Report of the ENP South webinar on ‘Holistic government digital transformation’ held on 12 April 2022.

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SIGMA Webinars for ENP Neighborhood South administrations partner countries
“Optimise and digitalise public administration”
Webinar 1: Holistic government digital transformation
Digital transformation and digitising service delivery are at the top of many government agendas.
Arab countries are not an exception. On 12 April, SIGMA organised the first webinar in a series
of three, focusing on how a whole-of-government approach to digital transformation helps to
avoid fragmentation and new silos being created and takes a connected approach to digitally
transforming public services and their delivery for the benefit of citizens.
This first webinar was attended by 60 participants and practitioners from ENP South and other
Arab states as well as experts from OECD, iInternational organisations and institutions.
Speakers from the EC, OECD, Serbia, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia presented their views, different
experiences of national digital transformation and visions for the way forward,
NICK THIJS, Senior Advisor, SIGMA Programme: presented SIGMA, the OECD and its role
in supporting ENP south countries achieving their digital transformations reforms and plans.
SANDRA LAQUELLE, Policy Officer, Public administration reform, European
Commission, DGNEAR confirmed the Commission’s strong support to the countries of the
Mediterranean neighbuorhood, concerning the development of digital in the administration
through financial support, twinning and study visit projects. Laquelle stressed the need for
consistency at the level of the various digital development projects in the administration, as well
as at the level of institutional co-ordination, at the technical but also human level. Another
important issue relates to building a holistic, coherent approach to digital transformation in public
administration as this relates to the link between the administration and the citizens on the one
hand, and the administration and businesses on the other.
MOHAMMAD SEAR, Digital Government & Public Sector Lead, Middle East and North
Africa:
“Re-imagining vs traditional approaches”
There is a huge change happening in the world and this region is not different: from a digital
governance transformation perspective, there is a tremendous difference between the traditional
approach and the “re-imagining” approach.
In traditional approaches, digital technologies are used to transform digital government services
and processes. By and large, this is how the Arab region has gone about digital technologies in
government so far.
The re-imagining approach is about how should government evolve to operate in an increasingly
digital world, which is significantly different as it is about looking at the business model of today’s
age. We are living in a different age, which is taking us more and more online, therefore we need

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to interact and to provide services in a different way. Even within an organisation there is a need
to operate differently as there are many more operating models that have been tested in the
digital age. New organisations are emerging that are purely digital.
To better contextualise, from a governance perspective, digital government means the executive
part of the overall governance structure. Therefore, digital government transformation is mainly
about reimagining the services, the channels, the operations, the decision making, and how
organisations are lead .
If we choose the example of the passport, the traditional approach is how can we make the
application process digital, easier, online, accessible, or even how can we make it more proactive
and predictive. So, the government will send passport holders reminders telling them that their
passport will expire in three months. The second step is the processing of the application. Once
this latter is submitted, how does the agency dealing with passport procesg the application, what
technology can be used to fast-track this processing. The third step is the product itself. How to
make it smarter and better. The last part is getting it to the final user.
The re-imagining approach starts with asking a fundamental question: Why does a passport
exist? The answer would be that passports exist to enable travel. The second question is: how
can we enable travel in this digital age we are living in? The answer is that we do not need a
passport anymore, with facial recognition, or finger prints, we are able to pass through
immigration and re-enter the country. Therefore, the problem to solve is not producing a smarter
passport, or digitising the application process, but is about interoperability between different
countries, securely and confidentially, so that data can be exchanged.
Another example is the birth certificate and creating a digital form of it. While the application
process and access could be improved, you ask the question: what problem is this certificate
solving? If the purpose is verification, then you do not need to create a digital form. All that is
needed is to have a digital register of birth that can be verified. The verification itself could be
synchronised so it happens automatically in the background and the person does not even know
that the birth certificate has been verified.
“Government approaches to digital transformation of services”
Many governments are adopting a siloed approach while developing their services and improving
digital technologies. Agencies are still thinking of themselves as a isolated organisations while at
the same looking at developing digital transformation. Citizens must deal with different agencies
but the services that an agency provides may not completely fulfill a need. For example, starting
a business may require dealing with many different agencies. It is wiser to bundle all the different
services that need to be used to start a business together into one service with each step
connected through a workflow, so that there is no need to deal with numerous different agencies.
This is traditionally called moving towards life event-based services. The same thing could be
applied to finding a job, having a baby, getting married, etc.
Today, many organisations are still looking at themselves in silo while creating applications and
digital platforms. This is leading to a very fragmented experience for users: hundreds of
fragmented mobile apps, of fragmented photos, of fragmented kiosks and complex service
centres. This fragmentation is causing a huge challenge for users. Development of single
platforms and omnichannel experiences that are primarily but not uniquely digital is needed,
while we need to keep in mind that around 50% of the population of the world is still not connected
and does nothave online access. Therefore, in order to avoid creating an additional divide and

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leaving people behind, service or contact centres are still needed in parallel to entirely online
digital platforms. Re-imagining the way a government is run also means moving to a single,
omnichannel experience, which will simplify access, so this again means reimagining the way we
run government and will require a different mindset towards the operating model.
Finally, the Metaverse could be a game changer for all governments around the world in the way
they interact with citizens and deliver services. This is the always-connected virtual world that is
going to be parallel to our physical world and some countries are already showing their leadership
in this position. South Korea is one of them and Dubai was first to do a ministerial press
conference in the metaverse.
In brief, the future is about thinking differently and re-imagining; taking a step back and seeing
how governments can deliver their services, operate and interact with citizens.
BARBARA UBALDI, Head of the digital government and data unit, OECD
“Whole-of-government digital transformation components”
The COVID-19 pandemic was a very important moment of reflection that stressed the importance
of having digital government strategy initiatives and practices for making the life of our citizens
and businesses different in the changing context. It is also important to governments to
demonstrate that they are up to expectations on dealing with emergencies and making the most
of investments on the use of digital tools and data in administrations. COVID-19 has shown that
in many cases governments were front liners in terms of having to go digital overnight andto
transfer civil servants online and they were capable of doing it beyond expectations in many
cases.
Mature digital governments can balance risks and opportunities to shape public governance that
is human-centered, fair and sustainable, and helps deal with national and cross-border problems.
Since 2014, the OECD has been advocating for a change in the approach of how we think the
use of digital within administrations, going from the e-government to digital government. For
many decades, governments have been investing in the use of digital within administrations
primarily with the purpose of increasing the use of technology for efficiency of government
services, without really thinking of how the use of technology and data could change the way the
administration works. Going from silo-based investments, from vertical decisions to a horizontal
integrated environment in which technology becomes an enabler of important changes, on how
to design and deliver public services. When we think about designing, we think about finding
ways to cut barriers.
The digital government recommendation that was adopted by the OECD in 2014 has been the
foundation to understand how to go from e-government to digital government.
Ubaldi presented the six core dimensions that describe the OECD digital government policy
framework, that once strengthened, can make a government more capable of using digital tools
and data to better serve societies and economies. Foundational dimensions: 1. Digital by design
2. Data-driven 3. Government as a Platform 4. Open by default. Transformational dimensions: 5.
User-driven 6. Proactiveness.
We need to connect the whole-of-government approach not only to the idea of using technology
for the results we want to achieve but also to a number of policy actions in government that are
often seen as separate from the full transformation we want to achieve.

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It is about rethinking the governance of digital government, making sure it works and is stronger
around six dimensions and therefore goes from vertical silos to horizontally integrated. This
means connecting the strategies for services and delivering a full digital transformation agenda
and strategy, acknowledging that we need to have the right skills and talents within
administration.
The digital agenda may be used to address emerging priorities and demands (digital democracy,
digital investment, digital green etc.).
Finally, digital government co-operation across borders is essential for addressing today's
challenges between OECD countries and other regions of the world, as well as the MENA region.
MARTA ARSOVSKA TOMOVSKA, Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister and former
Minister for Information Society and Public Administration in the Republic of North
Macedonia.
“Digital government transformation strategies”- where do we start?
Digital transformation is new, therefore countries and practitioners are learning by doing. While
the digital government ecosystem relies on four main pillars: 1) Vision, strategy, and governance
2) policy and regulation 3) infrastructure 4) talent, culture, and communities, realising an imprtant
and efficient digital transformation requires leadership engagement at the top of the hierarchy
(President or Prime Minister). Financial resources are also a sine qua non condition to successful
national digital strategy development and implementation.
1) When thinking about the vision, a government should try to specify its actual situation:
trailblazer, leader, follower, laggard. If the vision purpose is to have satisfied citizens, then
a government needs to be efficient, fast and to invest funding and resources. If the
government’s purpose is to have efficiency gain, and to save some funds, then it needs
to introduce robotic process automation and use the latest technologies to improve the
productivity and do more for less.
Moreover, strategies need to be well co-ordinated and agile. Long-term strategies for digital do
nott work because agility is needed as things are changing very fast: people are now talking
about the Metaverse and providing public services in the Metaverse. Three years ago this was
not conceivable.
2) There are many aspects to policy and regulations. People are online and connected
because they have to use digital government, otherwise, if there is no demand, there is
no need supply digital government services if people are not using it. Connectivity is also
important (BB, 5G, etc.). Government has the responsibility for the data policies, registers,
exchange of data, data governance and privacy, tackling open data and security aspect,
taking care of digital identities, video identification, biometrics; and all this needs to be
regulated! When speaking about digital services, we have to think administrative
procedures, laws, the laws that regulate the delivery of public services, their quality,
government experience, interoperability standards, and digital payments etc. The human
resources issue is also to be regulated, how to attract IT talents, how can the digital
government be designed if there are not enough digital technical skills.
3) Infrastructure: Governments need to take care of the physical - networks, data centeres,
cloud, community centres on the one hand, and digital enterprise architecture as a
repository of business, data, application and technology components, digital platform

5. | 5
building blocks, etc. There are sciences, efforts, knowledge and teams that need to
operate together in order to have a digital government.
4) Talent, culture and community : Governments should think about the general public
and the users of services (citizens, elderly, people with disabilities…) and have programs
on digital literacy, digital accessibility and digital services so people know how to use
internet and digital technology and services. For public officials, the government needs
to train them, to create specific programmes on digital government, on service provision
and quality, on design thinking, emerging technologies, data science, on innovation
concepts. Co-creation programmes for public-private sector collaboration, embracing
innovation from outside, GovTech projects working with start-ups on innovating public
services, etc.
Finally, governments must strategise: where do we start from. Assessing digital maturity is very
useful so the government can situate itself and discover the areas of improvement, as well as
revising the existing strategies. As for the implementation and monitoring phases, government
need to build internal digital transformation capabilities
(human/organisational/legislative/infrastructural), source and implement disruptive tech from
outside the government and co-create!
GHADA LABIB, Deputy Minister for Institutional Development at Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Egypt
The ICT strategy in Egypt has three main axes: digital transformation, digital skills and digital
innovation. To be realised, a sound infrastructure and regulatory framework are needed.
Digitisation is an enabler but not an objective. It is a tool that helps implementing the SDGs and
Egypt vision 2030. The two important considerations of this strategy are about enabling
professionals in various sectors and in all ministries in the country to exploit ICT effectively and
about Increasing the number of professionals in the ICT sector itself.
In the framework of the government’s digitisation, the engineering of services has started as well
as the review of infrastructure, applications and databases, to meet citizen demand and
satisfaction.
The government works as well on the sustainability of the digital operations. Many platforms have
been created e.g: the government services channels, government gateway, digital Egypt justice,
secure and smart documents complex that will be all processed in one center, birth and deaths
project through building a specific database that allows constant counting at the national level.
For institutional development, there is a concentration on the ecosystem to ensure that there is
a digital transformation unit in each ministry and governorate that ensures sustainability and data
security. In recent months (January 21 and April 22) 180 532 government employees were
trained on digital capacity building and institutional development programs. Citizens are also
taking advantage of the digital literacy program.
The MCIT is contributing to the presidential initiative called “Decent life initiative “that aims to
improve the quality of life for Egyptians mainly in rural areas, through the installation of fiber optic
cable network, the expansion of mobile network coverage, the modernisation of the postal
services and the eradication of digital illiteracy. This initiative is targeting 20 governates out of
27 and 5000 villages.

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The Digital Egypt platform includes 125 services related to many sectors. It facilitates the access
and the obtention of different vital services.
Finally, Ms. Labib presented the lessons learned, what went well (e.g., the creation of the digital
transformation units, digital transformation academy and the partnerships), and what has not
gone well so far (awareness, resistance, trust and mindset).
NADA KHATER, Head of Digital Transformation Policies and Strategies in Ministry of
Digital Economy & Entrepreneurship, Jordan
In 2021, the Jordanian cabinet approved the National Digital Transformation Strategy 2021-2025
in order to achieve Jordan vision 2025 consisting in accelerating economic growth, supporting
entrepreneurship while enabling social and political stability.
The main principles that fit the national context and that the strategy is focusing on are as follows:
once only principle, one government, digital by default, one stop shop and leaving no one behind.
While prioritising digitising services, the government developed a matrix and measures related
to value for citizens, to economy, to culture, and number of transactions, complexity to citizens
etc. While the collection of data is in progress, approximately 2000 services were collected for
analysis.
The challenges to driving Digital Transformation in Jordan are the lack of competent
professionals capable of feeding into the programmes, difference in maturity levels and readiness
for government entities, the leadership, the bureaucracy, legal issues, conflicting initiatives, the
budgetary limitation and constraints, poor public-private partnership.
In order to meet these challenges, a digital transformation governance model was created and
headed by the cabinet. Accountability and planning are foreseen by the ministerial council, while
a national digital transformation committee was formed through a public and private partnership
and includes 70 members and experts. Its mandate is the supervision of the formulation of the
digital transformation strategy, monitoring its implementation, setting of clear KPIs and report
progress to the cabinet. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship is in charge of
developing legislations for digital transformation, developing digital infrastructure, preparing a
roadmap, implementing the strategy and follow up with other government entities.
While data is the core of digital transformation, the situation is problematic when it comes to data
governance because of silos and fragmented approach. Therefore, a clear governance for data
was set, through data classification and management policy. It aims to set a direction and clear
methodology to all government entities to classify data according to its impact of exposure. It has
four main levels of classification: confidential, sensitive, private and public. The policy is the main
enabler towards adopting modern technology including cloud services, AI technologies, etc.
A Data Classification platform was established in order to have a unified place that allows the
measuring of the implementation progress and having one place for government data inventory.
This classification helps deciding on the utilisation of the cloud services.
The mandate of the ministry is to develop the government private cloud, capacity building and
leadership, training and technical assistance, cloud management and preparing instructions and
guidance for government entities.
CHAOUKI CHIHI, Director general, Ministry of Communication Technologies and Digital
Economy, Tunisia

7. | 7
Mr. Chihi presented the governance of the digital transformation of Tunisia, the digital strategy
2025 and the GovTech approach based on life events.
At the level of government, this work is led by the Ministry of Communication Technologies, the
Electronic Administration Unit (Presidency of the Government) and the Digital Strategic
Consulting (Public & Private Sector).
At the sectoral level, there are Sectoral IT centres (Health, Education, Higher Education,
Finance,), while the National Telecommunications Authority is responsible for the regulations,
which is independent.
Concerning the digital strategy, a first 2020 vision has just been completed and a second one,
2025 vision, is underway. It is based on many axes that can be presented as follows:
• Axis 1: Legal framework revision: the objective is to put in place a new framework of a modern
and complete legislation, channeling of new initiatives and forms of technological development.
It is also to revise the institutional framework for better regulation of the sector. So far, a telecoms
code review project is underway and a new digital usage code is also being developed. A new
classification law for data, services and networks is finalised which will serve to implement the
cloud strategy.
• Axis 2: Infrastructure Development: the objective is to develop the interconnection network of
public establishments and the country's very high-speed infrastructure and improve the
penetration rate.
• Axis 3: Hosting capacity and Cloud Strategy’s implementation: the objective is to strengthen the
capacity of sectoral IT centers and Implement our Cloud strategy.
• Axis 4: Digital inclusion (social and financial): aims at reducing the social divide and
guaranteeing greater equity among citizens, through implementing the electronic identification of
the citizen via mobile-ID, e-ID, passport electronic, Bio-ID. The objective is to guarantee access
to digital tools and to improve and diversify electronic payment services.
• Axis 5: Digital transformation of the administration: the objective is to realise a paperless
administration with minimal delays and the modernisation of administration services. One
successful experience was realised lately with the digital vaccine passport, where almost seven
million citizens were granted without the need of going to the administration and without any
visual stamp. One other example is the school registration that can be done totally online
including payment.
• Other Axes: (cybersecurity, monitoring, Retraining for jobs in the digital)
The GovTech approach concerns the Digital transformation of user-oriented public services or
what we call the life events. The objective is the improvement, modernisation and digitisation of
the delivery of public services in the areas of social protection, health and education services
while ensuring equitable access, quality and accountability of services.
Conclusions and main takeaways:
- The power of digital technologies and the age we are living in can only be activated and
fully leveraged if we take a purpose-led approach and are clear on why we want to do the
digital transformation in the first place . If that ss not clear, then we end taking a
technology-led approach rather than a purpose-first approach.

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- Inclusion by design looking at policy strategies and services, by keeping users in mind
and understand whom we are serving.
- When designing overall strategies, take a step back and answer the question: “we are
thinking of digital as a means to an end”. Using a different mindset and build strategies
that are effectively and efficiently delivering services. Ask questions about the need of
reimagining the operating model of government for the age we are living in. Think of the
operative business model for how to deliver services and should the government be the
one to deliver services, etc…
Additional insights from Q & A with the audience:
- Change management is extremely important. The reason why digital transformation is not
always so successful is because it is a people issue. Accepting that we need to work in
a more collaborative way and be centered around the users and bring people into the
cocreation process.
- To change people’s behaviour, the type of skills and profiles across all levels of civil
service needs to grow. Having the right leaders on board is also key. Another interesting
trend happening in many countries that are more advanced in digital transformation is the
creation of multidisciplinary teams: data scientists, sociologists, architects,
psychologists).
- Ethical concerns related to the use of data are about making sure that data is used in an
ethical way, privacy is protected, security, anonymisation, and that the chosen data
represents all different segments of the population.
- COVID-19 acceleratedthe digital transformation in many Arab countries that also affected
/will affect the jobs nature in the public sector. It will not necessarily increase
unemployment but will rather change the type of jobs needed. It requires high resilience,
different skills and a shift in the mindset of employees so they are not lagging behind.