Demonstrating a non-governmental agency’s good digital citizenship

Challenge

As a part of a sweeping digital transformation, the agency wanted to ensure digital policies at the global, regional, and country level were aligned with industry best practices.Though the organization isn’t obligated to meet the regulations of any one county, they wanted to operate with ethics and integrity in the digital world, just as they do in the real world.

Approach

I was engaged to spot policy gaps, as well as build awareness and enforcement of digital policies across the organization.In three months, I worked with representatives from all 190 countries to:

• Examine and enhance policy competency within the organization
• Delegate the digital policy function to the organization’s legal counsel
• Clarify how and how much digital team members’ (e.g., donors, fundraising arm, etc.) input will be incorporated into digital policy
• Formalize accountability for digital policy authoring
• Close any digital policy gaps by programmatically addressing the highest priorities
• Operationalize the policy lifecycle, especially how policies would be adapted and remediated

Outcomes

Collaborating transparently with stakeholders in the IT, communications, fundraising, and legal departments, I was able to instill digital policy stewardship, as well as policy authoring, within the organization. Together, we developed 15 global policies applicable everywhere the agency works.Because the agency can drive policy with greater authority and evolve its practices, it’s able to maintain a high-quality digital presence that extends its humanitarian commitment online.