, a Swiss think tank. His research explores global financial governance, with a focus on inclusive green finance, the political economy of global banking regulation, China's role in global financial governance, and the growing tension between nation-states and transgovernmental networks over the authority to govern cross-border economic activity.

Review :
A great read for any political leader or bureaucrat looking to transform their government's digital economy. It is useful to understand what it really takes to support emerging countries who want to establish a digital public infrastructure. Benno saw the huge potential of the digital economy for Africa and devoted the last years of his life tirelessly working to get countries to adopt it. Many countries have begun taking up the technology but fail to adopt a whole of systems approach. Benno would I think have wanted fellow policy makers to learn from the lessons of some of the earlier adopters and what they got right - and wrong. An absolute gem for policymakers who want to turn their digital transformation aspirations into reality. The writing is refreshingly clear and devoid of jargon, making it a breeze to follow. The authors offer invaluable practical insights based on the experiences of a group of countries that have successfully navigated this complex journey. And what's more, this book doesn't shy away from the pitfalls and challenges you may encounter along the way. It's an honest, straight-talking guide that will leave you feeling inspired and confident to take action. This book is timely as it deals with such an important topic for my country and for many others in sub Saharan Africa and beyond. The book shows that the continent has an opportunity to fully benefit from greater digital transformation reforms, further than payment systems. Throughout, the book pays particular attention to context and respecting inclusion of multi-stakeholders in the process. Driving Digital Transformation tells us how to do this, not through giving instructions, but instead by sharing the lessons learned from other policymakers. Where clear measures of digital success and failure are sometimes lacking, the authors offer a full treatment of diagnosing and evaluating digital readiness. The rigorous focus on the nuances of implementation, especially in the book's Digital Economy Kit and strategy primer, make this critical reading for both scholars and practitioners!