Launching citizen-oriented digital services in Colombia

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.

Estonia and Finland launch automated data exchange between population registers

In September 2020, cross-border interoperability between Estonia and Finland took another step further with the launch of automated data exchange between the countries’ national population registers. With the support of X-Road, the solution replaces the previous batch data processing and improves information accuracy and security.

Automating the exchange of population data is the third cross-border interoperability link in place between Estonia and Finland, after connecting the countries’ business registers and tax boards in 2019.

Together with Timo Salovaara, Deputy Director General at the Finnish Digital Agency (DVV), we outline the main features of the cooperation and solution at hand.

BACKGROUND AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

The exchange of population data between Finland and Estonia dates back to the signing of a collaboration agreement between the countries’ population register authorities in 2005. The document provided a framework for the exchange of details of citizens living in the other country, when and where necessary. Relevant subjects cover the following:

1)    Deaths

2)    Name changes

3)    Changes of address

4)    Information on their dependent children.

The collaboration created a framework that has enabled batch-based data exchange between Finland and Estonia for almost 15 years, with data being requested and provided on average once a year.

The increasing digitalization of the Finnish population register, and the national data exchange layer, have now led to a partial institutional overlap. Automating the existing collaboration seemed, logically, the next step. “The DVV is the owner of the population register in Finland and, since 2014, we also own the national X-Road infrastructure – the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer,” Salovaara explains. “So, with the existing data exchange framework that we have in place with Estonia, these two things meet here,” he observes. 

The technical foundation for cross-border interoperability between Estonia and Finland was established in 2018 with the federation of the two countries’ national X-Road. While connecting the national ecosystems paved the way for an array of technical possibilities, their development and implementation have been dependent on resolving legal intricacies. “Despite this, we decided to use X-Road to update the information exchange system from 2005, as we already had the legal framework in place,” Salovaara states. 

NEEDS AND CHALLENGES

Data exchange automation responds to the need for greater data accuracy and a decreased manual workload – all while maintaining and improving underlying security. 

“Previously, we had a facility that allowed uploading a file into a system, which could be accessed by the Estonian Ministry of Interior,” Salovaara says about the process in place since 2005. “Our Estonian colleagues could log into the service, access the file prepared by us and then update their records in the population register based on that. While all of this was secure and audited, it was not as practical and required a lot of effort. 

The new automated solution secures the data exchange, ensuring improved maintenance of the entire system at the same time. 

“For example, we have a similar arrangement with the Nordic countries concerning population data exchange,” Salovaara brings forth. “But we are using legacy systems from the beginning of the century. When updating information security protocols, we need to wait until the last country is ready to make the updates before completing the process,” he continues. With a standardized interoperability solution, such as X-Road, the system updates are conducted faster and more securely. 

Besides the legal boundaries set by the original collaboration agreement from 2005, the technical implementation of the solution did not see any significant challenges. “We can say that technology is no longer the barrier, especially in this case where both parties already had experience with X-Road infrastructure,” Salovaara observes. “This means we can focus more on the substance and needs of the specific use case, as well as the legal details surrounding new types of data exchange,” he says. 

THE SOLUTION

X-Road has now automated the data transfer between the population registers of Estonia and Finland, improving information accuracy and timeliness as well as increasing the efficiency and security of the data exchange process.

The solution breathes new life into this long-standing collaboration. Population authorities can now easily access up-to-date information on their citizens whenever necessary; e.g. when preparing for national elections. While the legal framework established by the 2005 agreement currently limits the type of information that can be mutually accessed, the solution is a significant stepping stone to expanding the scope of data exchange in the future. 

Further negotiations are ongoing between Estonia and Finland, but a similar technical solution between population registers also has significant potential beyond the Baltic Sea region. With the free movement of people in Europe, there would, for example, be a need to standardize data exchange between EU member states. 

“Currently, if someone moves to Finland, we verify their identity by using their passport and verify their family relations with legalized paper certificates given by the authorities of their country of origin,” Salovaara explains, bringing up a typical case. “But requesting and providing these documents takes time – from both the public authorities and the citizens – and at least theoretically, the risk of forged paper documents remains. To have the most accurate data at all times, this information could be requested directly from other countries’ population registers. If these kinds of arrangements can be made, facilities like the X-Road would be very useful in the technical implementation of the data exchange!”

Automating data transfer between the population registers of Estonia and Finland serves as another example of how X-Road can simplify and enhance international collaboration, for both citizens and the state.