The International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration has launched a series of expert interviews within the framework of the Digital Transformation and Sustainable Development Project
On May 16, research fellow Aisylu Atayeva and research assistant Violetta Khomyakova conducted an interview with Anatolie Chekalenko, a leading specialist in the Sustainable Development Services Group of the Business Solutions and Technologies Management Consulting Department, a lecturer at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the St. Petersburg School of Social Sciences at the HSE.
In the interview, Anatolie Chekalenko answered questions about the relationship between sustainable development policies and digital transformation processes in public administration, the need to integrate the principles of sustainable development into strategic documents and public policies, ways to raise awareness of civil servants about the principles of sustainable development and the impact of digital technologies on its implementation.
The expert noted that at the state level there are registries and a number of technological solutions that can be used to track the reporting of organizations on the sustainable development agenda. But at the same time, there are no mandatory requirements for disclosure and confirmation of sustainable development indicators. Strengthening state control in this area can help to increase transparency and responsibility of companies to society in reporting and publishing data, conduct analytics, identify general trends in the Russian market and at the state level in general.
According to Anatolie Chekalenko, the sustainable development agenda is often perceived only in an ecological projection. However, if you look at the Sustainable Development Goals, they relate not so much to the environment as to society: eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, sustainability of cities and human settlements, etc. Therefore, the implementation of digital transformation projects will somehow affect the tasks that were originally on the sustainable development agenda.