EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This document summarises the joint work between the Government of São Tomé and Príncipe,
through the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge (INIC) and the United Nations University
Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV), to frame the planning,
development and monitoring of a national strategy for the country’s digital governance. Such a
strategy aims at articulating the goals of public policies across different sectors of governance
for the digital transformation of the public administration and mobilising the material and
human resources necessary for its implementation.
It is proposed that a National Strategy for Digital Governance in São Tomé and Príncipe frames
and integrates a set of digital transformation initiatives in the different sectors of governance,
in order to promote and improve the provision of digital public services focused on the needs
and expectations of the citizens. In this way, nine thematic axes of digital services, accompanied
by the suggestion of associated implementation measures, are listed based on an analysis of
the country’s reality and the review of best international practices. They are health; education;
fiscal and tax area; social protection; environment; tourism; justice and citizenship; work and
employment; and agriculture, livestock, and fishing.
To support the development of these initiatives, a series of structuring or enabling pillars is
proposed organised into three classes: technological, legislative, and administrative. The
technical pillar includes:
• The SMS Message Service, structured across the entire Public Administration,
offering a unified, adaptable, and easy-to-integrate mechanism for regular, low-cost
communication between the State and the citizens.
• The Government Data Centre to consolidate computational, human, and financial
resources, currently highly fragmented and insufficient, allowing for investment
planning, the exploitation of economies of scale and a reliable, planned, and
monitored operation to support the digital infrastructure.
• The GOV.ST Single Portal to provide a single-entry point for all online services of São
Tomé and Príncipe’s Public Administration and gradually promote the adoption of the
same corporate image and patterns of interaction and usability.
• The GOV.ST Mobile Platform to capitalise on the strong penetration of mobile
communication equipment among the population of São Tomé and Príncipe, to offer
a convenient and reliable channel for accessing public online services and sending
notifications.
• The Institutional E-Mail GOV.ST with a directory service and associated tools, for
managing email accounts for all Public Administration officials and civil servants.
• The Digital Identity to provide the development and operation of a reliable
infrastructure for certification of the State, as well as the provision of qualified digital
signature services and, through this, the production of documents with recognised
legal value in both the public and private sectors.
• The Authentication Platform based on a single sign-on mechanism for authentication
and registration, wholly integrated with the management of Digital Identity and
supported by the Interoperability Platform.
• The Interoperability Platform to support an effective response to the diversity of
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