Estonia, having digitalised 99% of its public services, is the first “digital republic” in the world. And it also consistently achieves the highest score for trust in the government in the EU. Why? Because of its ability to stay ahead and imagine a better future, using the world’s most up-to-date innovations.
“The foundation of this digital republic dates back to 1997, a time when only 1.7 percent of the world’s population had internet access… Meanwhile, the government of the newly-formed state of Estonia envisaged the creation of a digital society where all citizens would be technologically literate and governance would be paperless, decentralized, transparent, efficient, and equitable”, says this recent blog post by SingularityU. Estonia is also the first country to name internet access a basic human right.
Why is this important? Our ability to shape the future is dependant on our ability to imagine it. The digitalisation of the Estonian government means that contrasting to the US, Estonians could not question the validity of an election; they were also able to access their health-care and set up appointments with their doctors online during the pandemic; the equal access to the internet meant that no child was left without an access to education during country-wide lockdowns.
Estonia should be an inspiration for the rest of the world. Because the same futuristic mindset is required to address the most complex challenges that our societies are facing today.
Read the full article on the digitalisation of Estonia below.