Perspectives

The Digital Future of Foreign Affairs and International Development Organisations

This report explores what digital transformation means for foreign affairs and international development organisations, with some actionable insights on the way forward.

The future of work is now. Science fiction has become fact as hybrid working and robotics have gone mainstream.

In the wake of global disruption caused by Covid-19, ‘digital' continues to be the hottest topic for organisations. However, the pandemic and other drivers revealed how underutilised digital technologies really are and how far many Government departments need to go to become digital-first organisations.

A deliberate approach to digital transformation and digital behaviour change can turn uncertainty into an opportunity to drive foreign affairs and international development organisations forward.

This report includes:

Challenges facing foreign affairs organisations

  • Crises are increasingly complex and necessitate a quicker response
  • A changing geo-political environment
  • Increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks
  • Ambitious savings targets
  • Greater uncertainty driven by climate change
  • A fragmented employee and citizen experience

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is how we future-proof an organisation: Shifting legacy customer, business and operating models into a new reality – where agility is the norm, human experience is the focus, technology and data are the enablers, and exponential value is the outcome. It’s the ability to apply technology to continuously evolve and reinvent the organisation

Benefits of digital transformation for foreign affairs organisations

  • Resilience
  • Agility and innovation
  • Reduced costs
  • Cyber security
  • Sustainability
  • Improved employee and citizen experience

Where to start

  • Develop a deliberate digital strategy
  • Align technology to the digital strategy
  • Develop digital change capability

Case studies

  • A US Government Agency establishing a unified customer experience
  • A Canadian Government agency establishing data mastery

Applying a behavioural insights approach to change

  • Identify key behaviours
  • Understand drives of those behaviours
  • Design targeted change interventions

Personas to bring digital transformation to life

  • A staff member working in an embassy abroad
  • A staff member focused on policy, based in the UK corporate centre
  • A customer engaging with an embassy abroad

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