The United Nations University – Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV) participated in the EGOV-CeDEM-ePart 2026 Conference, held in Athens, Greece, from 30 August to 3 September 2026.
Demetrios Sarantis, Lead Research Analyst at UNU-EGOV, presented the paper “The Rationalization of Digital Governance: Interpreting the Shift from Fragmented to Unified Open Data Portals in Local Government”, co-authored with Delfina Soares, Deniz Susar and Vincenzo Aquaro.
The study analysed the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) local e-government assessment data from 2022 and 2024, examining changes in Open Government Data provision. Results indicate growing policy commitment and a reduction in the share of cities reporting multiple OGD portals, from 40% to 30%.
The research highlights how consolidating fragmented data infrastructures can strengthen data governance, improve discoverability and support more coordinated and sustainable local digital government.
