THIS is no longer a drill. The world is on fire. Over two million human beings are now infected with the virus that emanated from Wuhan, China in 2019. The coronavirus has spread to almost 200 countries now and claimed the lives of more than a hundred thousand patients. Public health systems of countries are put to the test. Governments continuously develop strategies to prevent their economies from falling apart. Mankind is trying to survive in one piece. Nobody knows with certainty what the world after tomorrow will look.
As we all wait for a cure, the future hangs in a balance, filled with uncertainties. Will our lives go back the way it used to be? Hardly. Human life after Covid-19 will not definitely be the same. The way forward is to bring as many valuable lessons as we can from our experiences. These are the changes I foresee and the important lessons that come with them.
IMPORTANCE OF DATA SHARING. Now we know that ignorance will greatly cause us harm than good. In the post-Covid-19 era, we will now seriously have to embrace information as vital to everything we do as ordinary citizens, policy makers or government leaders. We need to understand the value of exchanging information as key to solving problems. We have never seen before a very advanced state of collaboration among countries in the world to produce a vaccine, or testing kits and medical supplies in the fight against the virus. As citizens, even our personal information can play a big role in completing data sets leading to relevant solutions. Even as we campaign for data privacy, the new world will have to discern what data can remain totally in the private realm without adversely affecting the general public.
TARGETTED UPSKILLING FOR DIGITAL JOBS. Our country’s very slow digital transformation especially in business, education, health and social services has proved to be burdensome as we face Covid-19. People queuing to register for amelioration, crowding grocery stores, gathering in public to receive important information, among other activities, show how little digital solutions are available and functional for citizens. Our lack of a national digital skills competence framework for citizens unlike other countries bars as from objectively assessing how we can harness new jobs after the pandemic – jobs utilizing digital platforms. Sadly, the digital jobs industry is going to be the rule rather than the exception. Our country needs to seriously migrate all learning platforms to digital which allows end-users to learn and derive the same benefits or even more than from the traditional modes.
CASHLESS SOCIETY. The debate over using or not using digital payment platforms is already settled. Covid-19 has decided who wins – those who can use online banking and digital payment platforms for their regular daily transactions. Digital solutions companies in the Philippines have barely scratched the surface. eCommerce is going to finally become an important aspect of our national economy, from the level of corporates down to the small businesses. Cashless transactions will also force its way into the local government scene, learning from the dismal experience in the implementation of the social amelioration program. Its pitiful to see national government officials apologizing for lack of aggregated data and causing confusion in the process. This would have been acceptable if we were still in the eighties. The national and local government ecosystems after Covid-19 should be purged of individual and factors that block innovation and inter-operability.
eLEARNING AT ALL LEVELS. I have tackled in the previous months the need to increase our productive knowledge as a country. This can only happen when our citizens are imbued with a diverse set of skills – from complex to simple skills, in order to collectively perform activities across a complete value chain. The Philippines can no longer survive with industries that merely produce raw materials or parts of a whole product. We need to step up our manufacturing industry and create complex products like vehicles, aircrafts, medical devices, electronic supplies, end to end solutions and many more. To upgrade the complexity of our economy, it is a requisite that we upgrade the level of our education and training system. Given how Covid-19 has practically paralyzed our educational sector – we already know by now that eLearning is the best way to move forward.
CITIZEN-CENTERED eGOVERNANCE. The laggardness of many government offices and local governments in implementing digitization despite having been mandated under the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Law and other laws shows the recalcitrant attitude of the public sector towards accountability and transparency. I see no other reason. Despite a variety of excuses, it shows how government simply plays lip service when officials speak about efficiency and ease in transacting with government. If there was enough sincerity, many public offices would have already installed solutions that will really provide ease to citizens. On the other hand, I have yet to hear a citizen demanding to see the necessary revisions to the city’s citizen’s charter to match the provisions of the EODB Law and in the process making the said charter a source of actionable rights. Sadly, many citizens do not even know this. In the coming weeks, I shall continue to share more post-Covid-19 forecasts.