Digital Maturity Assessments for Arab States
The e-Governance Academy experts conducted public sector digital maturity assessments in two Arab States: Lebanon and Kuwait. The aim of the assessments was to evaluate the current digital maturity of the public sector in these countries, draw general findings and offer suggestions for further activities in 14 e-government focus areas:
- Political will and support
- E-government coordination
- Financing model
- Legal framework
- Data, digital databases
- Interoperability, secure data exchange
- Secure digital identity and digital signature
- Digital skills
- Access to services, awareness-raising
- E-participation
- Cybersecurity
- Telecommunications and digital infrastructure
- Emerging technologies, innovation
- International cooperation
The Digital Maturity Assessment report can be used as the foundation and inspiration for strategic national documents on digital transformation. The report also serves as an input to the Digital Landscape Assessment tool developed by the UNDP in cooperation with eGA, which helps identifying digital entry points for acceleration towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
In addition, the e-Governance Academy organised 7 webinars for public officials responsible for digital transformation in the Arab States, where a total of 179 participants from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, the State of Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Tunisia took part. The webinars focused on the following topics:
- E-government ecosystem and key elements;
- E-government organisation and digital skills;
- National databases: digital data capturing and management;
- Secure data exchange and interoperability solutions;
- Digital identity for citizens and businesses;
- Organisation of national cyber security;
- Change management for digital transformation.
The project also included a study visit of UNDP officials from the Arab States region to Estonia to learn and exchange about digital governance.
As a final step, a Regional Digital Maturity Outlook was compiled, which summarised the results of the assessments conducted in this project as well as previous projects implemented in cooperation with UNDP, with some countries covered also through desk research. The report provided general insights into the region together with regional recommendations for further digitalization of the public sector and the societies.