GDS tracks 'digital by default' progress of top 25 government services

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has launched a new website to track the progress of the 25 transactions targeted as the first to be put online under the new digital strategy.

The 25 services – ranging from visa applications to benefit claims to booking prison visits – were identified as “exemplars” that would be the first to be redeveloped under the “digital by default” plan to put more public services online.

Since the strategy was launched at the end of 2012, 13 of the transactions have reached the discovery phase, six are in alpha, five in beta, and part of one – student finance – is already live.

The aim is to digitally transform the 25 services – among those most widely – in a 400-day time period that started earlier in 2013. The progress updates were provided today at a GDS event, called Sprint Alpha, to mark the conclusion of the first 100 days of the plan.

“We’ve really focused on growing out the transformation programme of 25 exemplar projects. A lot of that has been done quietly and in departments, out of the gaze of the public eye,” said Mike Bracken, executive director of GDS in a video published on the Cabinet Office website.

“The spending round took more time than anyone could have guessed, but we’re though that and looking forward to our transformation of public services.”

A statement from the Cabinet Office added: “This is the start of a transformation that will mean people can interact with government in the same way they do with their bank or with retailers.”

Over the next three months, the digital strategy will focus on moving more than 300 agencies’ and arms-length government bodies’ websites across to the central Gov.UK web platform; as well as publishing a new governance model for the delivery of technology across Whitehall to support the digital strategy, which is expected this month.

The Cabinet Office claims that the digital strategy will save over £1.2bn, by moving online a number of costly phone, postal and face-to-face transactions.

In Africa, Obama lauds democracy but urges progress on gay rights

DAKAR - President Barack Obama, kicking off a long-awaited African tour, lauded a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage as a victory for democracy and urged African nations to end discrimination against homosexuals.

In only his second visit to Africa since taking office, Obama hailed the advance of democracy there and said he was looking at ways to extend the AGOA free trade agreement, due to expire in 2015, to create more jobs on the world's poorest continent.

"I see this a moment of great promise for the continent," Obama told a news conference in Senegal's capital Dakar. "All too often the world overlooks the amazing progress that Africa is making, including progress in strengthening democracy."

Flanked by Senegal's President Macky Sall, Obama said the treatment of lesbians and gays in Africa remained "controversial". Homosexuality is illegal in Muslim Senegal.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday, announced as Obama flew to Senegal aboard Air Force One, made married gay men and women eligible for federal benefits, striking down part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.

"It was a victory for American democracy," Obama said. "At the root of who we are as a people, who we are as Americans, is the basic precept that we are all equal under the law."

However, the court fell short of a broader ruling endorsing a fundamental right of gay people to marry, meaning there will be no impact in the more than 30 states that do not recognize gay marriage.

Human rights group Amnesty International had urged Obama to use his African trip to speak out against threats to gays and lesbians, which it said were reaching dangerous levels on the continent.

Consensual same-sex conduct is a crime in 38 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with some seeking to enact new laws that increase existing penalties, Amnesty said.

While voicing respect for the diversity of cultures and religions in Africa, Obama - the first African-American president of the United States - called for steps to make homosexuals equal before the law. He compared gay rights in Africa to racial struggles in the United States.

"When it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people, I believe that everybody has to be treated equally," Obama said, though he added he had not specifically discussed this with Sall.

SENEGAL "NOT HOMOPHOBIC"

Sall, who won office last year in West Africa's oldest democracy, said there was no persecution of gays in Senegal.

"We are not homophobic," he said "Senegal is a country that respects freedoms. Gays are not persecuted, but for now they must accept the choices of other Senegalese."

Obama was feted by flag-waving crowds on Dakar's streets. During his first term, Obama's only African trip was a one-day stopover in Ghana and many Africans have been impatient for him to make an extended tour of the continent.

Visiting Senegal's Supreme Court, Obama praised the independence of the former French colony's judiciary.

Senegal is pursuing a high-level corruption case against the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade on charges of embezzling up to $1.4 billion during his father's 12-year presidency.

It is also conducting a trial of Chad's ex-dictator Hissene Habre on charges of crimes against humanity - the first time a former leader of one African state has been tried by another.

"Trade and investment around the world increasingly flow to places where there are rules and courts play an important role in that," Obama said, praising Senegal's institutions.

Obama said he had instructed U.S. officials to finalize a new trade and investment pact with the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which includes economic heavyweight Nigeria.

Washington is also looking to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) when it expires in 2015. The deal, signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 2000, slashes customs duties for African countries building free markets.

"I am looking for ways to renew it but also improve it so it can generate more jobs," Obama said.

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