World Economic Forum · GovTech · Digital Public Infrastructure
A Brazilian voice in the global debate on the future of digital government.
As a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on GovTech and Digital Public Infrastructure, Gustavo Maia contributes to an international agenda on how governments can use data, artificial intelligence and digital public infrastructure to expand state capacity, inclusion and public value.
Insight Report · May 2026
The GovTech Compass is now available
Ten principles for the responsible implementation of GovTech and digital public infrastructure.
The GovTech Compass, developed by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Global Future Council on GovTech and Digital Public Infrastructure, is now available on the official World Economic Forum website.
The report brings together ten principles to guide governments and partners in the responsible implementation of GovTech and digital public infrastructure, with a focus on inclusion, trust, accountability, public value and institutional capacity.
Available in English, as a PDF, on the World Economic Forum website.
What is the Global Future Council on GovTech & DPI
The Global Future Council on GovTech and Digital Public Infrastructure brings together leaders from government, multilateral organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector to discuss how technology is transforming state capacity.
This discussion goes beyond digitizing public services. It concerns the institutional choices that determine whether data, artificial intelligence and digital public infrastructure will reduce barriers, expand access, protect rights and strengthen public trust.
GovTech
Technologies, models and capabilities that help governments deliver better services, coordinate public policies and respond more precisely to society’s needs.
Digital Public Infrastructure
Shared layers such as digital identity, payments, interoperability and secure data exchange that allow governments and partners to operate at scale.
Public Value
The criterion that connects efficiency, inclusion, accountability, trust and concrete outcomes for people, families, communities and institutions.
Gustavo Maia's role in the council
Gustavo Maia's contribution to the Global Future Council comes from a Brazilian and Global South perspective. After more than a decade leading Colab and working directly with local governments, he argues that the next frontier of public digital transformation lies in reorganizing how the State recognizes needs, coordinates responses and acts at the right time.
This agenda connects directly with the thesis of Zero-Click Government: governments capable of recognizing life events and delivering rights before citizens have to navigate forms, queues and fragmented systems.
Proactive government
From request-based government to a logic organized around life events.
State capacity
Data, AI, interoperability, coordination and decision-making as infrastructure for public action.
Legitimacy
Greater capacity requires transparency, limits, contestability and institutional responsibility.
Global South
A perspective shaped by contexts where bureaucracy, inequality and limited state capacity make public innovation even more urgent.
October 2025 · Dubai
Council meeting in Dubai
In October 2025, members of the Global Future Council on GovTech and Digital Public Infrastructure gathered in Dubai to deepen the global agenda on GovTech, digital public infrastructure and responsible digital transformation.
The meeting brought together leaders from different countries and sectors to discuss the practical dilemmas of public digital transformation: how to expand state capacity without weakening rights, how to use data and artificial intelligence with accountability, how to avoid new forms of digital exclusion and how to build digital public infrastructure oriented towards public value.
For Gustavo Maia, that debate reinforced a central conviction behind the Zero-Click Government thesis: technology becomes public, in the strongest sense of the word, when it increases the State's capacity to act with legitimacy, responsibility and attention to people's real lives.
In-person meeting of the Global Future Council on GovTech and Digital Public Infrastructure, Dubai, October 2025.
The GovTech Compass
A report on responsible GovTech and digital public infrastructure implementation.
The GovTech Compass starts from an important observation: governments are accelerating digitalization, but pressure for speed and efficiency can also create exclusion, technology dependency, lower transparency and weaker public trust when clear governance principles are absent.
The document offers a practical reference for public leaders, digital teams, companies, multilateral organizations, foundations, researchers and civil society organizations involved in building the future of digital government.
The report’s 10 principles
Citizen-first
Design from people, their journeys and their real needs.
Inclusion and accessibility
Ensure digital transformation expands access rather than concentrating power.
Collaboration and co-creation
Build solutions with governments, citizens, civil society, academia and the private sector.
Public value
Align innovation, partnerships and technology with clear public goals.
Accountability and informed trust
Make systems explainable, auditable and subject to public oversight.
Citizen data sovereignty
Treat data as a public asset, with protection, governance and rights.
Digital pragmatism
Avoid unnecessary complexity and prioritize useful, simple and interoperable solutions.
Resilience and learning
Create systems that can learn, adapt and withstand failures.
Evidence and dynamic adaptation
Measure impact, learn from evidence and continuously improve policies and services.
Leadership and change management
Treat GovTech and DPI as institutional change, not only technical delivery.
How to read this report in 5 minutes
For readers approaching the topic for the first time, the GovTech Compass can be read as a quick map of the decisions every government faces when digitizing services, data and public infrastructure. A first reading can begin with five points.
Start with the executive summary
Understand the central thesis: GovTech and DPI can reduce barriers and improve services, but they can also exclude, obscure decisions and weaken public trust when implemented without safeguards.
Read the introduction as the diagnosis
The introduction shows the risk of digitalization guided only by efficiency. This is the entry point for understanding why institutional principles matter as much as technology.
Look at the structure of the 10 principles
The principles are organized around legitimacy, trust and delivery. This helps show that responsible digital transformation depends on design, governance and implementation capacity.
Pay attention to the maturity model
Each principle presents what can go wrong, foundational practices and pathways to progressive excellence. This turns the report into a practical tool, not only a conceptual reference.
Finish with the stakeholder ecosystem
The report shows that responsibility for implementation involves many actors. Political leaders, digital teams, businesses, civil society, development banks, academia and citizens each have distinct roles in sustaining responsible digital transformation.
Why this matters for Brazil
Brazil has one of the world’s most relevant experiences in digital public infrastructure, with cases such as Pix, gov.br, national data systems and a growing tradition of public innovation across municipalities, states and the federal government.
At the same time, the country still faces queues, forms, institutional fragmentation, limited interoperability and public policies that often arrive too late for those who need them most. This is why the global GovTech and DPI agenda must be translated into the Brazilian context with ambition, responsibility and implementation discipline.
This is where the World Economic Forum’s global discussion meets the Zero-Click Government thesis: technology changes the State when it changes its capacity to act, the timing of public response and the way rights reach people’s real lives.
From digital transformation to proactive government
The GovTech Compass helps establish the principles for responsible public digitalization. The next question is how these principles translate into new models of state action.
In the book Zero-Click Government, Gustavo Maia develops this transition in depth: moving away from a State organized around requests, forms and repeated proof, and towards a State capable of recognizing life events, coordinating policies and offering public responses before bureaucracy becomes another form of exclusion.
Go deeper into the Zero-Click Government agenda
The discussion on GovTech and digital public infrastructure connects directly with the work of the Zero-Click Government Institute, created to develop research, implementation frameworks and applied projects with governments interested in moving beyond reactive public services.
Manifesto
The conceptual vision behind proactive government and the transition from request-based services to public responses organized around life events.
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Implementation Lab
Frameworks, methods and instruments to help governments implement proactive journeys, interoperability and data-driven state capacity.
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Research
Research, references and intellectual production on proactive government, artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure and public value.
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For speaking, interviews and collaborations
Gustavo Maia participates in debates, conferences, panels and projects on GovTech, artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure, state capacity and proactive government.
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