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.
Introduction

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

cBrain and The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have partnered to accelerate Africa’s digital transformation by leveraging proven Danish government digital solutions. Our collaboration enables governments across the region to implement scalable and efficient digital public services—helping to drive inclusion, economic growth, and resilience in African communities.

Digitizing government operations is a proven driver of GDP. Reports from the World Bank, OECD, and United Nations confirm that digital transformation enhances public sector efficiency and transparency—key factors in economic growth. 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.

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 this matters

Paperless eGovernment is a key driver to growing GDP. Reports from World bank, OECD and United Nations have found that digitizing government operations lead to enhanced public sector efficiency and transparency. Fueling a regional transformation into paperless eGovernment, leaving paper and printers behind, is thereby a key driver to build sustainable and accountable institutions in Africa and boosting regional GDP.

cBrain has adapted the Danish ministerial F2 setup for a ministry in Kenya, 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 government a fast track to paperless eGovernment. The package consists of 5 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 has to implement on country level, in close working relationships between country government and the UNDP country offices.

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Digital process library

How the digital process library works

The digital process library serves as a repository of scalable digital solutions and enables governments to assess and refine implementations through structured impact assessments. Each solution in the digital process library is evaluated and verified against the four key strategic pillars in UNDP’s ‘Digital offer for Africa’ project:

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

The UNDP Digital Offer for Africa strategy is based on a Theory of Change with four steps leading to digital transformation.

UNDP RHA has a strong focus on implementation and fast delivery of digital solutions.

By reusing Danish government experiences this led to a new and combined model. Using the theory of change steps as the foundation for impact assessment and the Danish government platform and process libraries as a foundation for accelerating the UNDP Digital Offer for Africa strategy

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

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, F2, this structured capacity-building approach enables governments to digitize operations in just weeks through a 5-step learning process:

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

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

Scaling digital transformation and economic growth across Africa

cBrain has already implemented digital transformation solutions across Africa, most recently with Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications, and The Digital Economy (MICDE). This project demonstrated how a Danish government model could be effectively copied and adapted to an African ministry in just 10 weeks transitioning MICDE to a paperless government.  

Building on this success, the MICDE project now serves as a blueprint for future government digitization efforts in Africa, paving the way for a scalable, paperless e-Government package for African government.  Through cBrain’s proven digital government model, UNDP can facilitate the copying and adaptation of Danish best practices, ensuring that governments across Africa can efficiently transition to digital workflows, enhancing public sector efficiency and transparency.

At the core of this digital transformation is cBrain’s Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software platform, F2— built specifically for government. As a complete and fully integrated platform, F2 enables a seamless transition to paperless e-Government while ensuring compliance, efficiency, and transparency. Its easy-to-configure and adaptable architecture replaces costly custom-built solutions, making it possible to rapidly replicate and scale best practices across government institutions.

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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.
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