Annina Wersun, Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer, OpenCRVS, United Kingdom

1. How do you use technology/policy to improve citizens’ lives? Tell us about your role or organisation. 

At OpenCRVS, we develop, manage and maintain the world’s only Digital Public Good (DPG - open-source software) for civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS).

CRVS is the registration of major life events, such as births, deaths and marriages, and the use of that data for planning purposes, ultimately trying to improve people’s lives.

One in four children around the world do not legally exist because their birth has not been registered, making them invisible and ultimately vulnerable. Birth registration provides people with a formal recognition of their identity, granting them legal rights and access to citizenship.

It is crucial for accessing a wide range of services, including education, healthcare and social welfare.

Two-thirds of the world’s deaths are not registered, and there is little data at all on marriages. Civil registration is the only continuous source of population data -- data that helps in shaping policies and ensuring that resources are distributed effectively.

Imagine that you knew that high numbers of girls under 18 were dying during childbirth in a specific area. That knowledge means governments and their partners could invest in more targeted campaigns and health services to reduce this number.

At OpenCRVS, we have designed a DPG that ensures that all countries can provide effective civil registration services. We aim to ensure that every person on the planet is recognised, protected and provided for, from birth.

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2. What was the most impactful project you worked on this year? 

One of the major challenges of managing a Digital Public Good is striking a balance between developing the “core” product and responding to the needs of individual countries around the world, with a relatively small team.

We recently changed our organisational structure to separate core product development from “impact expansion” work, that is increasing the impact that we can achieve through implementations of OpenCRVS around the world. As Chief Impact Officer, I lead this work.

By making this organisational change, we have immediately been able to protect our core product team’s time, so they can focus on writing excellent code and delivering our ever-growing backlog, and also ensure that we spend the time required to support country implementations and capacity building.

This allows us to deliver more value across the board to our seven ongoing country implementations and ensure that no one is left behind.

3. What was one unexpected learning from 2024? 

I spent many years traveling extensively for work, and I grew comfortable with the identity associated with that. This year, I actively chose to spend more time at home.

As the team has grown, my colleagues have learned to navigate the trips required to support country activities, while I have learned to let go of some of the things that I have done for a long time.

This shift in dynamics has taught me that it’s amazing to have time to think. Space is critical when co-running an organisation.

I previously treated it as a luxury not meant for people who get things done; now I increasingly lean in to time with my thoughts and feel curiosity around where this can take OpenCRVS and our team.

I’ve also realised how much I enjoy and benefit from routine. Going to bed at a consistent time, waking up early to enjoy time to myself before the day begins, and most importantly for me - scheduled and planned exercise. 

4. What’s a tool or technique you’re excited to explore in 2025? 

I’m excited to work with our implementation community to see if we can mobilise a dynamic, human-centred feedback process that will allow us to rapidly gather, synthesise and put into action feedback on designs, concepts and prototypes for the OpenCRVS product.

Truly capturing all countries' requirements in a product that can benefit all of them.

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5. Everybody’s talking about AI today – give us your hot take on AI and what it means for the public sector.

AI has a lot of potential. However, that potential is limited, and we must all be aware of the risks that technology poses.

Right now, using AI to do day-to-day tasks more efficiently can be a game changer - drafting job descriptions, writing complex formulas and quickly consuming concise, bite-size information.

I would encourage every individual and organisation to invest in a basic working knowledge of using AI for these tasks.

For the Public Sector, AI could be transformative based on its ability to learn, synthesise and become an “expert” in something. This could democratize access to legal, citizen and medical advice.

However, I also strongly believe that AI is not equivalent to the human mind and not able to mimic human nature.

Public products and services need to reflect human needs, wants and desires, and not just efficiency - we very much need our humanness when designing for people.

6. What are your priorities for 2025? 

1. Work with our country and technical partners to ensure the success of the seven ongoing implementations of OpenCRVS (success = national-scale rollout and effective service-delivery that contributes to universal registration. We must leave no-one behind!).

2. Kick-off implementations with at least five more countries in our country pipeline.

3. Spend more time thinking “commercially” to ensure we can generate revenue to become sustainable.

4. Continue to invest in my well-being by prioritising exercise, nutrition, and spending time with the most important people in my life. 

7. What advice do you have for public sector innovators? 

It is easy when working in the public sector to settle for “good enough”, due to the lack of funds and bureaucracy that can make progress hard.

But as public servants, our role is to make products and services that delight and help people.

I want our end-users to walk away with their birth certificate and think,“that was the best service I’ve ever experienced”.

I want people to register a death and think, “they made that so easy for me and treated me so kindly”. Innovation doesn’t need to be complex; it needs to solve people’s problems and consider our shared humanity.

8. Who inspires you today? 

I’m incredibly lucky to have worked with my Co-Founder Ed Duffus for 10 years.

I began working for him at Plan International, and we quickly established a great relationship.

Nearly five years ago, we left Plan International to start our own company, because we believed in the power of OpenCRVS. Ed inspires me, because he learns from everyone around him.

He embraces the opinions of others and continuously grows. He thinks about things deeply when he isn’t convinced, and he cares so much about what we do.

OpenCRVS was Ed’s dream, and I’m delighted that I get to work alongside him to make it a reality.

This feature was made possible in partnership with the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA).