USAID’s chief digital development officer outlines his priorities

While navigating ways to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of digital technology in its work, the U.S. Agency for International Development decided that it needed someone to oversee the effort. Enter Christopher Burns, the agency’s first chief digital development officer. He started the job at the end of last year and is also continuing in his role as director for technology at the Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub within the agency’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation. In his new position, Burns is tasked with coordinating the implementation of digital technologies across USAID’s programs while also supporting collaboration on digital development initiatives between civil society, governments, funders, the private sector, and others. “I'm going to work across the agency and, by extension, the broader international development community to cultivate an ethos of responsible, inclusive, and democracy-affirming digital development,” Burns told Devex. The role was previewed in USAID’s digital strategy, which was released in 2020 and outlines how the agency plans to operate in an increasingly digital world: through the “responsible use” of digital technology in USAID programming and by strengthening national digital ecosystems. “The transition from piecemeal, retail efforts scattered across the Agency’s programming to systematic, smart investments in digital development will require sustained leadership to oversee this change,” the strategy reads. In his new role, Burns plans to build the capacity of development practitioners, including USAID staffers, to integrate digital technology into sectoral and geographic programming. For example, Burns mentioned a new project that USAID recently launched with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and DAI to build digital development curriculum into international development graduate programs at U.S. universities and colleges. He also plans to improve coordination between USAID and various sectors on investment in and design of “digital public goods” — such as open-source software and freely available data — as well as the use of data to improve decision-making and programming. “And I'm going to continue to ensure that we are building inclusivity into our digital development work in a way that marginalized communities can maximize digital technologies to meet their socioeconomic and livelihood needs,” Burns added. Until now, many of USAID’s digital investments were fragmented or redundant. These haven’t always aligned with best practices outlined in the Principles for Digital Development, which are embraced by a growing list of donors and implementing organizations, he said. Burns is working to change that. This year, his priorities include exploring the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as finalizing the agency’s AI action plan. He pointed to the work that USAID’s global health bureau has done in partnership with Digital Square — an initiative led by global health NGO PATH to build a digital health marketplace — to map nearly 3,000 digital tools in 135 countries and match them to needs in the COVID-19 response, citing it as an example of the agency’s transition to more strategic digital investments across USAID priorities, including health, climate, and democracy. Burns is also focused on tackling the “digital divide” — the gap between those who benefit from technology and those who do not — which is driven by factors such as nonexistent or unaffordable internet connectivity and a lack of digital literacy. USAID’s digital strategy includes a digital ecosystem framework highlighting the connections between “digital infrastructure and adoption”; the “digital economy”; and “digital society, rights, and governance.” Burns said part of his mandate is to ensure that digital infrastructure and the technologies it supports are designed, deployed, and managed in a way that fosters individual freedoms, innovation, and market competition. “As we are embracing the growth of the digital age, we’ve seen that it’s given governments the ability to surveil, to sensor, and to repress unlike ever before,” he said. And while he did not explicitly mention China, the nation’s role in technology infrastructure and data governance in low- and middle-income countries is an area of growing concern for many donors working on digital development. The U.S. government and its allies have an important role to play in ensuring that digital ecosystems are open, inclusive, and secure; that they empower local communities; and that they promote norms of human rights, transparency, and accountability, Burns said. He mentioned the State Department’s Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership as one example of that. Burns acknowledged that competing priorities could pose challenges for his agenda. “We always run the risk of folks possibly seeing digital development as just another thing,” he said. Burns said he hopes his USAID colleagues will get to the point where they “understand that we can no longer ignore the role of digital technologies — and not even just that, but [that] we aren’t going to be successful in what we do if we aren’t effectively embracing them.” A senior-level position focused on digital development will help the agency pursue this work “in a coordination fashion” such that it “transcends other sectors,” he added. Global coalitions such as the Better Than Cash Alliance, Alliance for Affordable Internet, and Digital Impact Alliance represent instances of bilateral donors and partners from across sectors working in lockstep with one another, Burns said. He said he intends to support more examples where such groups are “aligned in principle and in practice.” Burns also said he hopes that USAID’s designation of a chief digital development officer might lead other donors to consider similar positions. “Then all of a sudden we get to build a body of practice that cuts across donors where we can make sure that again we’re bringing forward the same types of ethos and principles and encouraging our senior leaders and our colleagues everywhere to be aligning accordingly,” he said. “There is a huge ripple effect that comes from that approach.”