Francis speaking at the Bosnia and Herzegovina Fellowship Programme

This Friday, Francis will be speaking at the Bosnia and Herzegovina Fellowship Programme on digital transformation. The Fellowship Programme is aimed to support the Bosnian Reform Agenda by sharing British experiences and expertise on key reform processes. 

The programme is funded by the British Embassy in Sarajevo and implemented by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. For the next several weeks the programme will consist of a series of online seminars looking into the processes of successfully implementing reform programmes. 

Francis’s session will focus on Why political leadership is critical to achieving digitalisation of public services and The History of UK Digital Transformation. 

Digital transformation of public services has long been an ambition in Bosnia & Herzegovina but has acquired new urgency as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19. Digital accessibility is the only way to ensure that access to public services is not interrupted by restrictions on movement and face-to-face contact. 

As UK Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2010 to 2015, Francis created the world-leading Government Digital Service and gov.uk web portal, which led to the UK being ranked best in the world for e-government in 2016 by the UN. He also led an efficiency and reform programme that delivered cumulative savings from the operating costs of government of more than £52 billion.