WHAT Implementation of national data exchange layer
WHO National Digital Agency of Colombia
HOW Country-level implementation of the X-Road® data exchange
STATUS Set-up phase
Colombia is about to reach a notable milestone in its digital transformation, with the launch of its first citizen-oriented digital public services. Over the past twenty years, the country has become one of the regional leaders in e-government. But to become truly digital, Colombia has had to move beyond the digital replication of analogue processes towards a more user-driven approach to meet its citizens' needs.
The upcoming launch of the first citizen-oriented digital services represents a monumental step towards this goal. Gerardo Cubides Silva, IT Project Manager at the National Digital Agency of Colombia, tells us about X-Road's role in these broader digitalisation efforts, highlighting some of the challenges they had to overcome over the past few years.
BACKGROUND AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
The government of Colombia recognised the value of emerging technologies already in the early 2000s. The first steps towards digitalisation consisted of drawing up the national Connectivity Agenda and Online Government Strategy to build a more efficient and participative state through the implementation of ICTs (OECD, 2017).
According to an OECD report from 2018, the government's early efforts set out well-defined strategic directions and established a sound regulatory framework conducive to digital development. But despite this shared direction, public institutions moved forward in silos while lacking a citizen-centred approach. The Digital Citizen Services initiative (Servicios Ciudadanos Digitales) aims to address this gap.
"In Colombia, the implementation of X-Road is a part of the government's long-term endeavour of digital transformation," Gerardo Silva notes, locating the role of X-Road within broader strategies. In May 2020, these efforts were reaffirmed by Decree 620/2020. Issued by the national government through the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, the decree establishes the regulatory foundation for the roll-out and use of the tools under the Digital Citizen Services model.
NEEDS AND CHALLENGES
Although Decree 620/2020 represents one of the most recent legislative developments, the implementation of X-Road already started a few years ago. As interoperability falls under the National Digital Agency's competence, in 2018 the entity was responsible for an evaluation process of three interoperability technologies.
In the eyes of Colombia's public sector, Silva explains that X-Road was the best fit for their need to fulfil four main criteria:
1. Architecture – in terms of usability, availability and reliability;
2. Security and trust;
3. Performance in terms of scalability;
4. Operation in terms of support, maintenance and licensing.
But finding the right technology is just a prerequisite for successful implementation. Since 2018, the National Digital Agency has been working on overcoming a number of challenges that have emerged in the actual process of X-Road implementation. "The challenges that we encountered can be divided into four areas," Silva observes.
"First, we had to embark on a learning curve to really grasp how the X-Road platform works before integrating it into our systems," Silva explains. "Once we had laid this foundation for ourselves, the second challenge was figuring out how to pitch the technology to other public entities and encourage its adoption across the sector," he continues.
Against the background of this ongoing communication, the third challenge emerged with Colombia'scertification authority, ONAC. "The previous model of digital certificates required us to share user data, such as the username and password, in order to consume the trust services. As X-Road does not support this, we had to modify the system to meet Colombia’s national security requirements," Silva outlines.
The final and ongoing challenge lies in integrating different public sector information systems and services with the platform. "This requires a notable degree of development on the part of all the public entities themselves, so this endeavour takes some time and still continues," Silva concludes.
THE SOLUTION
Colombia's e-government model consists of three vital components: digital authentication, the Digital Citizen Folder, and interoperability. "The Digital Folder enables citizens to file and access digital documents – such as birth certificates, disciplinary records or proof of residence – for their interactions with public institutions," Silva explains. Reliability and security are ensured by the electronic authentication system and the X-Road secure data exchange platform.
But as the initial hurdles have been successfully overcome, the first digital services in the Digital Citizen Folder are ready to be launched in spring 2021. "We are first planning to launch ten procedures for the citizens, including the validation of education documents for studying abroad as well as the consultation of cadastre certificates and proof of residence. Additional services are to be added in the near future," Silva states.
Within the Digital Citizen Services model, X-Road plays a crucial role in ensuring secure and seamless data exchange between different public entities for validating citizen information. In the Colombian context, X-Road meets all the basic requirements outlined and represents an opportunity to get past the previous siloed network and make public entities interact. Colombia's experience illuminates how X-Road can support the harmonisation of public sector operations, forming the foundation for citizen-oriented digital services and the consolidation of a truly digital government.
Author: Adhele Tuulas