UK Government Digital Service sets up international team

By on 25/08/2016 | Updated on 04/02/2022
The UK's Government Digital Service set up an International Team set in April 2016

The UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS) has set up a new team to focus on international collaboration.

GDS International Team was set up in April to “set the organisation’s international strategic direction” and “act as the umbrella team that knows about all [of GDS’s international] work,” according to team member Alice Goldman.

The team co-ordinates GDS’s participation in international fora such as the International Working Group on Digital, set up by the Ontario regional government in Canada, where it shares its own expertise and visits to GDS and meetings with colleagues overseas.

By June this year, GDS had visits from as many as 52 countries “from leaders looking to start digital transformation in their government; established digital services; communications, industry or procurement ministries; people who want to learn from our mistakes; experts who want to make a reusable component similar to GOV.UK Verify or Pay; and officials who want our advice on a challenge relating to governance or controls,” Goldman said.

Last month, the team learnt from colleagues in New Zealand using teleconferencing, Goldman, the team’s international visits manager, added.

Moving forward, she said writing in a blog post, the team is looking continue setting “priorities for international engagement and work with teams throughout GDS to do so” and is keen to hear from its peers overseas who might have “suggestions for collaborative projects and knowledge-sharing.”

Click here to get in touch with the GDS International Team.

For up to date government news and international best practice follow us on Twitter @globegov

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About Winnie Agbonlahor

Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.

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