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On September 25, 2025, the African Development Bank hosted a high-impact webinar titled “Powering Smart Governance: Winning Strategies for Digital Transformation in the Public Sector.” The event gathered policymakers, technologists, planners, and implementers from across Africa and beyond, all united by a common goal: to understand what makes digital transformation succeed – or fail – and how governments can deliver real impact for their citizens.
Setting the Stage: Why Digital Transformation Fails – and How to Succeed
The webinar opened with a keynote by Mindaugas Glodas, CEO of NRD Companies, who drew on decades of global experience leading digital reforms in more than 60 countries. His message was striking: only 20% of digital transformation projects succeed.
Why do so many projects fail?
- Fragmented leadership: Ministries and agencies often move in different directions, duplicating solutions and wasting resources.
- Ignoring legacy IT: Valuable existing systems are overlooked instead of reused and upgraded.
- Moving targets: Shifting requirements make it difficult to deliver on time or on scope.
- Short-term funding: Projects are often financed for launch only, with no provision for long-term maintenance, updates, or cybersecurity.
What defines success?
Mindaugas Glodas urged governments to look beyond budgets and deadlines. True success means:
- Better, faster, and more inclusive citizen services.
- Real cost savings and efficiency gains.
- Stronger trust in government institutions.
- Systems designed to evolve and last.
Watch recording of Mindaugas Glodas presentation “Why Digital Transformation Fails – and How to Succeed”:
What Makes Digital Services Successful
The second part of the session, presented jointly by Ieva Žilionienė, Chief Consulting Officer, NRD Companies, and Michailas Traubas, Head of Tax and Financial Solutions, NRD Companies, explored what governments must do to build digital services that citizens actually use and trust.
The core message: digital transformation is service transformation. Citizens are not interested in internal processes – they want clear, fast, and reliable outcomes.
Seven Characteristics of Effective Digital Services:
- User-centered: Designed around citizens and businesses, not bureaucracy.
- Re-engineered processes: Inefficient paper workflows should not be simply digitized.
- Data reuse (once-only principle): Governments should not ask citizens to resubmit existing data.
- Continuous improvement: Services must evolve as technology and expectations change.
- Digital public infrastructure: Reuse building blocks such as digital ID, payments, and interoperability platforms.
- Life-event orientation: Bundle services around real needs, like registering a child or opening a business.
- Multi-channel access: Citizens should be able to use services via portals, mobile apps, service centers, or intermediaries like post offices.
Building Skills for Sustainable Reform
Beyond technology, the webinar emphasized that skills and capacity are at the heart of digital transformation. Governments must continuously develop digital competencies within the public sector – from technical expertise to project management and citizen engagement.
NRD Companies shared their framework for building digital government skills, based on global best practices, stressing that training cannot be a one-off event. Instead, it must be embedded in long-term institutional strategies.
Watch recording of Ieva Žilionienė and Michailas Traubas presentation „Building Digital Services – Strategies for Success“:
Key Takeaways for Governments and Partners
The combined insights from presentations and Q&A highlighted six critical lessons:
- Skills before tools: Without capable people, technology will not deliver transformation.
- Smart prioritization: Balance foundational infrastructure with visible quick wins to build momentum.
- Sustainability planning: Secure funding for long-term maintenance, updates, and cybersecurity.
- Governance and leadership: Strong accountability and project management are non-negotiable.
- Transparency and trust: Digital systems can fight corruption if designed for traceability and open data.
- Citizen-first design: Services must be intuitive, proactive, and reliable, matching the best private-sector standards.
Closing Reflections
In his closing remarks, Dr. Eric Kehinde Ogunleye, Director of the African Development Institute at AfDB, reminded participants that digital transformation is a journey:
“Transformation happens one project at a time, one reform at a time, one skill at a time.”
The challenge for governments is not just to deploy technology, but to ensure it delivers measurable improvements for citizens and stands the test of time.
Watch full webinar recording “Powering Smart Governance: Winning Strategies for Digital Transformation”
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