Modernising Public Administration: The BMZ Data Lab on International Events

At the beginning of June, the BMZ Data Lab participated in the Creative Bureaucracy Festival (CBF) in Berlin and the UNESCO conference “Capacity Building on AI and Digital Transformation in the Public Sector” in Paris to highlight innovative approaches in development cooperation and public administration.

The CBF session “Game Changer Data” gathered more than 200 participants. The data labs of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV), and the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ) jointly presented their approaches and applications for modern and smart public administrations. Approaches included the use of artificial intelligence (AI), interactive dashboards, and the promotion of data literacy and culture.

When asked in a live survey, which challenges they are presented with when using data, many participants from the audience replied with “data protection”, “data quality”, or “data competency” – themes that the data labs address through their data innovations and capacity building measures. As innovation units within the German Federal Public Administration, the data labs develop, test, and scale smart approaches to make political decision-making processes data-informed.

Data-informed decisions also laid the grounds for the workshop “Translating Data into Policy: Mapping Challenges, Crafting Solutions”, organised by GIZ Data2Policy. Based on real-life use cases on labor market data and climate change, policy-makers and private sector representatives learned how data is used for evidence-based decision-making processes.

These topics also resonated on the international stage: At the margins of the UNESCO Conference on Capacity Building on AI and Digital Transformation in the Public Sector, the BMZ Data Lab, together with PARIS21 and the GIZ initiative Data2Policy, hosted the hands-on workshop “The AI Advantage: Smarter Data, Smarter Decisions”. The focus: how to make evidence-based policymaking work in the digital age. At the heart of the discussions was the critical role of reliable data and responsible AI in informing political decision-making. Through interactive exercises, policymakers explored key challenges, opportunities, and practical applications of generative AI.

Three key takeaways from the workshop:

• Data as a foundation: High-quality data enables strategic decisions – provided it is purposefully analyzed and applied.
• The public sector as a role model: Governments should lead by example in using AI transparently, fairly, and in the public interest.
• Room for innovation: Developing new data- and AI-driven solutions requires space to test, learn – and occasionally fail.

These themes were also central to a panel at the UNESCO conference featuring FAIR Forward, PARIS21, and the Ghana Data Protection Commission. The session included the presentation of the FAIR Forward AI Policy Playbook – a practical tool for developing context-sensitive AI governance.

The common message of both sessions in Paris: Progress depends on collaboration, local ownership, and responsible data and AI governance. This is exactly where BMZ and its partners are focusing their efforts.