The Australia Awards South Asia & Mongolia program is seeking technical proposals from Registered Training Organisations in Australia, or Australian tertiary institutions as defined in the Higher Education Support Act, 2003 Table A, B and C, to design and deliver a Short Course on Digital Transformation: Balancing Innovation, Integrity and Inclusion (Multi-country).
Australia Awards – South Asia & Mongolia (the Program) is seeking a cost-effective training program for up to 20 participants. This Short Course will be delivered via blended delivery over three months, commencing in February 2027 and completing no later than May 2027.
The proposed Short Course aims to address the gap between policy ambition and implementation capability by equipping mid- to senior-level policymakers with applied, decision-relevant knowledge.
The course will be designed to complement and strengthen existing national strategies, enabling participants to:
Interpret and operationalise national digital and AI policies within their institutional contexts.
Design coherent regulatory frameworks for AI, data governance, and digital markets.
Oversee implementation of digital public infrastructure (e.g. digital ID, payment systems, service platforms).
Align innovation policy with economic development priorities, including entrepreneurship and industry transformation.
Manage cross-government coordination and stakeholder engagement in complex digital ecosystems.
Consider how digital transformation can be designed and implemented in ways that respect Indigenous rights and ICIP, and ensure equitable participation.
Apply gender-responsive and intersectional analysis to AI, data governance, digital public infrastructure and platform regulation.
Identify and mitigate gender bias in AI systems, automated decision-making and digital service delivery.
Strengthen policy responses to online and technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including harms affecting women, girls and gender-diverse people.
Promote women’s leadership, entrepreneurship and workforce participation in digital economies and innovation ecosystems.
Consider how digital transformation can be designed and implemented in in ways that respect Indigenous rights and ICIP, recognise the leadership and experiences of Indigenous women, and ensure equitable participation.
Through policy dialogue, applied learning, and engagement with Australian and regional subject matter experts, participants will explore how to design and implement frameworks that harness digital technologies for growth and inclusion—while safeguarding societies against misinformation, exploitation, and inequitable digital power structures. Crucially, the course will facilitate cross-country learning, allowing participants to compare approaches, leveraging their own country’s experience.
The Short Course will support participants to:
Accelerate implementation of existing national strategies.
Reduce policy and regulatory risk in adopting emerging technologies.
Build more inclusive, resilient, and innovation-driven digital economies.
Apply gender-responsive and intersectional approaches to AI governance, digital public infrastructure, data policy and platform regulation.
Strengthen policy responses to online harms, misinformation and technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Promote equitable participation in digital transformation, including for women, young people, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, rural communities and other groups experiencing structural inequality.
Strengthen their country’s capacity to govern, deploy, and leverage technologies effectively in pursuit of national development goals.
