Digital Government & AI Governance

Gastón Sola

Strategy to Execution  ·  Chevening Scholar at UCL  ·  Former General Director, Buenos Aires City Government & National Director, Argentine Presidency

I work at the intersection of government, data, and AI — designing systems that make public institutions more effective and accountable. Currently completing an MSc in Data Science and Public Policy at UCL (Chevening Scholar) and contributing to UNDP's Digital, AI and Innovation Hub on DPI Safeguards for Latin America.

Previously & currently working with

UCL · Universidad Austral · UNSAM · UNR · INCAE Business School · UNDP · Buenos Aires City Government · Argentine Presidency · Buenos Aires Province · Global Shapers / WEF · Chatham House · Goodenough College · Chevening · Hanns Seidel Foundation · Bolsa de Comercio de Rosario

Research & Writing

Working Paper 2026

Minding the Gap: Multi-Channel Citizen Voice as a Policy-Analysis Capacity

Analyses Buenos Aires' citizen-listening framework as a policy-analysis capacity bridging operational dashboards and citizen perception across four public services. Develops a DPI-aligned conceptual model with implications for government feedback systems.

Working Paper 2026

Instant Payments and Labor Formalization: Evidence from PIX in Brazil

Triple-difference (DDD) analysis of 5,570 Brazilian municipalities examining whether PIX adoption expanded or substituted formal employment in cash-intensive sectors (2017–2023). Main finding: transitory negative effect peaking in 2021, reverting by 2023.

Research Paper 2026

Determinants of County-Level Democratic Swing (2016–2020)

Multi-source pipeline integrating electoral results, FRED unemployment data, MIT living-wage proxies, and SEER demographics. OLS regression with Monte Carlo validation (1,000 iterations; bias = 0.0004) confirms retrospective economic voting.

Research Design 2025

AI and Regulatory Enforcement: A Comparative Study of Tax Administrations

Comparative research design studying how AI risk-scoring tools shift enforcement posture across four tax administrations: Argentina (ARCA), Brazil (Receita Federal), Estonia (EMTA), and the Netherlands (Belastingdienst).

Literature Review 2026

AI-Driven Automation and Digital Era Governance: A Critical Review

Systematic review of 13 studies examining whether Digital Era Governance strategies and AI-driven automation offer a more effective solution to bureaucratic red tape than traditional deregulation approaches.

MPP Thesis 2024

Towards an Integrated National System of Grants and Social Benefits for Argentina

Policy proposal for restructuring Argentina's national benefit and scholarship system, with comparative analysis of four Latin American cases (Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Peru) and a framework for interoperable beneficiary registries.

Selected Work

Data Analytics · M&E

Multi-Channel Citizen Voice & Service Gap Analysis

Designed and implemented a multi-channel citizen feedback system for Buenos Aires City Government, integrating data from digital platforms, call centres, and field channels across 180 public services. Built the analytical framework connecting citizen voice data to policy decisions and service redesign priorities for ministerial leadership.

Data Governance · Analytics

Integrated Performance Management System — Buenos Aires City Government

Built GCBA's integrated monitoring system from scratch: 500+ KPIs across 15 ministries, 20 automated database pipelines, and 20 executive dashboards in Power BI and Looker for real-time intelligence to the Chief of Cabinet. Certified gold by Bloomberg Philanthropies' City Data Alliance as a reference model for data-driven governance in Latin America.

AI Governance · DPI 2026

DPI Safeguards Framework for Latin America & the Caribbean — UNDP

Contributing to the design of responsible deployment frameworks for Digital Public Infrastructure across Latin America and the Caribbean at UNDP's Digital, AI and Innovation Hub. Work focuses on governance safeguards, risk classification criteria, and implementation standards for AI-enabled public infrastructure at country level.

Programme Evaluation · Reform

Social Protection & Welfare System Reform — Buenos Aires City Government

Led integrated evaluation and reform of Buenos Aires City's social protection portfolio — 120 programmes across 6 agencies. Included clustering analysis to identify overlaps, elimination of duplications, redesign of eligibility criteria, and implementation of a centralised subsidy management model (ABM) to unify targeting and administration across the system.

Institutional Reform · National

Presidential Reform Decrees — Argentine Cultural Sector

Led the evidence-based institutional reform process at the Argentine Presidency that resulted in 9 presidential decrees on regulatory simplification, organisational restructuring, and efficiency in the national cultural sector. Included institutional diagnostics, capacity gap analysis, and cross-agency coordination to translate policy objectives into enacted regulation.

Large-scale Implementation

School Network Operationalisation — Buenos Aires Province

Directed the operational rollout of an educational innovation programme across 2,000 schools in Buenos Aires Province. Managed delivery of 250,000 books and 7,000 devices, coordinated 200+ field teams, and built the tracking and reporting systems that gave ministerial leadership real-time visibility into implementation progress across districts.

Selected Engagements

Conferences, forums, and policy events

About

I work at the intersection of government operations, data systems, and AI policy. My career has moved between designing public management systems at scale and producing applied research that informs how governments should deploy digital technology responsibly.

As General Director of Monitoring & Evaluation at Buenos Aires City Government, I built the city's citizen feedback infrastructure from the ground up — integrating perception surveys, operational data, and AI-assisted analysis into a system that now shapes budget and service decisions across millions of residents. As National Director of Evaluation and Citizen Feedback at Argentina's Presidency, I led the evaluation of federal social programmes and drove registry interoperability across 12 national agencies.

I hold a Chevening Scholarship for my MSc at UCL, am a Hanns Seidel Foundation Scholar, and a member of Chatham House and Goodenough College, London. I am also a former President of the Global Shapers Hub Rosario (World Economic Forum) and recipient of the Freedom of the City of London (2026).

Education

2025–2026
MSc Data Science and Public Policy
University College London (UCL)
Chevening Scholar · Goodenough College, London
2022–2024
Master en Políticas Públicas (MPP)
Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires
Distinción · Hanns Seidel Foundation Scholar
2018–2021
Master en Planificación y Gestión del Transporte
UNSAM · Universidad Nacional de San Martín
2019
Licenciatura en Gestión de Operaciones
UNR · Universidad Nacional de Rosario

Affiliations & Recognition

Chatham House — Member

Goodenough College, London — Resident Member

Global Shapers Community, World Economic Forum — Alumni & former President, Rosario Hub (2014–2023). Represented Argentina at WEF events in Geneva, Brazil, Paraguay, and Costa Rica.

Freedom of the City of London — 2026

UNDP Digital, AI & Innovation Hub — Contributor, DPI Safeguards LAC

Tools & Skills

Technical Tools

Python · R · SQL · Power BI · Looker · Advanced Excel · LLMs & Prompt Engineering

Certifications

Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) · IELTS 7.5 — English C1 · CELPE-BRAS — Portuguese Advanced

Languages

Spanish (native) · English (C1) · Portuguese (advanced) · French (in progress)

Get in touch

I'm interested in roles and collaborations at the intersection of digital government, AI governance, and international development — particularly with multilateral organisations, large technology companies working in the public sector, and policy research institutions.