UNDP and cBrain Join Forces to Accelerate Africa’s Digital Transformation

Leveraging Danish government best practices to drive change

cBrain and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have partnered to accelerate Africa’s digital transformation by leveraging proven Danish government digital solutions.

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Introduction

Digital is the lifeline to opportunity in Africa, and it should not remain a luxury

Digital transformation is fundamental to building efficient, transparent, and accountable government organizations. It is thereby a key driver to boost GDP, while bridging divides and empowering millions to shape a more equal and prosperous future in the African region.

In November 2024, the United Nations Development Programme and cBrain partnered to accelerate Africa’s digital transformation. By aligning proven Danish government experiences with the UNDP Digital Offer for Africa strategy, the partnership enables governments across the African region to implement scalable and efficient digital public services—helping to drive inclusion, economic growth, and resilience. This transformation to paperless eGovernment is supported by the deployment of the cBrain F2® platform and the reuse of process libraries.

Dr. Zeynu Ummer, Team Lead and Senior Chrief Technical Advisor, UNDP Resilience Hub for Africa together with Per Tejs Knudsen, CEO, cBrain (to the right)

Experience

“Digital is the lifeline to opportunity in Africa, and it should not remain a luxury. With the right partners like Denmark and cBrain, we can expand critical access to information and education, and unlock innovation at scale, thus bridging divides and empowering millions to shape a more equal and prosperous future in Africa.”

Ahunna Eziakonwa

UN Assistant-Secretary General and UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa Director

The potential

Why the paperless e-government initiative matters

Paperless eGovernment is a key driver of growing GDP. Reports from the World Bank, OECD and United Nations have found that digitizing government operations leads to enhanced public sector efficiency and transparency. By eliminating paper-based workflows, reducing administrative burdens, and improving service delivery, paperless eGovernment can build sustainable and accountable institutions while unlocking economic potential across Africa.

cBrain has adapted the Danish ministerial F2 setup for a ministry in an African country, leading to an African paperless ministry solution. This included developing a five-step training model, adapting Danish government experiences for African leaders and civil servants.

The African paperless ministry package offers African governments a fast track to paperless eGovernment. The package consists of five components: pre-configured software, workflow descriptions, training modules, hosting strategy, and a project delivery plan.

Due to the nature of government sovereignty, regional transformation into paperless eGovernment must be implemented at the country level, in close working relationships between country government and the UNDP country offices.

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Digital process library

Aligning the Danish cBrain F2 platform as a foundation for the UNDP Digital Offer for Africa

The UNDP Digital Offer for Africa strategy is based on a Theory of Change with four steps leading to digital transformation. The UNDP Resilience Hub for Africa has a strong focus on implementation and fast delivery of digital solutions.

By reusing Danish government experiences, a new combined model has been developed. The theory of change steps provides the framework for impact assessment, while the Danish government platform and process libraries serve as a foundation for accelerating the UNDP Digital Offer for Africa strategy.

The digital process libraries function as a repository of scalable digital solutions. Each business process in the digital process libraries is evaluated and verified against these four key strategic pillars:

Inclusion – Closing digital divides by ensuring that all demographics have access to digital public services and opportunities.
Capacity Building – Enhancing digital skills and strengthening institutions to ensure effective digital governance.
Economy – Stimulating digital trade, enabling economic inclusion.
Resilience – Using digital tools to help communities withstand climate and economic shocks, ensuring sustainable growth and social equity.

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This approach ensures faster and more effective implementation, allowing governments to continuously refine and scale their digital solutions.

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5 steps to success

Fast deployment with the 5-step Digital Driver’s License for a paperless government

A key component of this transformation is the Digital Driver’s License, a structured training model that equips government leaders and employees with the skills to operate in a modern, digital-first environment. Powered by cBrain’s commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform, cBrain F2, this structured capacity-building approach enables governments to digitize operations in just weeks through a 5-step learning process:

Step 1 and 2: Emails (email-like interface) + Cases. Establishing a compliance-based foundation for digital government.
Step 3 and 4: Chats + Approvals. Implementing smart informal communication and decision-making flows.
Step 5: Phone. Enabling a fully mobile government workforce.

By integrating structured training with best practices in digital governance, governments can seamlessly transition to e-government.

Explore how we have helped others

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Europe

Streamlined application for citizenship

Copenhagen City Council implemented cBrain’s commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform to digitally modernize operations around immigration services related to citizenship applications, eliminating cumbersome manual workflows like in-person registrations

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Europe

Environmental support in The Arctic

By transitioning from a manual to a digital system, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency enhanced the efficiency, transparency, and fairness of its Arctic environmental grant program, ensuring better support for initiatives aimed at protecting the Arctic environment

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Want to learn more about the F2 platform?

A fully integrated software solution - built for public administration.

‍F2 is the first digital platform in the world designed and built from the ground up for public administration. Ready to go, without the need for specialized programming or a lot of consulting hours.

Learn more about F2

En mand og en kvinde samarbejder ved en computer i et åbent kontormiljø med moderne indretning.

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