Armando José Manzueta Peña, Vice Minister for Public Innovation and Digital, Ministry of Public Administration of the Dominican Republic, Dominican Republic

1) What does public service mean to you? Can you share more about your role in the public sector?

Public service, to me, is about making the State feel human again.

I’ve always believed government should reduce friction in people’s lives, not add more to it. A lot of my work revolves around that idea: how do we build institutions that are simpler, more connected, and more respectful of people’s time and dignity?

I currently serve as Vice Minister for Public Innovation and Digital at the Ministry of Public Administration in the Dominican Republic.

My work focuses on digital development, public innovation, and Digital Public Infrastructure. That includes things like interoperability, digital identity, citizen-centered services, and helping institutions work together better instead of operating in silos.

But honestly, beyond the technical terms, what motivates me is the possibility of designing a State that feels less like a maze and more like a bridge. 

2) Tell us about a project you championed. What impact did it have on the community?

One of the projects I’ve helped champion is the development of a national Digital Public Infrastructure ecosystem in the Dominican Republic.

The simplest way to explain it is this: for too long, citizens have had to navigate government like detectives. Carrying papers from office to office, repeating the same information, trying to understand systems that were never really designed around people.

We’re trying to change that. Our work focuses on building shared digital infrastructure so institutions can connect securely and services can become simpler, more proactive, and more citizen-centered.

Things like interoperable systems, unified citizen accounts, digital credentials, and service orchestration.

The real impact is not technological. It’s human.

It’s about giving people back time, reducing frustration, and making public services feel more accessible and dignified, especially for those who are usually the most affected by bureaucratic complexity. 

3) As a young professional, how has your unique background or perspective allowed you to identify a solution that others in your organisation might have overlooked?

I think my perspective comes from moving between different worlds very early on: technology, public policy, civic spaces, startups, philosophy, and public administration.

Because of that, I’ve never really looked at government as a collection of isolated institutions. I see it more as an interconnected system.

One thing I noticed early is that many governments digitise procedures without redesigning the actual experience behind them. They take inefficient processes and simply move them online.

What interested me more was redesigning the architecture itself: shared infrastructure, interoperability, common standards, systems that quietly work together behind the scenes.

I’m also deeply drawn to simplicity and good design. I think beautiful systems are often the ones that feel intuitive, coherent, and almost invisible to people. That mindset has shaped how I approach public innovation. 

4) What is your personal strategy for maintaining your creative energy when faced with bureaucracy?

I try to protect my sense of curiosity very intentionally.

Bureaucracy can make people emotionally flat over time if they’re not careful. So I stay connected to things that remind me the world is still bigger than meetings, regulations, and institutional inertia.

I read a lot outside my field. Literature, philosophy, history, design, technology. Music helps too. So does the sea. So do long conversations with people who still believe things can improve.

I also think maintaining a certain sense of wonder matters. Maybe that sounds strange in government, but I genuinely believe it’s important.

If you lose the ability to imagine better systems, then eventually you stop trying to build them. 

5) If you had just one area to invest in to accelerate transformation in the public sector (regulation, technology, talent, etc.), which one would you choose and why?

Talent.

Technology matters, regulation matters, infrastructure matters, but institutions ultimately move at the speed of the people inside them.

If you have capable, ethical, curious public servants who understand systems and care about citizens, transformation becomes possible. Without that, even the best technology becomes expensive decoration.

I think governments need a new generation of public servants who are interdisciplinary by nature. People who can connect policy, technology, design, operations, and human experience together. 

6) What is your greatest ambition as you grow in your public service career?

My biggest ambition is to help build institutions that genuinely improve people’s quality of life.

Not only more efficient institutions, but more humane ones.

I want to help design a State that feels coherent, trustworthy, and accessible. A State where citizens don’t need to understand bureaucracy in order to access their rights or opportunities.

And personally, I hope I never lose the ability to approach public service with creativity, empathy, and a sense of possibility. I think governments need more imagination than we sometimes admit. 

7) What is a “universal value” that connects everyone in your department – from interns to directors – and how do you use that to drive collaboration?

Purpose.

At the end of the day, most people who choose public service want to feel their work matters in some way. Even in difficult systems, that instinct is still there.

Whenever projects become too abstract or too institutional, I try to reconnect conversations to the actual human impact. Who are we helping? What becomes easier? What frustration are we removing from someone’s life?

That usually helps align people again. 

8) What is the best piece of advice you’ve got for the next generation of public servants?

Don’t confuse cynicism with wisdom.

It’s easy to become pessimistic in public service because institutions move slowly and problems are complex. But meaningful change has always depended on people stubborn enough to keep building anyway.

I’d also say: stay curious. Learn across disciplines. Some of the most important work today happens between fields, not inside them.

And try not to lose your humanity in the process. Public service is ultimately about people, not procedures. 

9) What is a myth you wish to debunk about young public servants?

That young public servants are naïve or unrealistic.

Most young professionals entering government understand perfectly well how difficult institutions can be. The difference is that many of us are less willing to accept fragmentation, inefficiency, or unnecessary complexity as permanent realities.

I think younger generations bring a systems mindset. We naturally think in terms of networks, collaboration, interoperability, and user experience because that’s the environment we grew up in.

We’re not trying to tear institutions down. We’re trying to help them evolve. 

10) Write a letter to your future self in 2035. Please keep it within 200 words.

Dear Armando,

I hope you kept your sense of wonder.

I hope responsibility never hardened you to the point where you stopped seeing beauty in simple things: the sea at sunset, good music during a late drive home, a well-designed public space, a conversation that changes your perspective.

I hope the systems you helped build made life a little easier for ordinary people. Not perfect. Just better. Simpler. More humane.

And I hope you never forgot that behind every policy, platform, or reform there are real people trying to live their lives with dignity.

If you succeeded, stay humble.

If you failed, I hope you failed trying to build something meaningful instead of settling for comfort.

Please don’t become cynical. The world already has enough cynical people.

Keep reading strange books. Keep dreaming about better cities, better institutions, and better futures. Keep protecting the part of you that still feels amazed by what humanity can build together.

And hopefully by now, you finally learned how to leave work early enough to watch the sunset sometimes.

See you in 2035. 

The story was made possible due a partnership with CDPI - Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure.