The Global Digital Communion
Jeffrey Saviano, Global Tax Innovation Leader, EY
Originally published in the GDF Annual Report 2020
The global pandemic has revealed fissions and fractures in the global technology infrastructure significantly impacting the ways in which we live and work. Despite advances in digitalization and the rapid pace of technology development, many aspects of business — and society more broadly — remain largely analog, or at best are on the bottom rung of the digital ladder.
To vastly improve the global digital landscape, we need striking advances in digital public goods: the open-source software, data methods, standards and protocols benefiting all nations and people. There is no shortage of needs to address in the world, across financial inclusion, digital identity, healthcare, education, and tax/fiscal systems, to name a few. Digital public goods are by definition reusable, not deployed by states in solitude and are increasingly solving network problems with technology that is both innovative and advanced. These emerging digital systems serve the interdependency of multi- stakeholders, reflecting important notions of mutual technology reliance.
However, as rapidly as technology is advancing, associated governance systems have been slow to adapt. We face a dire need for new governance models, with smart policy frameworks, propelled by a variety of actors, across government, industry, philanthropies, academics, multilateral organizations, and civil society. A new global digital communion is needed, as no single institution can govern the global development, deployment and adoption of digital public goods.
This is especially true in light of the plethora of obstacles present, including material issues with intellectual property, finance, data privacy/ security, and new incentive mechanisms to entice multi-stakeholder engagement with new digital technology systems. Successful digital systems adoption will rely on more than the hand of government mandating stakeholder engagement, but it will offer new ways of working — and living — that invite participants eager for a seamless digital experience.
A global digital communion would have dramatic, positive effects on our communities as we emerge from the pandemic. Continued advances in digital technology are needed, for sure. But we must also address this stark global governance gap to truly benefit from digitalization.
Read more from industry leaders, regulators, and policy makers in our Annual Report 2020 here.Global Digital Finance
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Press date : 09.02.2020