Citizen-Centric Service Delivery and Renewing the Social Contract: Lessons from World Bank GovTech Operations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Summary Report (P176940) JANUARY 2024 Acknowledgments This is the summary report for analytical work under the World Bank’s GovTech: Citizen-Centric Service Delivery, Renewing the Social Contract in MENA (P176940) program. This Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region research program was an effort to advance knowledge and awareness on “how to� strengthen service delivery, public trust, and renew the social contract through the effective implementation of a GovTech approach in operations financed by the World Bank. The core team was led by Stephen Davenport and comprised Saki Kumagai, Dolele Sylla, Emily Kallaur, Tala Khanji, Lina Fares, Geoff Handley, and Nataliya Biletska. The team worked under the overall guidance of Jens Kristensen, Practice Manager in the MENA Region, and in close collaboration with the Governance Global Practice’s GovTech Global Solution Leads, Cem Dener and Kimberly Johns. The team is grateful for substantial direct contributions to the summary report from Raya Barghouti (Government Digital Service International: GDSI-UK), for insightful perspectives shared by Zubair Bhatti, and for the valuable comments and contributions received from peer reviewers Hunt La Cascia, Ibrahim el Ghandour, Jana Kunicova, and Samia Melhem. The summary report synthesizes and draws upon country case studies of Djibouti1, Jordan2, and Tunisia3 that were prepared thanks to input from many colleagues through discussions and written comments. For the Jordan case study, the team gratefully acknowledges the significant inputs from Raya Barghouti (Government Digital Service International: GDSI-UK) and Samer Qubain (World Bank). The team would also like to express its appreciation to staff from Jordan’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MoDEE) who provided key information and guidance, including Anoud Al-abidi, Noor Al-haridi, Maram Alsaidi, Ayman Anabtawi, Bilal Bani Hani, Ahlam Jadallah and Ramy Rawashdih. The authors also benefitted from essential information and insightful comments provided by World Bank colleagues including Ali Abukumail, Adele Barzelay, Lina Fares, Ragheb Fayez, Roland Lomme, Jad Mazahreh, and Khalid Moheyddeen. For the Djibouti case study, essential information, insights and guidance relating to GovTech activities were provided by Eric Dunand, Kadar Mouhoumed Omar, and Robert Yungu, under the guidance of Boubacar-Sid Barry. The Tunisia GovTech case study draws on and builds upon “Tunisia: Problem-Driven and Adaptive Approach for Citizen-Centric Service Delivery�, part of the GovTech Case Studies: Solutions that Work case study series.4 Essential inputs and guidance were shared by Aziz Ben Ghachem, Marion Daull, Denizhan Duran, Geoff Handley, Yassine Kalboussi and Saki Kumagai. This paper is a product of the staff of the World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this report are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of its Board 1 English version available at https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents- reports/documentdetail/099092923094511319/p1769401ad868a03195701b8d3ed7bc833. French version available at https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents- reports/documentdetail/099040424182525113/p176940103b0db0f1bd6f14482deb000f5. 2 Available at 3 Available at https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents- reports/documentdetail/099092923094556438/p1769401735bb1011932119b9eabc80187. 4 Available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2022/03/15/govtech-case-studies-solutions-that- work. 2 of Executive Directors or the countries they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the data included in this work and does not assume responsibility for any errors, omissions, or discrepancies in the information, or liability with respect to the use of or failure to use the information, methods, processes, or conclusions set forth. 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgments......................................................................................................................................... 2 Acronyms and Definitions ............................................................................................................................. 5 Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 7 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 11 2. Background: Social Contracts and GovTech ....................................................................................... 18 2.1 Understanding Social Contracts .................................................................................................. 18 2.2 Social Contracts and GovTech ..................................................................................................... 19 3. Country Case Studies – Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia......................................................................... 27 3.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 27 3.2 Djibouti........................................................................................................................................ 30 3.3 Jordan.......................................................................................................................................... 31 3.4 Tunisia ......................................................................................................................................... 32 4. GovTech Stories through Five Lenses ................................................................................................. 34 4.1 Objective ..................................................................................................................................... 36 4.2 Control ........................................................................................................................................ 37 4.3 Participation ................................................................................................................................ 39 4.4 Technology .................................................................................................................................. 43 Djibouti................................................................................................................................................ 43 Jordan.................................................................................................................................................. 44 Tunisia ................................................................................................................................................. 47 4.5 Effects.......................................................................................................................................... 49 5. Reflections........................................................................................................................................... 52 Looking Ahead......................................................................................................................................... 59 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 60 4 Acronyms and Definitions ANSIE National Agency for State Information Systems (Agence Nationale des Systèmes d’Informations de l’Etat) (Djibouti) API Application Programming Interface ASA Advisory Services and Analytics ATI Access to Information CERT Computer Emergency Response Team CPF Country Partnership Framework CSC Citizen Service Center (Djibouti) DECA Digital Economy Country Assessment DGRA Digital Government Readiness Assessment EDP3 Third Export Development Project (Tunisia) EFI Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions eGP e-Government Procurement FCV Fragility, Conflict, and Violence FMIS Financial Management Information System GDSI Government Digital Service International (UK) GP Global Practice GTMI GovTech Maturity Index ICR Implementation Completion Report ICT (IT) Information and Communications Technology (Information Technology) ID Identification IPF Investment Project Financing ISDP Institutions, Services, Data & Policies ISR Implementation Status Report JONEPS Jordan Online E-Procurement System MDAs Ministries, Departments, and Agencies MENA Middle East and North Africa 5 MENI Ministère Délégué Chargé de l’Economie Numérique et de l’Innovation / Delegate Ministry in Charge of Digital Economy and Innovation (Djibouti) MoDEE Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (Jordan) MTC Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Digital Economy (Tunisia) NSR National Service Register OGP Open Government Partnership PAD Project Appraisal Document PAMAP Public Administration Modernization Project (Djibouti) PBC Performance-Based Condition PKI Public Key Infrastructure PFM Public Financial Management PforR Program for Results WDR World Development Report YTJ Youth, Technology, and Jobs project (Jordan) 6 Executive Summary Governments across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region increasingly recognize the transformative potential of digitalizing the public sector through GovTech approaches. GovTech as defined by the World Bank represents the latest generation of digital government reform and rests on three key principles: 1) universally accessible, user-centric public services; 2) a whole-of-government approach to public sector modernization; and 3) simple, efficient, and transparent government systems. As part of a larger national digital ecosystem, a GovTech-enabled public sector can facilitate improved service delivery and development outcomes as well as equitable private sector-led job creation and economic opportunity. As governments of MENA countries seek to improve public services and increase trust in government, they are turning to GovTech strategies that strengthen inclusiveness, core government operations, citizen engagement, transparency, and accountability. This report synthesizes findings and lessons learned from three country case studies prepared under the MENA Region’s GovTech: Citizen-Centric Service Delivery, Renewing the Social Contract in MENA (P176940) program of Advisory Service and Analytics (ASA) work. This work examines “how to� strengthen service delivery, public trust, and renew the social contract through the effective implementation of a GovTech approach.5 Targeting World Bank task teams and GovTech practitioners, this summary report intends to provide operational examples, lessons learned to date from those operations, and actionable ideas to help inform the design and implementation of future GovTech operations financed by the World Bank. The work began by taking stock of the World Bank’s GovTech portfolio in MENA, using a regional subset of the Digital Governance Database, and classifying GovTech- related activities under each project according to the framework put forward by the GovTech Maturity Index6. Since the focus of this report is to look at the World Bank’s operational experience and draw out key messages useful to task teams, the report does not endeavor to generate a new conceptual or analytical framework, but rather adapts and applies existing ones. GovTech can play a significant role in shaping the level of citizen trust in government and outcomes of the social contract (for better or for worse), which then endogenously influence the social contract’s further evolution. By influencing state capacity and effectiveness through reforms to core government systems and service delivery, GovTech approaches shape the way citizens experience government in their lives, and can generate increased (or decreased) trust in government fairness and competence. The way that GovTech tools are designed and implemented can help determine who is engaged in the citizen-state bargaining process and how their voices are reflected in policymaking and oversight of government operations, with both positive and negative potential implications, as explored in section 2. Through their effect on the inclusiveness and quality of public services, GovTech strategies can prompt shifts in the degree of alignment between citizen expectations and public sector outcomes. GovTech approaches can offer ways to reduce corruption by reducing the need for discretionary, face-to-face transactions. At the same time GovTech can open new avenues for corruption related to large-scale ICT procurement, and the high rate of failure of public sector ICT projects indicates risk that these projects may undermine rather 5 The country-level case studies under this work program also complement the ongoing deep-dive case study series organized by the World Bank’s GovTech Global Unit on “Solutions that Work�, available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2022/03/15/govtech-case-studies-solutions-that- work?qterm_test=GovTech+Case+Studies%3A+Solutions+that+Work. 6 https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/govtech/gtmi. 7 than strengthen trust. Via these channels of influence, GovTech approaches can help shape the next iteration of the ever-evolving social contract. Within this context, this report summarizes findings from three GovTech country case studies (Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia) selected based on the stock-taking exercise to represent a variety of environments. The three countries are receiving significant World Bank support for public sector modernization, and were chosen to illustrate contextual and strategic differences in how GovTech approaches have been operationalized in specific situations. GovTech maturity ranges from relatively low (Djibouti) to more advanced (Jordan and Tunisia), but each of these governments has committed at a high level to providing integrated digital services to citizens and businesses, engaging citizens in governance processes, and leveraging digital strategies to achieve higher-level development objectives. All three countries have challenging political and economic contexts, with regional instability and fragility impacting Jordan and Djibouti, while Tunisia is facing simultaneous political, constitutional, and economic crises. Both Jordan and Djibouti aspire to become regional ICT hubs—Jordan as an exporter of IT services and expertise, and Djibouti as a transport and logistics hub capitalizing on its strategic location—and the Tunisian government sees investment in digitalization as a path to creating a more dynamic economy. The report uses five “lenses� of analysis to consider GovTech approaches supported by the World Bank in each of the three countries. These lenses were proposed by Evaluating Digital Citizen Engagement: A Practical Guide7 as a framework to evaluate citizen engagement initiatives from different angles, and they are lightly adapted here to be relevant for public sector digital transformation. The lenses include: • Objective: Explicit objectives and underlying assumptions of digital transformation approaches, and links to higher-level strategies • Control: Influential actors and how they shape design and implementation of GovTech approaches • Participation: How users are reached and engaged, and attention paid to historically marginalized groups • Technology: Overall management and key GovTech elements, including both technical aspects and non-technical enablers • Effects: Results measurement, adaptation to changing circumstances, funding arrangements, and evidence of impact Each country has somewhat different motivations and objectives driving GovTech plans, and faces unique initial conditions, so the World Bank’s support varies in each case as well. It is clear that context specificity in program design remains essential, given vast differences among the countries in political leadership, institutional arrangements, initial technical conditions, the data governance framework, and other factors. Despite contextual differences, by looking at the country cases through the five lenses the report arrives at some key messages to help inform future GovTech operations. These reflections are grouped under the broad headings of 1) Leadership and Governance; 2) Technology and Data; and 3) Capabilities and Project Management. Given the limited number of cases, the report does not attempt a comprehensive survey of issues under each of these three categories, but rather highlights certain themes that surfaced. 7 World Bank 2016a. 8 These messages are also consistent with messages coming from the body of recent global research and guidance on GovTech produced by the World Bank, including its 2020 GovTech launch report, the 2021 GovTech strategy, and subsequent reports.8 The country cases referenced here can therefore be seen as practical illustrations from the MENA region of key principles and challenges identified by the global publications. 1) Leadership and Governance Though the whole-of-government ideal remains somewhat aspirational, the cases demonstrate that a motivating vision and strong government leadership form the basis for digital transformation of the public sector, and can help break through siloed ways of working. Countries have attempted to varying degrees to take this approach by anchoring digital transformation in the national development strategy and linking it to specific objectives, and by empowering a centralized entity to manage digital transformation across the entire government. Important to a cohesive approach is ensuring coordination among government and non-government stakeholders, and employing consistent messaging and harmonized strategies to drive cost efficiencies and make progress on policy goals. GovTech approaches also demand that governments place users at the center of reforms. Countries are at different stages in the journey from a government-oriented to a user-oriented approach to service delivery, and experience suggests that progress depends on embedding an understanding across government that services should be based on user needs, underpinned by capacity building for civil servants. A user orientation can be strengthened by collecting and leveraging service delivery monitoring data that is timely, granular, and representative of target users. Moreover, governments should recognize the utility of supplementing quantitative service delivery data with qualitative user insights, along with the importance of continuous iteration and improvement. From a user standpoint, digital government content that is accessible and user-friendly may help to increase public trust and citizen engagement. Finally, a robust data governance framework is critical to building the trust in government necessary for citizen uptake of e-services. This includes strong policy, legal, and regulatory foundations, not only on paper, but also in practice. The cases suggest that a significant implementation gap is common with respect to policies such as those on access to information, data protection, and cybersecurity, partly reflecting a need for skill and capacity building in public administration. 2) Technology and Data Building on a sound governance framework, governments need a cohesive and actionable data management strategy, as well as data and digital service delivery standards. Whole-of-government data management and standards serve as foundational “soft� elements of a government’s data infrastructure, and enable cross-government coordination on data usage, sharing, and interoperability. Relatedly, these coordinated elements, including common benchmarks and standards for service delivery (including the look and feel of digital services, for example), facilitate scaling of e-services. A proactive data management strategy can also enable more effective targeting of historically marginalized populations, which are often underrepresented in or left out of existing datasets, and can lay out metrics for prioritizing government datasets for publication to ensure that they are of high value to users. 8 https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/govtech/publications. 9 Implementing the technical and non-technical elements of a GovTech transformation requires sequencing activities depending on initial conditions, as well as sustained attention to change management. Implementations of government IT systems often suffer from limited user uptake and adoption. Internal resistance to new processes and systems may stem from a reluctance to adopt new ways of doing things, or a lack of appropriate skills. Resistance can also come from those within the government who have a vested interest in the status quo. Investing in business process reengineering, change management, and consistent messaging across government are important complements to investments in systems and tools. 3) Capabilities and Project Management Digital transformation requires an array of skills, including advanced IT and analytics skills, both at the center of government as well as (to varying degrees) within all other affected government entities. Insufficient capacity can pose significant challenges that require upskilling current staff as well as recruitment of new staff. Recruiting and retaining technical and digital talent can be challenging in contexts where these skills are in high demand and/or are relatively scarce. Options for governments looking to strengthen their recruiting practices include adopting a user-driven approach to human resources that understands the needs of applicants. Relying on external capacity can also help as a transitional strategy, including outsourcing specific functions, and cultivating partnerships with peer government entities in other countries, or other external advisors. Turning to the World Bank’s role, project preparation lays an essential foundation for GovTech project implementation, and should include an assessment of both technical and non-technical aspects of the enabling environment. On the technical side, the assessment needs to consider various technical options and may indicate that it is necessary to build around a second-best IT solution because of existing systems to which the government has committed. In any case, adopting an agile approach to project implementation seems useful, recognizing that the technical and political landscape are constantly changing. There tends to be a tension between the desire for a whole-of-government approach and the practical realities of a need for incrementalism, particularly given varying levels of GovTech maturity. Finally, the three country cases represent a mix of World Bank financing instruments and support modalities, and indicate the importance of carefully considering the pros and cons of different packages of support. *** While digital transformation poses daunting challenges, governments’ responses to the COVID -19 pandemic demonstrate that when countries leverage strong leadership, collaboration between state and non-state actors, and digital technology, it is possible to take solutions to scale very quickly. Tunisia and Djibouti rapidly rolled out platforms to support vaccination efforts. In Jordan, the government used its social registry to facilitate distribution of emergency cash transfers. By underscoring the concrete benefits that digital connection and services can provide, the pandemic experience has prompted governments to rethink their motivations and priorities around digital transformation, and to reflect on how they can work with the private sector more effectively. At the same time, the pandemic led to a shrinking of civic space in important ways, and governments will need to recognize that fully harnessing the benefits of GovTech depends on embracing the principles of openness and transparency as well. 10 1. Introduction GovTech is a whole-of-government approach to public sector modernization and promotes simple, efficient, and transparent government with the citizens at the center of reforms. GovTech approaches represent the latest generation of digital government reforms, building upon decades of country and global experience with transforming the public sector through technology. Specifically, the GovTech approach emphasizes the following elements of public sector modernization: 1) Citizen-centric public services that are universally accessible; 2) A whole-of-government approach to digital transformation; and 3) Simple, efficient, and transparent government systems.9 GovTech reforms are distinct from earlier e-government programs because they take a holistic, user- centered approach.10 The earlier e-government programs focused on building information and communications technology (ICT) systems for public administration and moving services online that often remained analog in design. GovTech is an agenda that stretches beyond a single-sector approach and requires working as a whole-of-Bank team. It aims to: 1) Provide citizen-centric or human-centric services that are digital by design and universally accessible. It intends to ensure delivery of services and solutions that are accessible by the widest range of beneficiaries, including non-citizens, through both online and physical means. 2) Coordinate across the government to promote systems thinking and development of integrated approaches to policy making and service delivery for accessible, transparent, and efficient government. 3) Deepen the citizen-government relationship through CivicTech that promotes increased transparency and citizen/service user participation for accountability facilitated by technology- enabled solutions. 4) Support GovTech enablers that serve as the foundations for GovTech approaches. These enablers are cross-cutting drivers of the digital transformation agenda, including skills and capacities in the public sector, an appropriate and conducive legal and regulatory regime, leadership and political commitment that foster public sector innovation, and strong enabling and safeguarding institutions.11 Whole-of-government responses are also needed as countries seek to address the threats posed by climate change, suggesting a critical role for GovTech reforms. To bolster climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, countries need to reorient their entire public sectors toward green, resilient, and inclusive development (GRID) strategies, and need to undertake this transformation with unprecedented speed.12 By making government spending and policymaking more agile, responsive, and effective, GovTech approaches can potentially contribute to better resource allocation decisions, more targeted 9 World Bank 2020a. 10 For an extensive set of publications providing operational and strategic guidance for task teams on many aspects of GovTech implementation, see https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/govtech/publications. 11 World Bank 2020a. 12 See the World Bank’s GRID strategy at https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/9385bfef1c330ed6ed972dd9e70d0fb7-0200022021/green-resilient-and- inclusive-development-grid. 11 and context-appropriate climate policies and programs, and increased monitoring. By improving services and policies aimed at the private sector through GovTech, governments can also incentivize and facilitate green private investment and business development. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the crucial role that digitally-enabled government can play in a crisis – this experience is particularly relevant to inform climate-related strategies and responses (Box 1). From the onset of the pandemic, governments and civil society created innovative GovTech approaches to maintain service continuity, communicate with citizens, and monitor key data such as infection rates, hospitalizations, and vaccinations. The enhanced resilience that connectivity and GovTech approaches engender should be beneficial for countries as they confront future crises, whether related to public health, climate change, conflict and fragility, or other shocks. GovTech enables governments to build early warning systems, transmit urgent information to citizens in a specific geographical area, provide emergency cash payments and other types of social assistance, and improve targeting of services to poor and vulnerable groups. Moreover, the pandemic highlighted the utility of data dashboards and analytical tools to support real-time decision making, and the effectiveness of working in cooperation with the private sector to strengthen tools for leveraging data.13 Box 1. Greening Governance through GovTech Work under the Mainstreaming Climate Change in Governance (P172569) program looked at ways in which reforms related to open government, procurement, financial management, and other areas can contribute to climate-related objectives. Many of its findings have implications for GovTech efforts. With respect to open government: enhanced transparency, accountability, and participation enabled by GovTech can support environmental aims. For example, GovTech solutions could facilitate greater transparency around government efforts to fight climate change, including on monitoring, reporting, and verification mechanisms; create paths for accountability to citizens on meeting Paris Agreement commitments; and promote public participation in climate change strategies, policies, and plans.a On the procurement front, government purchasing power translates into about $11 trillion in global spending, representing an enormous opportunity to channel resources toward sustainable development goals. Green Public Procurement (GPP) reforms go beyond spending efficiency, taking “life cycle costs� into account, to leverage procurement as a greening mechanism with the power to affect all government entities.b Project teams can use the Climate Change Institutional Assessment tool to reflect on implications for the GovTech reform agenda. A recent World Bank report on Green Digital Transformation: How to Sustainably Close the Digital Divide and Harness Digital Tools for Climate Actionc provides an in-depth look at how digital technologies can accelerate climate action, and how the digital sector itself can become greener and more resilient. a World Bank 2022a. b World Bank 2021a. c World Bank 2023a. 13 According to Ahmad Hanandeh, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship for the Government of Jordan, in a live World Bank event. “Leveraging Data to Foster Development: Where Does the MENA Region Stand?�. World Bank online event, Dec. 6, 2021. 12 From a technical standpoint, a “whole-of-government� approach refers to a coordinated effort to integrate government processes, systems, and services in a sustainable way. The integrated technical elements form the basis for a “seamless� user experience, as outlined in the GovTech Launch Report and Short-Term Action Plan.14 It requires horizontal coordination across ministries, and vertical coordination across levels of government, enabled by system interoperability. The integrated vision is visualized in Figure 1. Elements of technical integration include the following, although the prioritization “GovTech relies on the foundations of connectivity, and degree of implementation of each robust identity systems, digital payments, and reliable depends on the context and level of digital national data registries to provide a seamless e- maturity: government experience. Taken together, these • A national enterprise architecture foundations support social, financial, and economic for the government (central and inclusion and provide the base for GovTech solutions.� local levels); • Secure cloud-based solutions, -GovTech Launch Report and Short-Term Action Plan digital payment systems, hosting platforms, and shared services; • A national interoperability framework, and mandating the use of national data standards; • Mandating use of shared services and systems (e.g., e-procurement, Intranet, access, authentication, file sharing, email, archiving, content management, etc.); • Data policies for safe and secure data sharing for government transactions and services; • Ensuring all registries (of people, land, non-movable assets, etc.) are digitized under a robust process complying with best security practices; • Digitization of government-to-business and government-to-citizen services; and • Ensuring safety and security through comprehensive cybersecurity strategies, data privacy and protections for citizens, and related action plans. The technical aspects of digital transformation sit within the political and institutional environment that shapes their potential to transform government, and politics and power loom large in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. Although MENA governments have exhibited uneven amounts of political will for holistic GovTech reform, citizens, youth, and civil society increasingly demand more transparency, accountability, and voice in the workings of their government. The increasing availability of broadband infrastructure, mobile phones, and access to digital services has made technology a means to exercise that voice, in the context of a region where most countries are rated “not free� by Freedom House (including Djibouti and Jordan)15. Governments need to build trust in such a way that citizens can engage with government meaningfully and productively. 14 World Bank 2020b. 15 https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores. 13 Figure 1. GovTech Vision for Integrated Human-Centered and Responsive Services Source: World Bank 2020b. MENA is a diverse region in terms of economic development, connectivity and access to infrastructure, and the presence of GovTech enablers such as strategies, skills, systems, and political will. Despite contextual differences, many of the countries in the region are interested in the potential of GovTech to enhance service delivery, to strengthen core government operations such as financial and human resource management, and to support open data and e-procurement, as demonstrated by the number of MENA countries that include these topics as part of their national digital strategies. Yet governments in the MENA region are lagging in the global trend towards digitization, with some exceptions. Research on a MENA “middle-income trap� shows that countries in the MENA region have been slower than the rest of the world to adopt general-purpose technologies, and that a slower technology adoption pace is associated with lower levels of economic growth.16 Challenging initial country conditions suggest the need for agile, incremental approaches, recognizing that digital transformation is a long-term process that requires careful sequencing, a problem-driven mindset, and attention to capacity building and change management to increase system uptake and the sustainability of reforms.17 Especially in complex contexts, a whole-of-government transformation does not happen overnight, but over many years. Jordan and Tunisia were among the earlier clients for what is now known as the World Bank’s Digital Development Global Practice, beginning their engagement in the early 2000s and first focusing on liberalization and privatization in the telecoms sector, and later moving to digital government. Djibouti is following this path now by taking steps to open its telecoms sector to competition. 16 Arezki et al. 2019. 17 World Bank 2020b. 14 In general, the immense potential of digital technologies remains largely untapped in MENA. Notably, enabling widespread digital payment would be a powerful driver to accelerate progress on financial inclusion, with a vast array of transformational impacts. One econometric analysis found that use of social media in MENA countries (as evidenced by the number of active Facebook accounts) relative to income per capita tended to be higher than in comparator countries in other parts of the world. Conversely, the use of the Internet to make payments was lower in MENA countries than would be predicted based on per capita income. Creating a digital paradox, “this divergence in the use of technology for social versus economic purposes is unique to all MENA countries, irrespective of GDP per capita,� which may be due in part to a trust gap with respect to the regulatory environment, financial institutions, and the government.18 The World Bank can support governments in designing and implementing a whole-of-government approach to digital transformation, which is key to realizing the benefits of spending efficiency and coordinated service delivery that GovTech promises. In some cases the World Bank has been able to help strengthen countries’ institutional arrangements on digital transformation by supporting the creation and operationalization of centralized modern digital government units (for example, in the cases of Burundi, Comoros, Madagascar, and Mozambique). Such units are responsible for the creation of a common vision within government; for supporting new ways of working, including with new technologies; and for coordinating the implementation of digital government services. In part through financial and technical support from the World Bank, some countries are slowly overcoming the hurdles posed by uncoordinated and competing interests. Demand for GovTech in MENA countries is rising as countries are aiming to digitally transform, renew the social contract, and increase public trust through the effective delivery of public services. Examples of World Bank-financed projects include improving public financial management with Financial Management Information System (FMIS) solutions in Iraq, enabling access to digital services in Jordan, digitalizing public administration in Morocco, supporting tax administration reform and administrative services in Djibouti – and the list continues. Many GovTech projects in the region span each of the four pillars of GovTech (described in section 3). Now, the initial efforts at GovTech in World Bank operations are beginning to mature in the MENA region. This process, in addition to the operational reality and challenges faced by task teams, has established a need to answer the following question: Are the World Bank’s GovTech initiatives with clients showing promise in terms of genuinely transforming the way the public sector delivers services to citizens, and/or are early adjustments needed? Given the answers to this question, what should GovTech reforms (current and future) look like in subsequent World Bank operations? The World Bank launched the MENA Tech Initiative to accelerate progress toward digital transformation of the governments and the economies in the region by providing analytical tools, including frameworks, data, analytics and knowledge exchange opportunities, to World Bank operational teams, clients and regional stakeholders. Institutions, Services, Data and Policies (ISDP) in support of MENA Tech include GovTech reforms for public sector modernization; digital payments and financial inclusion; and stronger statistics and data for evidence-based policymaking, transparency and effectiveness. Moreover, the World Bank’s MENA strategy includes digital transformation as one of three cross-cutting themes 18 Cusolito et al. 2022. 15 intended to create inclusive growth and quality jobs by improving contestability in markets through disruptive technologies and digital payments. In line with this strategy, the goal of the MENA Tech Initiative is to advance the creation of jobs for youth, increase innovative private sector-led growth, and develop a new social contract that builds on trust, transparency and accountability. The MENA Tech Initiative has focused on reaching the 2021 Marrakesh Goals on creating a modern broadband internet that covers all regions, including those that are lagging economically, and developing an infrastructure and regulatory apparatus that supports money transfer digitally through mobile devices and the internet.19 In this context, the MENA region’s GovTech: Citizen-Centric Service Delivery, Renewing the Social Contract in MENA (P176940) analytical program aimed to advance knowledge and awareness on “how to� strengthen service delivery, public trust, and renew the social contract through the effective implementation of a GovTech approach in operations financed by the World Bank. This work sought to inform management and task teams on developing operational opportunities and policy dialogue, including suggestions on embedding GovTech in country and regional engagements. Targeting World Bank task teams and GovTech practitioners, this summary report intends to provide operational examples, lessons learned to date from those operations, and actionable suggestions to help inform the design and implementation of future GovTech operations financed by the World Bank. It synthesizes findings from three GovTech country case studies (Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia) to illustrate how GovTech approaches have been operationalized in specific contexts with World Bank support. The three countries were selected following a review of the World Bank’s portfolio of GovTech-related operations in the region. Preparation of the case studies relied on desk reviews of operational and related documents and interviews with World Bank project team members. The description of project elements came from Project Appraisal Documents (PADs) and Project Restructuring Papers, while details on implementation and results drew on Implementation Status and Implementation Completion Reports (ISRs/ICRs). Interviews with World Bank operational staff provided additional insights on lessons learned, while information on the country context drew on key World Bank country documents such as Country Partnership Frameworks and on national government strategies. This report recognizes that there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for digital transformation of the public sector—nor is public sector modernization ever complete, given the constant evolution of technology. Nevertheless, a number of themes emerge from the case studies suggesting areas worthy of particular attention in designing and implementing GovTech operations. The report does not attempt to revisit the comprehensive and far-reaching analysis of what has and has not worked that informed the World Bank’s GovTech Launch Report and Short-Term Action Plan20 and GovTech Strategic Plan for Impact FY 2022- 202421. Rather, with a focus on three country cases, it strives to provide concrete illustrations of the ideas laid out in those global reports, and similarly complements Service Upgrade: The GovTech Approach to 19 https://collaboration.worldbank.org/content/sites/collaboration-for-development/en/groups/mna-tech.html. 20 World Bank 2020b. 21 World Bank 2021c. 16 Citizen Centered Services22 and Tech Savvy: Advancing GovTech Reforms in Public Administration.23 The report is organized as follows. Section 2 provides conceptual background by discussing how social contracts are understood for the purposes of this paper, the emergence of social contracts in the MENA region and their current state, and how GovTech can contribute to renewing and strengthening the social contract. Section 3 provides an overview of the World Bank’s support to GovTech in the three countries (Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia). Section 4 applies five “lenses� of analysis to dive deeper into GovTech projects in Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia, looking at different aspects of project preparation and implementation, and results to date. Section 5 discusses general themes and lessons learned that emerge from the three case studies, generating actionable suggestions for World Bank task teams working on GovTech-related operations. The report concludes by looking ahead to potential next steps. 22 World Bank 2022b. 23 World Bank 2022c. 17 2. Background: Social Contracts and GovTech 2.1 Understanding Social Contracts Policies do not always translate into development aspirations and outcomes in expected ways. Countries often share a set of development objectives: minimizing the threat of violence (security), promoting prosperity (growth), and ensuring that prosperity is shared while protecting the sustainability of the development process for future generations.24 Corruption, clientelism, state capture, nepotism, exclusion, and other symptoms of governance malfunction affect these development outcomes (World Bank 2017a). In a world where past development gains are fast evaporating while the world’s most vulnerable populations face the consequences of complex cross-border challenges such as climate change, understanding the reasons for policy persistence, policy reversal, and policy change in general, as well as addressing the factors that cause derailment and persistence are ever more critical. The rules of the game in policymaking have also changed as technology solutions have changed the methods and speed of information sharing, communication, and interaction. The 2017 World Development Report (WDR) Governance and the Law redefined governance as “the process through which state and non-state actors interact to design and implement policies within a given set of formal and informal rules that shape and are shaped by power�.25 By focusing on the process of public policy formulation, the WDR marked a fundamental shift from previous definitions of governance that looked specifically at institutions and their exercise of authority.26 The WDR shed light on the interactions between states and citizens and other non-state actors in a complex political and social arena that is influenced by unequal power and bargaining. WDR 2017 argued that who bargains, who is excluded from this process, and what rules shape the nature of the bargain determine the selection and implementation of policies and ultimately, their impact on development outcomes. These are critical dynamics to explain the core of social contracts between the state and citizens.27 Social contracts refer to the implicit, mutual bargaining over what citizens and the state expect of each other. In essence, social contracts are shaped by the state-society interface at the intersection between society’s expectations about what it should receive from the state, and what the state can legitimately demand of citizens in return. This concept of social contracts that emerged from 17th century political philosophy has evolved and is increasingly integrated into the development sphere to help explain development outcomes and their mutually reinforcing relationship with development processes. It is widely acknowledged that development outcomes (e.g., inequality, human capital, quality of services, and intergenerational mobility) cannot be explained solely by differences in incomes, policy, or demography. Rather, these different outcomes are also linked to social norms, a country’s history, societal expectations of the state, and the institutional channels that define the state-society relationship. In turn, development processes also influence the trajectory of the social contract. This understanding of social contracts in development research and practice supports researchers explaining taxation, public services, conflict and 24 World Bank 2011 and 2017a. 25 World Bank 2017a. 26 Notably, the 1992 Governance and Development defined governance as “the manner in which power or authority is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development.� 27 Cloutier et al. 2021 and World Bank 2017a. 18 fragility, welfare regimes, and social protection and the policies behind them by applying the social contract lens.28 The social contract lens helps us understand the evolution and shortcomings of the state-citizen relationship in many MENA countries. Upon independence, the leaders of MENA countries promised their citizens industrialization and better standards of living through state intervention. This promise gave rise to a social contract binding states and citizens, establishing political legitimacy and strong nationhood, and generating citizens’ support for government and institutions, as well as the expectation that the state would bear responsibility for economic and social welfare. This promise became unsustainable in the post- independence era. Countries failed to establish the inclusive institutions and accountability mechanisms at the political, administrative, and social levels that would motivate service providers, civil servants, and policy makers to deliver quality public services to the poor, the vulnerable, and other non-privileged segments of the population.29 For the last decade, “most countries in the region have failed to improve their positions� on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, with an average score of 38 out of 100 in 2023, reflecting deep-rooted and endemic corruption.30 The Arab Spring in the early 2010s can be explained as a call to replace the broken or unfulfilled social contracts between MENA states and their citizens.31 The COVID-19 pandemic then exacerbated some of the challenges that triggered the Arab Spring by testing governments’ economic and social policies, overburdening health systems, and deepening the public debt burden. Changes in global commodity prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further complicated the picture. With respect to Jordan, one of the case study countries for this report, a 2021 update to the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework argued that “the delicate domestic equilibrium that has enabled Jordan to maintain its stability is under increasing pressure, in part due to public frustration with the slow pace of reforms. A deeper reservoir of public mistrust on issues of government accountability, corruption, and transparency has risen to the surface in waves of social unrest�.32 MENA’s demographics—with more than half the population under the age of 30 and the highest youth unemployment rate in the world—underscore the urgent need for equitable, private sector-led growth, in a region where public sector involvement in the economy has constrained market contestability.33 For MENA countries in post-conflict, transitional, and/or fragile situations, (re)building of transparent, capable, and accountable institutions that deliver services is especially critical to mitigate the risk of being captured in the fragility trap and to cultivate grounds for establishing a renewed social contract. 2.2 Social Contracts and GovTech Analyzing development challenges through a social contract lens brings civic capacity for collective action into focus, shedding light not only on policy choices, but also on the implementation gap between policy reforms and the reality on the ground.34 GovTech approaches help determine the outcomes of the 28 IEG 2019 and UNDP 2016. 29 Brixi, Lust and Woolcock 2015. 30 Transparency International 2024. 31 Ianchovichina 2018. 32 World Bank 2021b. 33 Islam, Moosa and Saliola 2022. 34 Cloutier et al. 2021. 19 social contract, which then endogenously influence the social contract’s further evolution. Per Cloutier et al. (2021), outcomes of the social contract include: 1) “Thickness�—How involved the state is in service delivery and resource redistribution; 2) Inclusiveness—Whether the social contract serves the interests of the few or the many; and 3) Openness—Whether the social contract is repressive or responsive. GovTech approaches are directly relevant to each of these dimensions through the emphasis on user- centric and universally accessible service delivery, transparency, and broad-based citizen engagement. As public sector outcomes and the bargaining process continually affect each other, this generates incremental change in the nature of the social contract or, in the case of a serious misalignment between citizen and state expectations, a breakdown of the contract. Table 1 provides examples of targeted outcomes in each of four GovTech focus areas (which are described further in section 3) and suggests general channels through which these outcomes may help shape the next iteration of the social contract. As the last row of the table suggests, there is no guarantee of positive outcomes to GovTech reforms. Improving government performance through enhanced use of technology may generate greater citizen trust in government. As a counterexample, purchasing expensive systems that do not work as intended can have the reverse effect, weakening trust and undermining the social contract. Implementing a digital transformation of government can open new avenues for corruption and kickbacks, a major concern in procurement of large ICT systems and infrastructure (Box 2). For instance, in 2019, the telecommunications company Ericsson paid more than $1 billion to the US government to resolve charges related to “engaging in a large-scale bribery scheme involving the use of sham consultants to secretly funnel money to government officials� in Djibouti and several other countries.35 Public sector ICT projects are also very risky; they have historically had a high rate of partial or complete failure, usually with “significant budget and time overruns and only a limited number of the project objectives achieved�.36 Moreover, as Freedom House argues, while technology platforms can be used to enable citizen mobilization, they can also be “subject to censorship, surveillance, and exploitation by antidemocratic forces�37. This underscores the reality that the way governments implement technology and tools, and the larger governance context, determine whether GovTech approaches will have a positive or negative impact. 35 LaCascia, Valentine, Mells, et al. 2023a. 36 World Bank 2016b. 37 https://freedomhouse.org/issues/technology-democracy. 20 Table 1. Potential Channels of GovTech Influence on the Social Contract Core Government Public Service Citizen GovTech Enablers Systems Delivery Engagement Examples of • Improved • Increased access • Increased • Strengthened Targeted government to administrative government legal, regulatory GovTech performance services (by transparency, and policy Outcomes monitoring and gender, income, accountability, enabling reporting location, etc.) and integrity environment • Enhanced • Increased citizen • Enhanced • Digital performance of satisfaction with inclusive and identification for public service delivery timely citizen citizens, contracts and processes and participation in conferring value for money outcomes policymaking greater access to • Increased • Reduced and in the public services, domestic administrative process of financial revenue burden/increased service delivery, systems, and mobilization, service efficiency including legal protections and reduced for citizens and monitoring • Increased fraud and businesses • Increased and innovation and corruption • Improved use of more timely value-added • Level playing data enabling government services field for evidence-based responsiveness businesses, policymaking and especially SMEs, corrective actions to compete in in service delivery public procurement markets • Increased interoperability, inter- governmental coordination and transparency Potential Enhanced citizen Improved service More inclusive and Incremental changes Positive trust in government delivery leading to effective citizen- in citizen Impact of competence and stronger alignment state bargaining expectations of GovTech on fairness between state government the Social performance and capacity and Contract citizen expectations effectiveness 21 (Table 1 cont.) Core Government Public Service Citizen GovTech Enablers Systems Delivery Engagement Examples of • Purchase of • Increased • Government • Digital Potential expensive digitization fails to match identification Unintended government worsens the citizen and other means Consequences systems creates digital divide and engagement of digital data that can opportunities for inequitable access rhetoric in collection and Negatively corruption and to services service delivery generation Impact the kickbacks • Poor design or and monitoring create threats to Social • Preferential implementation with response, individual Contract treatment of of digital services corrective privacy and data certain vendors frustrates users actions, and security in IT system and results in lack accountability • Timely implementations of adoption • Government development adds to • Weak adoption of promises of and perceptions of systems means transparency implementation an unfair system that are perceived as of legal, • Systems are improvements in insincere and regulatory, and purchased but efficiency and trivial, designed policy actions to adoption is decision making to mask a lack protect privacy limited, meaning fail to materialize of real change and security targeted • Technology- may not outcomes are based materialize not achieved, engagement • Digitization and undermining amplifies the disruptive citizen trust voices of technologies • Digitization already create new enables new empowered and means for kinds of fraud heard, and government further excludes surveillance and the voices of the curbing of civil poor and liberties vulnerable (e.g., girls and women, disabled, elderly) Source Note: Examples of targeted outcomes draw primarily on World Bank 2020b. 22 Box 2. Challenges and Opportunities in Procurement Digital transformation of government involves ICT procurement on a large scale, which is notoriously fraught with corruption risk. There may be incentives to procure expensive systems for kickbacks, but then to continue to conduct many transactions manually to preserve further opportunities for corruption. In such cases, building up core government systems may contribute to deterioration of trust in government rather than enhancing the social contract. Further, successful automation can potentially even increase opportunities for fraud in the absence of robust safeguards.a Some of the factors that make large-scale ICT procurement particularly vulnerable to corruption include that: 1) Properly evaluating the quality of ICT proposals requires specialized technical expertise that may be lacking; 2) ICT systems often have large price tags, making them lucrative targets; 3) ICT professionals often work on both government projects and private sector projects, creating conflicts of interest; and 4) Procurement of large ICT solutions requires significant and detailed planning that is often short-circuited).b There is also the “large scale and complexity of such systems, which provide many opportunities to improperly rig contract specifications, manipulate implementation, and inflate prices, and which make it difficult to detect such abuses�.c In addition to the risk of corruption, for many of the same reasons, large system implementations tend to be risky from a technical and project management standpoint. ICT procurement deliverables are more complex to define than those in many other sectors. Creating specifications is a time-consuming process that requires significant capacity on the government’s part to develop a clear scope of work and a high- quality Request for Proposal (RFP). Moreover, it is difficult in many countries to find a single company with the profile and expertise to deliver everything required (i.e., systems, e-services, equipment, business process re-engineering), thus necessitating contracts with multiple suppliers, which increases the complexity of project management and potentially the cost. In many countries it may also be challenging to attract highly qualified companies to bid. Without excellent planning and project execution, expensive systems may fail to function as expected, or may experience problems related to inadequate underlying infrastructure, or a lack of interoperability with other systems. These problems can cause major cost overruns or simply result in wasted investment. Experience has shown that procurement of sectoral and other ICT systems has posed real challenges in the MENA region. A key question is how to mitigate these risks so that GovTech tools and reforms will enhance the social contract rather than weaken it. The GovTech Procurement Practice Noted is a useful resource for task teams. It identifies seven main challenges that governments face in the GovTech procurement process, ranging from lack of specialized industry knowledge about public sector operations, to the need for interoperability with legacy systems, to lack of infrastructure and technical capacity, to vendor lock-in and other key issues. The note proposes a five-step procurement framework for GovTech with tasks and deliverables for each step. It also includes sample questions for a procurement technology assessment, a report template for market analysis, and other tools. GovTech procurement should follow the World Bank’s seven Core Procurement Principles (value for money, economy, integrity, fit for purpose, efficiency, transparency and fairness). a Lemieux 2015, as cited in World Bank 2016b. b Queensland CC 2018. c LaCascia, Valentine, Mells, et al. 2023a. d La Cascia, Wu Chebili, Valentine, et al. 2021. 23 Demand for GovTech solutions in MENA is rising as countries aim to digitally transform, increase trust in institutions, and renew the social contract through the effective delivery of public services.38 GovTech solutions support the regional World Bank MENA Strategy pillar on Renewing the Social Contract39 by prioritizing improvements in service delivery to ensure inclusive access, increasing transparency and accountability, and supporting citizen engagement to increase trust in government. This is particularly relevant for MENA, which scores lowest across regions on the Worldwide Governance Indicators’ (WGI) Voice and Accountability Indicator (Figure 2). MENA countries are at risk for social and political revolutions; the MENA region scores lowest among regions on the WGI Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism WGI indicator (Figure 3). This potential for instability makes it urgent for governments in the region to be responsive to citizen expectations. Political events in the region in recent times (such as the Arab Spring) have shown the potential for digital tools to increase the participation and civic engagement of citizens. Higher citizen demand for better services, more transparency, and less corruption is putting pressure on governments in MENA to change the way the public sector operates and engages with citizens. Digital transformation can be a key driver in accelerating this change. Figure 2. Regional Comparison—Voice and Accountability (2022) Figure 3. Regional Comparison—Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism (2022) Source: World Governance Indicators, 2022. Available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/worldwide- governance-indicators. Citizen expectations of government are changing as technology advances. Citizens increasingly expect information from government to be readily available, relevant, and user-friendly; they expect information directly from service providers on results and how money is spent; and they expect their voices to be heard.40 When designed and implemented well, engaging with citizens can help build state legitimacy and digital technologies can potentially play critical roles to increase41: 38 This paragraph draws heavily on the World Bank’s GovTech MENA Regional Strategy (World Bank 2020c). 39 See https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/mena/publication/middle-east-and-north-africa-looking- forward#:~:text=Through%20the%20MENA%20Strategy%2C%20the,health%2C%20and%20social%20protection%2 0systems. 40 Bhatti 2015. 41 See Grandvoinnet and Chasara 2019 for discussion of the three types of legitimacy. 24 1) Political legitimacy (i.e., accountability) and inclusion—Technologies can support governments to reach decisions that reflect shared values and preferences, give equal voice to all citizens, and require accountability for decisions reached; 2) Performance legitimacy—Technologies can boost state capacity to deliver security, economic oversight, public services, and justice; and 3) Procedural legitimacy—Technologies can provide citizens and other non-state actors opportunities to interact with the state in the process of delivering services. Public trust in government is another dimension of the social contract, and it may be either bolstered or eroded by GovTech initiatives. According to the World Bank’s GovTech Strategic Plan for Impact FY2022-24, digital technologies are vital to addressing both dimensions of citizens’ trust in government: trust in government’s competence (ability to deliver on promises) and trust in government’s values (the motivations driving policy). It argues that “becoming fully digital is no longer an option, but rather an imperative for [governments’] legitimacy as guardians of well-being and progress�.42 As citizens’ expectations shift, government must evolve accordingly, or the social contract weakens. GovTech reforms may, but do not necessarily, strengthen public trust. “Transparency� initiatives that fail to provide high-value, reliable information may be perceived as cynical ploys to distract citizens from a lack of real reform, negatively impacting citizens’ views of government. Digital tools can create new threats to citizens’ privacy and can open new ways for governments to curtail civil liberties. Even well- intentioned reforms can backfire in terms of trust. For example, if a rollout of digital services is managed poorly, citizens may decide not to use the services, and may be less willing to give them another chance in the future. Procurement problems, as discussed in Box 2, can also undermine trust. In such cases, the gap between citizen expectations and government delivery grows wider, weakening the social contract. Digitizing government procurement, though not a panacea as it comes with risks of its own, is one strategy to help improve outcomes.43 E-procurement can bring about massive cost savings and increased value for money in public spending by increasing the number and quality of bids, reducing opportunities for corruption, and improving oversight. Due to various challenges, few e-procurement systems currently include proactive fraud detection algorithms, but increased use of these mechanisms could be a game changer in facilitating ex ante rather than ex post fraud detection.44 In combination with digitization, following international good practices such as use of framework agreements, upfront market analysis, competitive dialogue, creation of a business model for sustainability, pre-engagement of the market, and a Total Cost of Ownership approach, offers potential for better procurement outcomes.45 E-procurement reforms can significantly increase opportunities for SMEs to sell to government, which may contribute to the national development strategy and have spillover effects on e-commerce, trust in government, transparency, and ease of doing business. And, most broadly, strengthening the procurement process can help the government to ensure a whole-of-government orientation of spending toward green, inclusive, sustainable development, as discussed in Box 1. 42 World Bank 2021c. 43 Countries can start with conducting an evaluation of the current status of procurement using the Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS). See mapsinitiative.org. 44 World Bank 2020d. 45 LaCascia, Valentine, Mells, et al. 2023a. 25 GovTech initiatives and public sector digital transformation prompt the need for a more specialized “social contract for data�, recognizing that the increasing availability and use of data creates opportunities for significant value creation for society, but also creates risks related to data misuse and cybersecurity. In an environment in which citizens view government with suspicion, a rapid and sporadic GovTech rollout (e.g., of e-services and citizen engagement platforms) may erode societal trust in institutions. Growing concerns regarding the protection of data and digital rights can be a barrier to data use and GovTech adoption. It is important to build citizens’ trust in institutions by aligning data governance with the social contract as WDR 2021 Data for Better Lives argued.46 Governments, for example, can earn citizens’ trust through policies that mitigate risks related to data protection and security, ensure equitable access to data for poor people, and harness a multistakeholder data management and governance approach. Digital transformation of government should be grounded in this social contract for data. Governments need to strike the right balance between protecting sensitive information, and providing data that can be used by the private sector and other non-state actors to create new value-added services and contribute to the digital economy. Governments in the MENA region have room to strengthen their commitment to open data, though there has been improvement in some countries in the region in the Open Data Index (ODIN) since 2016.47 By opening public data, governments can not only increase transparency, but can also potentially promote value and job creation by supporting local GovTech ecosystems, make public services more efficient and more effective, and promote improved decision making within government.48 As a prerequisite to open data initiatives, regulations on data governance, management and use are required to ensure proper safeguards. To underpin wider implementation of open data initiatives, and to facilitate the use of data more widely across and within government as well as among other users, steps need to be taken to address several issues. These include inter alia 1) a legal framework including Right to Information (RTI) or ATI laws; 2) how data is collected (e.g., establishment of unified data registries); 3) how data is described and catalogued (e.g., definition of metadata); and 4) how data is secured and shared (e.g., creation of interoperability standards and common taxonomies).49 46 World Bank 2021f. 47 Open Data Inventory (ODIN) produced by Open Data Watch available at https://odin.opendatawatch.com/. 48 For example, in Jordan, several businesses have successfully leveraged publicly-owned data to create economic value, for instance through data cleaning and mining, or to introduce services related to sales lead management and reporting (Barzelay, Khoury, and Bezzina, et al. 2021). 49 This paragraph draws on World Bank 2020c. 26 3. Country Case Studies – Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia 3.1 Overview The desk research synthesized in this report began with taking stock of the World Bank’s GovTech portfolio in MENA, leading to selection of three country cases to serve as illustrative examples.50 The cases of Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia represent a variety of contextual challenges and opportunities. GovTech maturity ranges from low (Djibouti) to somewhat advanced (Jordan and Tunisia), but each of their governments has committed at a high level to public sector digitalization and has established strategies to move service delivery online and foster a broader digital ecosystem. The level of general ICT connectivity varies, with Djibouti near the bottom of the region in terms of mobile subscriber penetration, Jordan in the middle, and Tunisia among the most developed for the region (Figure 4), excluding high- income countries. The high cost of ICT services in Djibouti constrains domestic access rates, while prices in Jordan are somewhat lower as a share of per capita income, and much lower in Tunisia (Figure 5). All three countries have challenging political and economic contexts, with regional instability impacting Jordan and Djibouti, and multifaceted problems in Tunisia. Both Jordan and Djibouti aspire to become regional ICT hubs—Jordan as an exporter of IT services and expertise, and Djibouti as a transport and logistics hub capitalizing on its strategic location—and the Tunisian government sees investment in digitalization as a path to creating a more dynamic economy. Subsections below provide snapshots of the context for GovTech initiatives in the three countries. Figure 4. Connectivity: Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 Figure 5. Affordability: Mobile cellular low usage basket as people in select MENA countries, 2022 (or latest available) percent of GNI per capita in select MENA countries, 2022 Source: International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Available at https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators (Figure 4) and https://datahub.itu.int/ (Figure 5). *MENA Region average excludes high-income countries. The cases demonstrate that digital government transformation takes time: for example, in the area of e-procurement, much progress has been made in the region, but significant challenges remain. Jordan and Tunisia started implementing e-procurement reforms around 2008, and through multiple ASA engagements with the World Bank and support from the Korean Government, they both based their 50 The stocktaking exercise relied on the World Bank’s Digital Governance Projects Database, available at https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/int/search/dataset/0038056/digital_governance_projects_database. 27 systems on the Korean e-procurement system, KONEPS51. Their experience can be useful for other countries, and indeed several have followed suit, including Costa Rica, Rwanda, and Vietnam. At the same time, the MENA region currently has the second weakest adoption of e-government procurement systems worldwide (Sub-Saharan Africa is the weakest).52 On average, globally, “65 percent of countries with e- government procurement (eGP) systems have a usage rate above 50 percent. In MENA… 50 percent of the countries with eGP systems have a usage rate above 50 percent�.53 The World Bank’s MENA strategy mentions the importance of e-procurement to increasing transparency and efficiency in public spending, and to leveling the playing field for entrepreneurs and SMEs, and notes the need to continue to improve regulatory frameworks for procurement.54 Skills gaps and capacity limitations also pose an ongoing challenge across the region and take time to address. GovTech strategies depend not only on digital skills among civil servants, but also of high levels of digital literacy among the population, and a deep pool of IT expertise in the private sector. Governments need to emphasize building skills around digital leadership, user research and design, and other technical skills (data, systems and IT operations) that are necessary to accompany digital transformation efforts. The World Bank’s Tech Savvy: Advancing GovTech Reforms in Public Administration55 goes into detail and provides examples on the topic of capacity building. It identifies four priorities for public sector organizations: • Elevate the importance of and investment in digital skills; • Modernize human resource management policies and practices; • Incentivize quality and sustainable learning, training, and development; and • Support continued research and data on the digital labor market and skills for public administration. The World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) provides a starting point for assessing progress toward public sector digital transformation, allowing for benchmarking across countries and economies in key dimensions.56 The GTMI was first published in 2021, followed by an update and expansion in 2022 that added new indicators and a subnational component.57 It aims to assist practitioners in designing digital transformation projects by measuring aspects of four GovTech focus areas: 1) core government systems; 2) public service delivery; 3) citizen engagement; and 4) GovTech enablers. It is a composite index made up of the Core Government Systems Index (CGSI); the Public Service Delivery Index (PSDI); the Citizen Engagement Index (CEI); and the GovTech Enablers Index (GTEI). The GTMI is the simple average of the four indices, representing a total of 48 key indicators, and denotes the extent to which 198 economies are advanced in the corresponding four GovTech focus areas. Figure 6 provides an overview of the kinds of operational activities that fall under each of the GTMI categories. 51 https://dgovkorea.go.kr/service1/g2c_07/koneps. 52 LaCascia, Valentine, Mells, et al. 2023b. 53 Ibid. 54 World Bank 2021d. 55 World Bank 2022c. 56 World Bank 2021e. 57 https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/govtech/gtmi. 28 In the diverse MENA region, there are economies in each of the GTMI categories. The GTMI specifically avoids producing a “ranking� of economies but rather classifies them accordingly based on their score58: • Very high GTMI (Group A, GovTech Leaders): Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Malta, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates • High GTMI (Group B, Significant Focus on GovTech): Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia • Medium GTMI (Group C, Some Focus on GovTech): Djibouti, Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and Gaza • Low GTMI (Group D, Minimal Focus on GovTech): Iraq, Libya, Yemen Figure 6. Mapping of Digital Government Activities to GovTech Focal Areas Note: ICT=Information and Communication Technology, APIs=Application Programming Interfaces, FMIS=Financial Management Information System, HRMIS=Human Resource Management Information System, AI=Artificial Intelligence, IoT=Internet of Things, RPA=Robotic process automation, G2C=Government-to-Citizen, G2B=Government-to-Business, GRM=grievance redress mechanism, RTI=Right to Information. Source: Adapted from World Bank 2020e. The case studies intend to focus on addressing the following questions to better inform the existing and future GovTech operations in the region: 1) What problem GovTech operations in country x are seeking to address given the country context; 2) What solutions have been/are being proposed; 3) What progress has been made with a focus on changing service delivery experiences for citizens and businesses; 4) What early lessons are emerging from project planning, to procurement, to change management in the public sector; and 5) What early successes and failures can be identified. 58 Categories per the 2022 update of the report (World Bank 2022d). 29 3.2 Djibouti Djibouti is in the early stages of public sector digital transformation, although it has made significant strides in the last few years. The country’s advanced internationally-oriented infrastructure stands in sharp contrast to the low level of domestic connectivity. Djibouti has relied on its geographical location to position itself as a digital hub through significant infrastructure investments in nine submarine fiber optic cables with links to East Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. The Djibouti Data Center, a Tier 3 data centre facility established in 2013, serves as an important junction for submarine cable systems in the area. By hosting more than 20 regional operators from 13 countries, Djibouti has positioned itself as a key digital player to serve the region. However, domestic ICT services are poor quality and expensive, largely because the public company Djibouti Telecom has a virtual monopoly in the sector and provides all ICT services in the country (including fixed and mobile services and broadband). The lack of competition has hampered the growth of digital infrastructure, both in terms of coverage and innovation, and has deterred investment in the domestic market, meaning that the potential of Djibouti's domestic ICT sector remains largely untapped. With World Bank support (Djibouti Digital Foundations project; P174461), the government has been taking steps toward introducing competition into the provision of ICT services and thus facilitating greater accessibility and affordability, which would help to address a major impediment to moving service delivery online. The government adopted the Djibouti “Vision 2035� development strategy in 2014, reflecting the country’s commitment to improving service delivery, and has undertaken a series of institutional reforms to enable a transition to a dynamic, inclusive and secure digital economy . In 2015, the government created a National Agency for State Information Systems (Agence Nationale de Systèmes d’Informations de l’État, or ANSIE) positioned within the Office of the Presidency to modernize the public administration and increase public sector efficiency. ANSIE operates an e-government platform and the government aims to digitize and integrate all the services it provides into this platform, while also intending to make progress on open government objectives, including through an open data platform. In 2021, a Presidential decree established the Delegate Ministry in charge of Digital Economy and Innovation (MENI), which in coordination with the Ministry of Economy and Finance is responsible for implementing the national policy of digital transformation, innovation and entrepreneurship. The government has been working toward its digitalization objectives with support from the World Bank, especially through the Djibouti Public Administration Modernization Project ( “PAMAP�; P162904). Currently, government IT systems are siloed and duplicative. The government intends to incorporate them into a single platform to fully digitize service delivery; to increase systems security and reduce costs; and to enhance its online portal for citizens to access services. PAMAP (approved in 2018) was designed to address key obstacles to service delivery access and efficiency by supporting business process reengineering and the interoperable digital platform, building institutional capacity, and strengthening accountability in a country where civic space59 is heavily restricted. It focuses on two critical functions, tax and customs administration. Citizen Service Centers (CSCs), physical locations for accessing digital services, are also envisioned as part of the GovTech ecosystem and supported by PAMAP, and a pilot CSC was implemented and launched by the Secretary General of the Government in 2023. 59 https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores. 30 In identifying a couple of priority service delivery entry points, and emphasizing the need to accommodate users without cell or Internet coverage, the Djibouti example has particular relevance for client governments of other small states, or those starting at a point of relatively low connectivity. The World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Djibouti (FY2022-26) emphasizes the importance of selectivity in the country program in the interest of concentrating efforts for greater impact. Digital transformation falls under one of the CPF’s four key objectives, which focuses on public institutions and building capacity. 3.3 Jordan The Government of Jordan sees digital transformation of the public sector as key to its national strategy of becoming a hub for IT services in the region, through which it hopes to attract private investment and stimulate job creation. Jordan’s IT infrastructure and capacity render the country well positioned in the region in terms of digital competitiveness, but there is a need to improve the quality, efficiency, and reliability of public services for citizens and businesses. The Jordanian government has adopted an overarching Digital Transformation Strategy to outline the path forward in public sector modernization, thus satisfying one of the Performance-Based Conditions (PBCs; formerly known as Disbursement-Linked Indicators of Program for Results) under the World Bank’s Youth, Technology, and Jobs Project (“YTJ�; P170669). The strategy includes plans for centralized government digital infrastructure, a data center, middleware, open application programming interfaces (APIs), and enabling policies such as on data privacy and digital signatures. Jordan has already made significant progress on digitalization of government, as reflected in its categorization as a “Group A� country in the GTMI. The YTJ project supports the design, development, and management of Sanad, Jordan’s existing e- services platform, as well as digital payment capabilities, digital identification for citizens, and strengthening the enabling regulatory framework. As of end-2023, Sanad had already incorporated more than 500 digital services into the platform, and by end-2025 the government aims to incorporate a total of 2,500 services to create a one-stop shop for transactional e-services across the government. To expand access to e-services for those who lack connectivity or need in-person help, the government is building a Government Service Center in each governorate, with two open already. Through complementary projects the World Bank is also supporting enhancements to Jordan’s e-procurement system, as well as mechanisms for service delivery monitoring and citizen engagement, among other GovTech-related initiatives. The government intends for the private sector to provide the bulk of e-services, coordinated by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MoDEE), which is tasked with leading the digital transformation of the entire government. Major components of the YTJ project aim to strengthen the country’s digital ecosystem writ large, including the supply of qualified IT workers, market opportunities for firms, and demand for skilled labor. It envisions government purchasing power accelerating progress toward a national digital economy. This strategy creates the need for significant multistakeholder coordination internally across the government, and among government and non-government entities. Strong commitment to digitalization at the highest level of government, and a focus on skill building and job creation, make Jordan an interesting case study for clients interested in leveraging digital services to accelerate progress toward a digital economy. Jordan’s government is attempting an ambitious transition to e-services that relies on a holistic approach to introducing GovTech reforms. As a 31 state impacted by significant refugee flows and gender-based disparities, the Jordan case also offers examples of attempts to address such challenges via GovTech approaches. At the same time, delays in implementation of Jordan’s GovTech program suggest a note of caution about the need for realism and incrementalism in digital transformation. 3.4 Tunisia During the 2010s, Tunisia underwent a remarkable transformation as it pursued a path of inclusive governance and ambitious reform. Throughout this period, Tunisia made substantial strides in fostering openness, transparency, and actively engaging with the global Open Government Partnership (OGP). By 2019, the then-Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers had named the digital transformation agenda, which enjoyed cross-party support, a top priority in Tunisia. Now, Tunisia is facing simultaneous political, constitutional, and economic crises. The country entered a critical political juncture in July 2021, when President Saied introduced measures such as the partial suspension of the 2014 Constitution and the dissolution of the parliament.60 Moreover, in recent years, there have been indications of a slowdown or decrease in the performance of the public sector. According to the Worldwide Government Indicators, the effectiveness of the government in Tunisia was slightly lower compared to other countries in 2020 (44th percentile) than it was in 2014 (48th percentile), and significantly below its ranking in 2010 (63rd percentile).61 In 2023, 72 percent of respondents to an Afrobarometer Survey said the country is headed in the “wrong direction.�62 Tunisia falls in Group B of the GTMI, indicating a significant focus on GovTech. The Special Inter- Ministerial Committee on Digitalization (Conseil Supérieur de l’Economie Numérique) provides oversight for digital transformation, while the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Digital Economy (MTC) leads the implementation of GovTech initiatives under the national “Tunisie Digitale 2021-2025� and “SmartGov 2020� strategies. Citizens can already access more than 460 online services, albeit predominantly of an informational nature; access open data and government documents online; and submit ideas to the government through a citizen participation portal. In 2022, using an online platform, the President launched a broad consultative initiative on the role of the state and the expectations of citizens on Tunisia's political model.63 The government has also committed to strengthening Tunisia’s broadband infrastructure to reduce the digital divide, and sees digitalization as key to facilitating entrepreneurship, job creation, and innovation. The World Bank’s Digital Transformation for User-Centric Public Services project (“Tunisia GovTech project�; P168425) supports digitalization of services in the high-priority sectors of social protection, education, and health. The project illustrates experience and lessons learned from a GovTech approach that 1) pursues a problem-driven project design by placing citizens at the center through a life-cycle approach; and 2) evolved iteratively to rapidly respond to the immediate needs of the government to accelerate its cross-sectoral response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while maintaining the trajectory of bringing innovative digital technologies to reforms. Other aspects of the GovTech project include digital 60 World Bank 2023b. 61 Data available at http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/Home/Reports. 62 Data available at https://www.afrobarometer.org/countries/tunisia/. 63 Preliminary results are published at https://www.e-istichara.tn/home. 32 identification to underpin citizen services, as well as support for GovTech and digital economy regulatory reforms. Initial conditions for GovTech approaches in Tunisia are relatively strong, with good connectivity and mobile access, while the challenges tend to be more institutional, making the Tunisia case particularly relevant for task teams working in similar conditions. The Tunisia example emphasizes working toward a user-centric orientation by focusing on key sectors and is noteworthy less for the specific solutions chosen than for the approach to project design and agile implementation. The case demonstrates ways that GovTech can help move the needle toward a more citizen-centric government, while the COVID-19 app developed in coordination with private sector partners illustrates rapid rollout of a solution made possible by multistakeholder cooperation and strong government commitment. 33 4. GovTech Stories through Five Lenses This section looks at the country cases of Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia through five “lenses� that each provide a different perspective on how GovTech projects have been designed and implemented. The World Bank’s Evaluating Digital Citizen Engagement: A Practical Guide (2016) developed these lenses as a way to analyze the multifaceted nature of digital citizen engagement projects, providing a framework for organizing and assessing different aspects so that no significant dimensions are overlooked. While the focus of this report is on GovTech activities more broadly, the generic nature of the lenses makes them useful for appropriation here to systematically analyze and capture emerging experiences and lessons learned from GovTech activities in the MENA region. They are lightly adapted to better suit the purposes of this report. The five lenses include: • Objective: Seeking to understand the explicit objective and underlying assumptions of the GovTech initiative and wider environment, including the planned impact. How has program design reflected the government’s higher-level objectives? • Control: Exploring the levels of influence on the engagement process and the dynamics of decision making. Which actors exert the most influence over the initiative’s design and implementation, and what are the implications of this? • Participation: Considering how citizens are reached; the opportunities provided for them to engage; and the attention paid to historically marginalized groups. How inclusive and user-centric is the initiative, and to what extent is citizen participation in line with their needs and expectations? • Technology: Taking a practical look at project elements and project management broadly, including non-technical factors and the enabling environment (including considerations around leadership and institutions, digital skills, digital identification, and the legal and regulatory environment). What opportunities and challenges have arisen, and how have they been addressed? • Effects: Looking at how initiatives adapt to changing circumstances; how results are measured; funding arrangements and incentives for results. What evidence is there of intended or unintended impact? Before delving into the country cases of Djibouti, Jordan, and Tunisia through the five lenses, Table 2 gives an overall impression of some key points under each of these lenses by way of introduction. While non- comprehensive, the table intends to provide a quick reference for some of the distinguishing features of each country case. Sections below offer a synthesis of the three country case studies through the five lenses. 34 Table 2. A Snapshot of the MENA GovTech Case Studies through Five Lenses Lens Key Question Djibouti Jordan Tunisia Objective How does Vision 2035 strategy Digital Transformation Digital strategy envisions GovTech outlines the goal of Strategy links GovTech leveraging technology to contribute to the building a productive, approaches to economic strengthen job creation, government’s competitive and diversified and social objectives business higher-level economy by strengthening including job creation competitiveness, and development Djibouti’s position as a and entrepreneurship; improve socioeconomic objectives? commercial and logistics accessible, low-cost outcomes hub services; and e- participation Control Who are the Delegate Ministry in Ministry of Digital A high-level national state actors Charge of Digital Economy Economy and digital transformation responsible for and Innovation (MENI) is Entrepreneurship steering committee whole-of- tasked with leading digital (MoDEE) is responsible oversees digital government transformation; National for leading government- transformation, for digital Agency for State wide digital which the Ministry of transformation? Information Systems transformation Information Technology, (ANSIE), situated in the Communication and Presidency, delivers IT Digital Economy (MTC) services government-wide has the mandate Participation How is the Citizen Service Centers Created a National Citizen-centric design government (CSCs) planned as physical Service Register (NSR) serves as the backbone working toward access points for services, that lists all 2,500+ of the GovTech universally particularly for poor and government services operation to ensure accessible underserved areas, along with information that citizen-centric services? including access for about the service delivery and the persons with disabilities (a documentation establishment of access pilot CSC was inaugurated required to access each points bring digital in 2023) service services close to citizens in underserved areas Technology What are key Back-end interoperability Centralized government Service improvements in technical platform, digitization of tax digital infrastructure, education, health, and elements and and customs plus enhancements to e- social protection non-technical administration, services and further through GovTech enablers of the enhancements to service digitization and solutions and ICT GovTech procurement; enablers integration; enablers connectivity; enablers approach include opening telecom include business process include change supported by the sector to competition and reengineering, better management and a new World Bank? adopting a Digital Code to data governance, and Digital Law covering data create a legal framework digital payments protection and other key for digitalization aspects Effects What are some Implementation of a Enhancements to e- COVID-19 responses illustrative Computer Emergency procurement; improved including emergency results to date of Response Team (CERT), targeting of cash transfer payments, World Bank- and a Public Key transfers; completion of support for e-learning, supported Infrastructure (PKI) system; a public value and rapid rollout of eVAX GovTech reduction in customs assessment of 25 e- app for vaccine initiatives? processing times; services; digital information implementation of onboarding of citizens automated payments (ongoing) 35 4.1 Objective Although digital transformation of the public sector is increasingly seen as an imperative, it should serve higher-level national objectives rather than being an end in itself. In Djibouti, the government is betting on the advantages conferred by its geographical position to promote trade and accelerate its economic development. The government’s strategy depends on developing the ICT sector and modernizing the public administration to enable its vision of a diversified and robust private sector, to strengthen Djibouti’s role as a logistics and commercial hub for the region, and to address social and institutional challenges throughout the country. A broader animating vision for digitalization in Djibouti is the idea of a digital single market within the Horn of Africa region. Djibouti’s vulnerability to climate-related risks further strengthens the government’s commitment to digital transformation, which can boost societal resilience in a myriad of ways, as illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The PAMAP project aims to build a strong foundation and enabling environment for GovTech in Djibouti through a combination of policy reform, technology solutions, change management, and skill building. In terms of service delivery, its focus on improving tax and customs systems aligns with its trade- and logistics-led economic development strategy. In Jordan, the government clearly sees digital transformation as a path to job creation, a top political priority. Through its Digital Transformation Strategy, the government has linked digital approaches to higher-level development goals. Such overarching strategies, aligned with national development plans, allow countries to embed a whole-of-government approach to digitalization within the context of the future of service delivery and policymaking.64 The World Bank’s YTJ project leans heavily on the idea of strengthening the national digital ecosystem to accelerate progress toward a digital economy. To increase the supply of digitally skilled workers in Jordan, YTJ supports digital skills training with private sector involvement, and enhancing the digital skills of public school students; it also includes activities to expand access to market for digital firms. Strengthening the local digital ecosystem creates benefits not only for the economy in general, but specifically for digital transformation of the public sector, since it facilitates greater availability of skills, infrastructure, and network effects. The GTMI report identifies facilitation of private sector involvement in the provision of technology for public sector digital transformation as a GovTech good practice. By leveraging its extensive spending power, the government can benefit from external expertise and knowledge transfer, while boosting development of the digital ecosystem more broadly. The Tunisia GovTech project illustrates a citizen-centric approach that is problem-driven by design. A citizen journey map was used during the project design phase to 1) identify service delivery bottlenecks from the user perspective; 2) pinpoint priority service areas; and 3) define project components and activities that correspond with the service delivery challenges. Service users identified four broad challenge categories: unequal access, poor quality, weak accountability, and poor user-orientation. These service delivery problems are rooted in three interrelated causes: 1) complex service delivery procedures and a lack of appropriate service delivery mechanisms; 2) public and private sector and civil society difficulties in identifying service users due to the absence of good quality data lists; and 3) challenges in providing higher-quality services due to broadband connectivity difficulties. This problem-identification 64 World Bank 2022c. 36 exercise helped the project identify four flagship areas to prioritize in the education and social protection sectors (health was added later through a restructuring, discussed further below). 4.2 Control Government commitment (or lack thereof) emerges from the case studies as a primary, or perhaps even the single most important, determinant of successes in digital transformation. Strong commitment also needs to be translated into institutional arrangements that enable effective implementation. Empowering an institutional lead at the highest possible level of government is considered good practice for facilitating coordination65, an essential component. Based on the country cases, this is a common area of difficulty, given the political economy challenge of elevating a single entity to a position of power and responsibility that touches most if not all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs). Another key consideration is the sustainability of a single entity’s leadership position within government. It is important to find ways to entrench the leading entity’s position such that it can withstand changes in political leadership to ensure that knowledge transfer and pockets of digital expertise within the agency are not lost as the political tides ebb and flow. In Djibouti, the government aspires to a whole-of-government approach to digitalization, and has prioritized putting institutional arrangements in place as an early step, though the overall IT governance model and the roles of key institutions need to be clarified. Situated within the Office of the Presidency, ANSIE is charged with implementing, upgrading, and integrating government IT systems. However, the President sees ANSIE as a service provider within the government, and therefore created MENI to serve as the institution responsible for coordinating government-wide digital transformation, while ANSIE lacks a mandate to compel ministries to integrate their systems. However, the respective roles of ANSIE and MENI have not yet been clearly delineated, so the ecosystem for digital transformation is in flux. MENI, as the newest institution, is working to gain visibility and carve out its place in the government; as a line ministry itself, it may encounter challenges in getting cooperation from other MDAs over which it does not have authority. ANSIE has for now been left in its current position rather than subsumed by MENI. The World Bank works closely with both entities, and is helping operationalize MENI through support for consulting fees, equipment, stakeholder consultations, and technical training via the Digital Foundations project. In Jordan, political commitment at the highest level rooted in the government’s overarching economic plan has been the key enabling precondition for GovTech work, but institutional challenges persist. Although MoDEE is charged with the task of leading digital transformation in Jordan, MoDEE’s status as a line ministry hampers its ability to manage the digitalization of other MDAs. MoDEE has a mandate to coordinate on digital transformation, but not the power to compel ministries to follow its lead. Some line ministries have already individually undertaken extensive digitization efforts and are reluctant to revisit them. Ensuring coordination will be imperative to breaking down organizational silos and developing policies based on data and user feedback. The Government of Jordan acknowledges institutional and coordination challenges in its Digital Transformation Strategy. The strategy notes that the “presence of a large number of bodies and organizations involved in providing integrated information and services leads to bureaucratic procedures and the unwillingness of stakeholders to bear the responsibility resulting from ownership in some 65 World Bank 2021c. 37 cases�.66 MoDEE’s authority needs to be enforced either through legislation, a stronger political push from above, or some other way of creating clear modalities for MoDEE to take charge. Also, reporting lines between MDAs, relevant suppliers and MoDEE need to be defined and agreed for clarity on service ownership and accountability. To overcome resistance and bureaucratic inertia, the YTJ project incorporates capacity building for MoDEE in convening and advocacy to strengthen its ability to lead. Jordan’s vision for a successful digital transformation rests on coordination between the g overnment as a platform and the service provider role of the private sector. At one point a Digital Transformation Committee comprising public and private sector representatives was created, but it only met a couple of times and was discontinued. Effective cooperation will require the government to continue its work on the enabling environment, to develop government-wide standards for quality and design in service delivery, and to put appropriate enforcement and oversight mechanisms in place to ensure that private sector providers are adhering to the standards. A 2020 Digital Economy Country Assessment (DECA) found significant weaknesses in the institutional architecture for digital transformation in Tunisia.67 According to the DECA, weaknesses in leadership and cross-government coordination of the digital strategy hampered implementation of digital projects and platforms and, relatedly, have slowed progress on adopting laws, regulations, and policies reflecting international good practices. Adoption of key reforms, such as on data exchange and competition in the telecoms sector, has also been slowed at times by resistance from established actors. One aim of the GovTech project’s implementation was facilitation of a clearer consensus between MTC and line ministries on the GovTech approach – especially important given the newness of the life event concept and an understandable lack of clarity on their respective responsibilities in this new cross-cutting approach – as well as building consensus around the root problems hampering service delivery. The GovTech project has sought to build consensus among stakeholders through 1) a steering committee chaired by the Minister of Technology with his peers involved in the program; and 2) a high-level anchoring of the life event approach within the government presidency. A collaborative, iterative approach to project design has worked well for Jordan’s YTJ project as well as the Tunisia GovTech project. The YTJ project was designed to respond to priorities initially identified by the Jordanian government—the need to increase the supply of jobs for new college graduates and youth in general—but evolved in an organic way toward a broader focus on the digital ecosystem, including labor market demand and public sector digital transformation. Within the World Bank, the process has been collaborative, with effective cross-sectoral work conducted by four contributing Global Practices and a close integration of thematic areas reflected in the project design. In the case of the Tunisia GovTech project, three project restructurings were prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s shifting priorities in response to the crisis. The changes affected the sequencing, scope, and types of GovTech solutions deployed. They enabled the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine information system eVAX68, adjusted the focus of the project’s education activities to support distance learning during school closures, and provided funding for emergency cash transfers to poor and vulnerable households. Digital identification initiatives may be particularly sensitive politically, and raise challenges around institutional coordination. One example comes from Djibouti, where issues related to digital 66 MoDEE 2021. 67 MTC and World Bank 2020. 68 www.evax.tn 38 identification (ID) created delays in PAMAP implementation. Originally, PAMAP included digital IDs for citizens as a significant component, but the government decided to proceed with a single-source contracting of a consulting firm to implement the digital ID rather than going through the project. The government was not forthcoming regarding its plans, and the Ministry of Interior viewed digital IDs as having national security implications, all of which prompted a project restructuring that removed the digital ID despite its centrality to the larger digital transformation vision. The change raises concerns that the way in which the digital ID is deployed (e.g., with respect to vendor lock-in and proprietary rights) could pose challenges for the broader rollout of digital services. 4.3 Participation Participation in the GovTech context has multiple dimensions. There is the concept of inclusion in service delivery, meaning that services are universally accessible regardless of household income, geographical location, gender, age, identity group, disability status, and other factors. Another concept related to participation is that of a user-centric approach to designing and delivering services so that information is readily available, and processes are efficient and user-friendly, which is essential to uptake. If services do not engender confidence and trust, or if they are difficult to use, citizens will choose to continue to access them offline.69 Finally, there is the notion of citizen engagement to embed feedback loops in policy and program design, implementation, and monitoring. Each of these facets of participation is discussed below. In terms of inclusion, GovTech approaches can leverage technology to reach users wherever they are and customize the service delivery experience to their needs, but analog complements may be necessary. Through mobile apps and web interfaces, governments can provide a tailored suite of services based on an individual’s profile and history, underpinned by digital identification. However, given gaps in connectivity, access to web-enabled devices, and digital skills, governments will continue to need to provide alternatives to e-service delivery for some time. Diagnostics on the digital divide collected during the preparation of the GovTech project in Tunisia paid special attention to gender, households in rural areas, and age. This led to the plan for specific measures to increase equitable access—in particular, deployment of access points closer to citizens, including 69 digitized stationary and mobile access points in districts with very low access—less than 25 percent on average—to key administrative service providers in 19 Governorates to reach about 2 million citizens. In Jordan, under the YTJ project, Government Service Centers will be established in each of the fourteen governorates where both citizens and businesses can access and receive help with services. In Djibouti, the digital divide is pronounced. PAMAP aims to increase access to services and information, both online and through the establishment of Citizen Service Centers (CSCs), which are particularly intended to improve access for the poor in remote or underserved areas. Instead of visiting multiple locations to obtain documents and services, citizens could go to a CSC, which would serve as a one-stop- shop for e-services through kiosks and assisted access terminals. Leveraging the country’s existing postal infrastructure, CSCs will be located inside post offices (a pilot CSC was inaugurated in 2023). The project prioritizes closing the gender gap in service delivery and increasing access for persons with disabilities. With a somewhat smaller share of women relative to men accessing the Internet70, CSCs are particularly important for ensuring gender equity in service delivery, and key project indicators are disaggregated by 69 World Bank 2022b. 70 At the time of PAMAP project preparation, only 10 percent of women had Internet access in Djibouti. For current data, see https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Dashboards/Pages/Digital-Development.aspx. 39 gender. Moreover, PAMAP is noteworthy for its special attention to increasing service delivery access for persons living with disabilities, who represent around ten percent71 of the population. In the CSC proof of concept there is a plan to have one or two web stations dedicated for people with disabilities and equipped with appropriate technology to promote inclusion. Transparency and openness play a role in promoting inclusion, though as noted earlier, all three country contexts are challenging. Jordan joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2011 and has taken strides including establishing an Open Government Data Policy in 2017, followed by an Open Government Data Quality Framework in 2020. Jordan also has an Open APIs Policy (2020), which is a key enabler of its digital transformation because of its importance in facilitating data exchange, including among legacy systems. However, for civil society to engage meaningfully in policy dialogue and hold government to account, better access to data and stronger mechanisms for participation will be important. Moving in this direction, in 2021 the government published the Jordanian Policy for Electronic Participation, which aims to activate electronic tools to enhance the process of community engagement in decision making. GovTech projects can include measures to strengthen transparency. An Open Data Readiness Assessment (ODRA) conducted by the World Bank in 2017 identified strengths and weaknesses in the enabling environment for data transparency in Tunisia.72 Positive features identified included the existence of access to information and personal data protection laws, while deficits included a lack of readiness among political leaders and ministries to implement open data practices. Through the Moussanada Multi-Donor Trust Fund (P151301), the World Bank enables ongoing work under Tunisia’s current OGP National Action Plan and supports the creation of mechanisms for citizen participation and transparency. Also, the GovTech project includes a PBC (now achieved) that incentivized adoption of the National Open Data decree, with the intent to “increase service delivery accountability and stimulate private sector activity such as data analytics enterprises�. As noted in the Project Document for the Tunisia Social Protection Reforms Support operation, World Bank and country experience have demonstrated that “a high degree of transparency is critical to ensuring credibility of social protection programs and garnering the trust of intended beneficiaries during reforms�. Indeed, when trust in government is low, citizens may be reluctant to take up e-services. In Djibouti, where openness is still quite limited, the PAMAP project provides support for public data disclosure and access to information, adoption of an access to information law, and strengthening the asset declaration and verification process. The countries in the case studies are in different places on a continuum from a supply-driven to a demand-driven approach to service design. In Djibouti, service delivery design and implementation are shaped by the government in terms of prioritizing and developing digital services. However, several PAMAP project indicators track progress toward a more citizen-centered strategy, including “citizens involved in the design and delivery of e-services� and “percentage of CSC users satisfied with provided e- services�. The Digital Foundations project outlines an intent to consult citizens on prioritization through surveys and stakeholder consultations, co-creation of activities and services with citizens and beneficiaries, and development of a comprehensive citizen engagement methodology to close the feedback loop, including gender-specific mechanisms. 71 https://disabilitydata.ace.fordham.edu/country-briefs/dj/. 72 World Bank 2017b. 40 Jordan’s government has been in the process of shifting from a supply-driven approach to service design toward a more user-centric one. For example, it now considers end-user demand as a key criterion in prioritizing services for digitization or process reengineering. The government recognizes the need to reorient its approach and is taking steps in a more demand-driven direction. In deciding which information to include in the mobile app version of its e-services portal, for instance, the government has analyzed which information is most often sought after by users of the web version. By applying a concept of information-by-default, the government aims to reduce the number of inquiries that users have to resolve either online or in person related to their personal information delivered via the Sanad app.73 The government has also created a National Service Register (NSR) that lists all 2,500+ government services along with information about the documentation required to access each service. The next step is to establish baseline data on service delivery, and then use real-time data collected via the NSR (such as waiting times and satisfaction rates for specific services) for performance improvement. For example, following the principle of “Leaving no one behind� espoused in the government’s Digital Transformation Strategy, the YTJ project specifies that 40 percent females and 15 percent Syrian refugees will benefit from access to and services provided by digital platforms. Of the three case study countries, Tunisia has the most user-centric orientation to service delivery design and reform from the project design stage. The GovTech project takes a life-event approach that places the user at the center of the public administration reform process. Project preparation focused on four key delivery events in social protection and education: “I need a social assistance benefit�; “I need a social security benefit�; “I need to enroll my child in primary or secondary school�; and “My child drops out of basic/primary education�. Based on these life events, a map shows the user journey to access a given service and enables a focus on the points at which the user interacts with service providers. This approach identifies the needs and problems in the public service delivery chain from the user perspective, and then seeks to find solutions to the identified bottlenecks. It can be a time-consuming approach, however. In Tunisia, the Moussanada multi-donor trust fund74 was mobilized to support the project team in conducting the citizen journey exercise, which helped compensate for a tight timeline. Closing feedback loops offers the potential to build trust in government while also making services work better for citizens, provided engagement leads to greater government responsiveness and accountability. Thus far, efforts to increase engagement in the case study countries have been more aspirational than concrete. In Djibouti, expanding access to digital services will create new touch points for citizen engagement, and the PAMAP project includes support for citizen engagement activities such as mechanisms to gather feedback on service quality, but so far plans for active user outreach are unclear. In Tunisia, the GovTech project supports the government’s endeavors to enhance citizen engagement in service delivery in a challenging context. Project documentation notes that service users in the social protection and education sectors have identified problems including a lack of information on service procedures, and limited ways for them to “be heard�. Even in this challenging country context, the citizen- centric approach embedded in the GovTech operation preserves multiple entry points for the Government of Tunisia to engage with citizens through World Bank operations. The project supports a strengthened grievance redress mechanism linked to the national system for reporting corruption 73 Including personal and family information related to Covid vaccination; identity cards, passports, and driver’s licenses (renewal notifications); properties; vehicle ownership; children’s school details; etc. 74 https://www.moussanada.org/en/the-tunisian-government/. 41 (“EPeople�75) and aims to improve user interface options (allowing online, phone/voice, and smartphone access). In addition, the project established a “Public Service Delivery Barometer� under the Presidency. The Barometer’s aim is to monitor key indicators of service usage and quality, as well as gather citizen feedback via a Citizen Report Card, publish the results, and create an action plan that outlines steps taken in response. The first Barometer reports on the flagship services were delivered and published in 2022. Recommendations for improving three out of the four flagship life events have been approved by the Ministerial Council and are currently being implemented, and a second iteration of the Barometer was scheduled for delivery as of late 2023. Accountability for the Tunisia GovTech Project overall “will be measured in terms of: 1) increased availability of sector and service-related information; and 2) increased responsiveness of public service providers to user feedback.�76 The Jordan Investment PforR operation emphasizes citizen engagement in support of improved service delivery. Per its Digital Transformation Strategy, the government “realizes the need to improve the two- way flow of information between the government and citizens, increase public participation, and establish partnerships and cooperation between the public and private sector�.77 Project objectives of the Investment PforR include strengthening the “At Your Service� (Bekhedmetkom) mechanism, an online platform linked to 89 government agencies that captures citizen complaints and feedback and was leveraged during the COVID-19 crisis as a communication tool between the state and citizens.78 In 2024, “At Your Service� will be rolled into a larger, unified portal for e-participation that MoDEE is developing. To advance the open data agenda, the Investment PforR also supports the implementation of the government’s Open Data policy. Moreover, as mentioned, the NSR in Jordan should generate a new source of timely, representative, granular feedback that can be used to improve services. The NSR will strengthen the government’s ability to make data-based decisions on the improvement of digital services, and to look at user activity such as “completion rate� to build a deeper understanding of what elements of a service are the most difficult or inefficient for users. To enable this capability across the government, it will be important to develop robust guidance to ensure line ministries have the autonomy to analyze and adjust services based on the data they have. Activities like this could help to foster a sense of ownership over service performance and data and support the organic growth of a culture of continuous improvement across the Jordanian government. The next stage in this piece of work will be to build support to develop user research capabilities to further underpin the role of the NSR – evidence from qualitative user research, for example, could be very powerful when combined with real-time service performance data. 75 The OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism noted concerns about the governance of the EPeople platform, because it is managed by the Presidency rather than an independent party, in their view creating a potential conflict of interest. For more see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/tunisia/commitments/TN0030/. 76 Per the Project Appraisal Document. 77 MoDEE 2021. 78 From inception in 2018 to early 2021, 160,000 grievances were received through the platform and 98 percent were resolved, with an average satisfaction rate of 70 percent. The system is linked to approximately 89 government agencies and supported by approximately 100 liaison officers. (Source: Program Appraisal Document, Investment PforR). 42 4.4 Technology Djibouti The Digital Foundations and PAMAP projects are highly complementary. The former concentrates on the critical enabler of competition in the domestic telecoms market. The government has initiated key steps toward realization of this goal: it took the decision to open the share capital of the incumbent operator Djibouti Telecom to a strategic partner, and passed a law establishing a multi-sector regulator in charge of Telecom, Post and Energy. By facilitating digital connectivity through the introduction of competition and private investment in the ICT sector, the Digital Foundations project should lead to an increasing usage of online government services via better and more affordable Internet for citizens. PAMAP is providing general support for strengthening e-government foundations and relevant institutions. In terms of the government-wide architecture, the Government of Djibouti has rolled out a back-end interoperability platform based on the open-source X-ROAD system developed in Estonia, to which it aims to link other government systems. Data from across the government will be stored in a public cloud, so that MDAs do not need to individually purchase servers and licenses. All of these centralized IT services will be managed and maintained by ANSIE, which functions as an IT service provider for the entire government. A few services are already available online, such as a COVID-19 application (for testing and vaccination status) and an e-Visa service. Also underway are enhancements to the government’s e-government procurement web portal, and implementation of the Alfresco platform for government-wide document management. On service delivery, via PAMAP the World Bank supports digitization of two critical functions: tax and customs administration. These functions were selected due to their key role in mobilizing domestic resources (via collection of Value-Added Tax and other taxes and import duties) in the context of rising public debt. Enabling online filing and payment for taxes and customs fees necessitates business process reengineering along with upgrading of IT systems. Although ANSIE is delivering on its mandate, it is overwhelmed by demand, and sustainability is a key question. Staff are currently paid as consultants rather than as civil servants, meaning that these jobs are highly attractive relative to other jobs in the government, and retention may become even more difficult when the funding for PAMAP ends unless ANSIE can maintain special status for its staff. ANSIE is currently putting together a business model that would outline modalities for sustained funding, perhaps through Service Level Agreements with MDAs. Alternatively, MDAs could simply remit a certain amount of their budgets to fund ANSIE. In any case, having a centralized coordinating IT provider is critical to avoid wasteful spending (e.g., with ministries unnecessarily buying duplicative software licenses). Djibouti currently lacks a strategic, legal, policy, and regulatory framework for digital transformation and access to services, but has made major strides toward adopting a Digital Code, with World Bank support. The initial digital capability assessment for the PAMAP project noted the absence of an enabling framework for digitalization. For example, the country did not have policy and legal frameworks to ensure data privacy and security, safeguard biometric data, or protect electronic transactions. Without the enabling framework, the government cannot make use of the soft infrastructure that is already in place, such as the X-ROAD system. Since this time, the government has undertaken significant work on a comprehensive digital legal package (“Digital Code�), with support from PAMAP. The Digital Code will introduce foundational legal provisions that cover electronic transactions, digital signature, data 43 exchange, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, and access to information. It is has benefited from several workshops held to validate the code with stakeholders to ensure that it is compatible with the constitution and laws already on the books. As of April 2023, the Digital Code had been approved by the Council of Ministers but not yet been adopted by the parliament. The Digital Foundations project includes one indicator measuring the number of articles of primary digital legislation and regulation issued during the implementation period. Djibouti also needs a foundational unique ID system; currently there are several citizen registry systems that are uncoordinated and duplicative. A unique ID system would facilitate management of safety net programs, tax administration, customs, registration of life events (births/deaths), and property rights, and improve access to financial and other services. As mentioned, implementation of a digital ID was originally envisioned as a key component of the PAMAP project, but was later removed. The government has made progress on rollout of the digital ID, and in early 2022, the president signed a decree that citizens must adopt it by June 2022. ANSIE operates a platform through which citizens can make an appointment to obtain the digital ID. Accelerating IT system adoption and usage is a central challenge, and business process re-engineering and change management will be central to making digital transformation effective. Currently, since there is no binding law to compel ministries to connect to X-ROAD, making progress will require significant attention to change management across institutions. Fewer than ten platforms were using the interoperability framework as of 2022, and the Public Key Infrastructure was not yet operational because of the lack of a legal framework. Moreover, the government is proceeding to digitize services based on existing business processes, which means missing potential productivity gains. Business process re- engineering should lay the groundwork for e-services by rationalizing policies and procedures first, such as reducing the number of people and steps involved in a process, before moving to digitize each step. The end goal is to make ICT investments more cost-effective and improve the service delivery experience for citizens. Digitization without change management can lead to making the same errors that existed in the process before, just more quickly. There is a risk that the technical requirements of digital transformation can overshadow the ultimate objectives—losing the forest for the trees. Thus far, in Djibouti, the government seems to be approaching its digital transformation as an IT project, which it largely is—but the next step is to focus on how the implementation of new systems can transform service delivery and strengthen governance. For instance, with the tax administration system, the key question is how the system can increase domestic resource mobilization. The creation of ANSIE as an IT service provider within the government prior to the creation (six years later) of MENI meant that X-ROAD was selected and implementation had begun before the government had a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. While proceeding iteratively on digital transformation may ultimately be a successful strategy, having the end goals in mind can be important for prioritizing steps, such as which services and systems to focus on first, and for determining how to measure progress. Jordan In July 2021, the Jordanian government adopted its overarching Digital Transformation Strategy to outline the path forward in public sector modernization, building on support from the YTJ project. It includes plans for centralized government digital infrastructure, a data center, middleware, open application programming interfaces (APIs), and enabling policies such as on data privacy and digital 44 signatures. This strategy now provides the framework for GovTech-related activities, and its adoption satisfied one of the PBCs of the YTJ project. The strategy espouses a set of guiding principles for digital transformation, which includes 1) Digital by Default; 2) One Stop Shop; 3) Leaving no one behind; 4) Simple, fast and satisfactory services; and 5) Once only principle (avoiding duplicate requests to users for the same data, and avoiding conflicting sets of data, by ensuring coordinated data management and sharing across government institutions).79 As mentioned earlier, under the auspices of the YTJ project the government is expanding and enhancing Sanad, its single sign-on e-services platform that will be the backbone for online service delivery. All citizens can now activate a digital ID that allows them to access transactional services through Sanad. When a federated e-government architecture has been fully implemented as envisioned, it will include a proprietary Government Service Bus based on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to enable a seamless service delivery experience. Once fully integrated with Sanad, the Government Service Bus will route service invocations towards service providers and return responses to users, and link to shared services such as digital payment capabilities. The World Bank supports e-procurement in Jordan through the Strengthening Reform Management project (P171965). Project aims include introducing complementary legislation such as for standard procurement documents, and professionalizing the procurement stream, along with communications and capacity building. The project enabled enhancement of the Jordan Online E-Procurement System (JONEPS) that involves procuring agencies including state-owned enterprises, municipalities, and public administration entities. In 2019, the government adopted a new procurement bylaw to increase the efficiency and transparency of public procurement, and 12 government agencies are now using JONEPS. Relatedly, the project supported the creation of a National Register of Investment Projects for Jordan, a web-based information management system to collect, store and produce reports on data related to the entire lifecycle of investment projects, as a way to strengthen public investment management. The World Bank’s GovTech work in Jordan focuses on data governance, as well as soft infrastructure to expand the digital sector and improve online government services. Looking at the legal, policy, and regulatory framework for digital transformation, while many pieces are in place, enforcement continues to be a challenge, and requires capacity building at the civil service level. A 2021 Digital Economy Country Assessment (DECA) emphasized80 the need to address Jordan’s implementation gap in terms of “limited adoption and/ or enforcement of key legislative and regulatory frameworks enabling trusted data use and sharing�.81 “Soft� infrastructure includes data interoperability strategies and policies, and technical standards for data classification and management to ensure the effective implementation of data governance frameworks. With respect to Sanad, an information interoperability framework has been initiated that will ensure that all entities involved are using the same data standards. The YTJ project will finance an assessment to be conducted by MoDEE covering the interoperability of shared services, systems capabilities, data governance, and resilience to identify institutional and regulatory gaps for digital transformation. This services assessment will also examine the legal and regulatory environment 79 MoDEE 2021. 80 The DECA report recommended three key areas of focus for Jordan. In addition to the implementation gap, it highlighted government data infrastructure limitations (e.g., architecture; G-Cloud; API standards; network security; etc.); and weak organizational and institutional leadership, coordination, and capabilities (Barzelay, Khoury, and Bezzina, et al. 2021). 81 Barzelay, Khoury, and Bezzina, et al. 2021. 45 around e-services such as e-signature, e-transaction, data exchange, and authentication of e-documents legislation, and measures to ensure responsible data use and data protection and privacy surrounding online delivery mechanisms. Enforcing legislation on data protection and privacy is an essential in Jordan, particularly with the rollout of the digital ID. The Strengthening Reform Management project also emphasizes the process- and institutional change-related aspects of digital government transformation. The complexity and multisectoral nature of procurement reform illustrates the need for a whole-of- government approach to ensure system interoperability and adoption. For example, procuring entities using JONEPS need to verify the qualification documents of a given bidder by connecting to other systems, such as 1) the Ministry of Finance to verify tax compliance status; 2) various ministries (Trade, Industry, etc.) to check registration status; 3) associations of engineers and contractors, to cross-check eligibility; and 4) banking systems to verify submitted guarantees (e.g., bid guarantee, advance payment guarantee, performance guarantee). System integration is also required to allow the procurer to pay the contractor. All of this underscores the importance of cross-government coordination and collaboration. To a limited extent, MoDEE is working directly with ministries on business process reengineering as services are digitized. For an individual service, business process reengineering (BPR) means rationalizing the required steps and documentation to access the service. BPR also implies changes to or enhancements of current regulations (and in some cases laws), a process that may be challenging and takes time. Before MoDEE digitizes a service, ideally it works with the relevant ministry to understand current business processes and identify changes needed to streamline the process for digitization. However, BPR has become more rushed and is sometimes skipped given the pressure to digitize services quickly – the focus is on digitizing existing forms and adding new functionality (such as digital payment and digital signature), rather than the more foundational work of shortening processes and updating regulations and bylaws. Recruiting and retaining staff with relevant skills has been the main technical challenge on YTJ implementation thus far. While the Minister’s commitment is strong, a severe lack of implementation capacity due to staffing shortages has impeded progress. Thus far, given the need to meet short-term goals, the focus has been on hiring technically qualified staff rather than upskilling current civil servants. Government salaries are lower than private sector salaries, making recruiting a challenge. Also, many qualified Jordanians have gone to Gulf countries where demand for digital skills is high. Recruiting is also hampered by the fact that governments often respond to an increase in workload by employing people on short-term contracts that last only for the duration of the project, while workers often prefer open- ended positions, making it difficult to compete with private sector job opportunities. Because of the combination of low salaries and high pressure to deliver, there has been high turnover within the YTJ Project Management Unit since project inception. The government is also working to build citizens’ awareness of the availability of e-services to increase uptake. Mobilizing citizens to obtain a digital ID and take advantage of digital services requires awareness, access, digital skills, and trust, in keeping with the principle of no one left behind. To raise awareness of the digital ID, MoDEE has created communications campaigns and videos, and has an ongoing program to visit large companies to provide information sessions and allow on-the-spot digital ID activation. This has been an efficient way to reach large groups of people directly. MoDEE also communicates routine Sanad updates and announcements though social media, TV/radio, and other channels. The government plans to further increase uptake of the digital ID by expanding eligibility to non-Jordanians in 2024, with outreach to include visiting refugee camps to facilitate ID activation. 46 Tunisia Tunisia’s digital strategy outlines its plan to build a foundation for leveraging digital technology for socioeconomic development, and for digitizing public administration to make public service delivery more efficient, higher quality, and more accessible. Strengthening financial inclusion is also important. The government has noted Tunisia’s ambitions to create a citizen-oriented administration that is “fair, transparent, agile and efficient,� and to build the appropriate regulatory framework, governance and security environment for a digital economy.82 The World Bank primarily supports the government’s vision for digital transformation through the GovTech project. It was the first operation of its kind in the MENA region, and the project is distinguished by placing the citizen at the center of the reform process by design, and of combining public sector innovations, change management, and digital technology. Its three components reflect the causes of service delivery bottlenecks, as identified by citizens, with the components as follows: 1) simplifying, digitizing and optimizing key administrative processes and introducing user-friendly digital and institutional solutions; 2) building public and private sector capabilities for speedier and more responsive service delivery; and 3) boosting connectivity in service provider facilities and addressing the digital divide on the supply side. The project complements progress toward a whole-of-government digital architecture effort funded by an African Development Bank project.83 As originally designed, the GovTech project targeted education and social protection services that are widely used by citizens and are top government priorities, and it aims to make an important contribution to improving human capital outcomes in Tunisia. On the social protection side, the GovTech project included foundational elements to make service delivery more user-oriented, efficient, and straightforward. Planned activities included establishing a digital cash transfer payment mechanism, digitizing paper-based processes for identification and eligibility verification, simplifying the case management system, digitizing pension contribution systems, and operationalizing a machine learning system to automatically monitor social security compliance. In education, activities included upgrading the government’s digital education management platform and implementing a Digital Learning Management System. Investments in better ICT connectivity to underpin service delivery improvements took an approach that distinguished between investments in indoor connectivity (with procurement financed via the project) and outdoor connectivity (facilitated by crowding in private investment where possible through subsidies and regulatory incentives, and turning to public resources only when necessary). A results-based financing component of the project incentivized government to update its ICT strategies and regulatory framework in a manner consistent with a sustainable, Maximizing Finance for Development approach84, and incentivized improvement of network coverage in underserved areas. A first project restructuring prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic provided for emergency cash transfers, and adjusted the focus of the education activities to support distance learning. To protect the poorest and most vulnerable households, the GovTech project supported the expansion of the digital social database and introduction of a simplified registration process. This simplification and expansion of 82 https://www.mtc.gov.tn/index.php?id=14&L=964; update at https://www.mtc.gov.tn/index.php?id=119&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4254&cHash=67f6143491ab22bb5cb8389 67546181b. 83 https://www.afdb.org/ar/projects-and-operations/p-tn-g00-003. 84 https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2018/09/28/maximizing-finance-to-power-development. 47 the database enabled the government to accelerate the collection of additional data while improving on the validation and quality of the database and provide emergency cash transfers to 370,000 households. In education, the project pivoted to prioritize support for distance learning. It launched TV education programs and rolled out digital learning platforms where new digital learning content was made available and teachers were able to receive trainings to conduct virtual teaching. It also enabled virtual communication between school administrators, teachers, students, and parents. A second restructuring expanded the project into the health sector, enabling development of eVAX, a blockchain-based COVID-19 vaccination delivery and management platform. Given the magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis, there was a high sense of urgency to deliver the platform nationwide. The government took an all-hands-on-deck approach, with multiple government entities involved, and private companies donating software development expertise, SIM cards, and ICT connectivity. GovTech principles of citizen orientation, interoperability across government entities, and simplified processes are embedded in eVAX design, functions, and operations. For example, citizens and residents can register for vaccination through four channels (online, SMS, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data [USSD], and toll-free call center) to address the digital divide. The registration is directly linked to the national ID card (CIN) database managed by the Ministry of Interior for cross-referencing and checking of vaccine eligibility. Once eligible, users receive a SMS notification for a vaccine appointment based on local availability. An SMS is automatically sent to remind registered users of a future vaccine appointment(s) and a certificate with QR code, compliant with European Union standards, is issued when fully vaccinated. A third restructuring in March 2023 proposed to transfer support for strategic activities from the Third Export Development Project (EDP3), which was closing, to the GovTech project. This would ensure continuity of the targeted EDP3 activities related to the modernization of the customs IT system and of the National Business Registry, and therefore improve the delivery efficiency, accountability, and user- friendliness of business services. Consequently, the Project Development Objective (PDO) was revised to the following: “to improve equitable access to and the quality and accountability of selected user services through a GovTech approach�. The reference to “selected user services� reflects the expanded scope of the project to support digitalization of services for firms as well as citizens. For the GovTech project, explicit attention to business process re-engineering and change management85 is a priority, recognizing that non-technical implementation issues are at least as challenging, if not more so, than the technical ones. Creating and financing a systematic communications plan was seen by the World Bank team as critical, to promote the reforms both within the government and to the public, as well as to boost citizen demand for digital services. In terms of service improvements, “As-is-to-Be� reviews of administrative processes related to the target services are part of project implementation as one of the PBCs. Moreover, a project sub-component specifically on change management was included in the operation that serves as an on-demand technical assistance component for development and implementation of change management and communications strategies. Change management was a priority for eVAX rollout, as strong resistance among healthcare staff in vaccination 85 Another example of the importance of change management com es from Tunisia’s implementation of its e- procurement system, TUNEPS. According to a case study, “The initial budget did not consider the communication and awareness-raising components, which made it harder during the implementation phase for everyone to adopt the solution. The budget also underestimated the scope and importance of this component of the project. It is therefore recommended that, from the outset, an action plan for deployment/communication and associated funding should be planned.� (Wu Chebili, La Cascia, and Collineau, et al., 2021). 48 centers to a digital solution was a key challenge, and a concerted push on training and communications was necessary. Eventually, healthcare staff adoption quickened since patients would demand to use eVAX to receive SMS confirmations, appointment reminders, and their digital vaccine certificate. The GovTech project addresses some gaps in the policy, legal and regulatory framework for digital transformation. The project specified PBCs on adopting key GovTech and digital economy regulatory reforms, including a data interoperability framework that enables data-sharing across sectors for more efficient service delivery, and a new Digital Law to boost private investment in the telecoms sector. The Digital Law will improve data exchange, user identification and data protection, provide a framework for a more open and competitive telecoms sector, and enable better coordination of connectivity investments. Importantly, through PBCs, the project provides an incentive for the government to overcome potential resistance to administrative simplification and digitization of the services that are the focus of the operation. Under a series of Development Policy Loans in the 2010s, the World Bank also supported a new legal procurement framework in Tunisia, along with an e-procurement system. An appropriate technology plan, based on a solid assessment of technical and non-technical factors, is key to successful implementation of a GovTech approach. The Implementation Completion Report for the Tunisia Social Protection Reform project provides a case in point. The report emphasizes the need for a critical assessment of current systems during project preparation, which was not possible for this project due to time constraints, leading to significant delays once the project was underway. The original objective of building a unified national ID database was deemed too ambitious due to a lack of enabling systems and processes, namely “strong consensus and coordination across ministries and institutions; …institutional and legal framework for secure data exchange between government agencies; a unique identifier that is functional and commonly used by all participating ministries/agencies; and the existence of a quality beneficiary database�.86 Project restructuring generated ultimately successful targets around putting tools and systems in place to enable future reforms. These included building the foundation for an integrated social protection management information system, and taking incremental steps on data exchange (establishing a sectoral interoperable platform and protocols for data exchange among several government entities). Partnering with the private sector enables the government to benefit from outside expertise and knowledge transfer. In the Tunisia Social Protection Project, outsourcing certain aspects of the work to private firms, both on technical aspects (related to the management information system) and non- technical aspects (the communication plan) played a critical role in project implementation. For the eVAX app, ProsperUs, a Tunisian company that specializes in blockchain in the financial sector, volunteered to develop the vaccination certificate module with a QR code and local telecom companies donated SIM cards at the vaccination centers. This collaboration made rapid innovation and rollout possible. 4.5 Effects Djibouti has made progress on the strategic and institutional underpinnings for e-government. In terms of GovTech fundamentals, the PAMAP project has supported creation of a Computer Emergency Response Team, as well as a Public Key Infrastructure system to support the encryption of digital transactions, which is essential as a basis for digital signatures and e-procurement—it could also serve as a basis for a future business registry, for example. In terms of government systems and services, the new customs system 86 World Bank Implementation Completion Report, P144674. 49 implemented under PAMAP has significantly reduced the processing time for customs clearances. As a result of the World Bank Governance for Private Sector Development and Finance (P146250) project’s support for an automated payment system, the process of clearing, settlement, and recording of monetary and other financial transactions has been much improved, which is contributing to the development of safe and efficient financial markets. Such an automated payment system lays the groundwork for government-to-person payments, such as cash transfers, and for providing transactional public e-services. While the systems and infrastructure for Djibouti’s digital transformation are increasingly in place, lack of adoption is a key challenge; progress depends on finalizing the legal, policy, and regulatory framework and on attention to change management. For example, X-ROAD is the technical underpinning for a whole-of-government approach, but complementary institutional arrangements to support implementation are currently insufficient. However, progress is being made on the enabling framework for GovTech. Under PAMAP, the government has adopted a new cyber security strategy. Also, the Digital Code is expected to be adopted relatively soon, and the government is taking key steps toward gradually introducing competition and private sector investment in ICT. World Bank support for Tunisia’s digital transformation served as a foundation for multiple sectoral operations and has generated results in those key service delivery sectors. Through the Social Protection Reform project, Tunisia developed an updated management information system for social protection, exceeding targets for the number of registered households in the system. A communication plan implemented via radio, television, and Facebook led to 100,000 new applicants to the beneficiary database within three months; communication combined with political commitment at the highest level was key to gaining public support. Work on the social identifier led to improved beneficiary identification and targeting, and data exchange among several agencies has been established via the interoperable system. However, data quality remains a concern, underscoring the need for sustained attention and resources allocated to data management. The GovTech project has supported the expansion of the social registry and improved the digital learning management system. The government has also delivered the first barometer reports on the project’s flagship services. GovTech project teams quickly pivoted to respond to urgent needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, leveraging operational instruments and digital fundamentals that were already in place. The World Bank’s support to Djibouti enabled the government to quickly develop an official COVID-19 app for tracking test results and vaccination status. As discussed, in Tunisia the GovTech project facilitated emergency cash transfers to 370,000 of the poorest and the most vulnerable households, and rapid rollout of the eVAX system, which now has more than 7.5 million people registered. The Tunisia GovTech project has catalyzed wider public sector digitalization, notably in the health sector. For example, the government is using the eVAX experience to digitalize the national vaccination system. The platform showcased the possibility and value of an integrated digital infrastructure that the pre-pandemic vaccine management system did not have. More healthcare centers and other health service points are now connected to the Internet, too, and the Ministry of Health plans to update and expand eVAX to cover all routine vaccinations to allow citizens to make appointments, track immunizations, and share vaccination records with relevant officials throughout life. More broadly, information system strengthening and an eventual transition to patient-level electronic medical records is a top policy priority for the Ministry of Health. 50 In general, the Tunisia GovTech project has engendered increased ownership of the life event approach by the government. This is evidenced for example by a demand from the Minister of Economy and Planning to extend the approach to business services, for which the World Bank has provided trust fund support. The GovTech project has also been instrumental in getting other public actors on board with the life event approach, for example on the delivery of social security. Although this has had the effect of slowing the design process, it has ultimately made it easier to find inclusive solutions and to ensure ownership and buy-in regarding the action plan and its implementation and monitoring. Work done on Identification for Development (ID4D) with World Bank support has been foundational to Jordan’s public sector digital transformation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government leveraged this to certify more than 200,000 households by April 2020 to benefit from emergency cash transfers. Emergency cash transfers were delivered digitally, contributing to an increase in the number of mobile wallet accounts from around 300,000 to 1.3 million in three months. The rapid increase in accounts was facilitated by a procedural change made by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ); previously individuals had been required to apply in person for a mobile wallet, but due to the pandemic the CBJ changed this to allow remote onboarding, with great success. The continued efforts to roll out e-services may benefit from enhanced public trust stemming from the government’s effective use of technology during the pandemic, and from citizens’ habituation to a greater reliance on digital services due to pandemic-related restrictions. Beyond pandemic response, the World Bank has embraced a flexible approach to project design and management in the flagship GovTech projects of each of the three case study countries. During the PAMAP project restructuring in Djibouti, several indicators were removed from the results matrix, and replaced with more measurable and relevant ones (in particular, all indicators related to the e-ID component of the project were removed, since that component has been dropped). Now, the government is asking the World Bank to expand the PAMAP project from a focus purely on the revenue side of tax administration to look also at the expenditure side in terms of budget preparation, human resource management, payroll systems, and treasury management. Internally, the World Bank’s multisectoral team has taken a flexible approach to YTJ project design in Jordan enabled by an openness to collaboration and effective communication among team members. This approach to project management mirrors the concept of agile methodologies for development of digital services and tools. The composition of World Bank support helps shape project implementation. In Jordan, since the government’s vision for digital transformation was already in place (and has now been made more explicit by the Digital Transformation Strategy), the World Bank has chosen to use financing instruments for GovTech that support government ownership while creating incentives for the government to achieve concrete results. The YTJ project is financed via an Investment Project Financing (IPF) operation to build government capacity, but also includes PBCs, while the Investment PforR also by definition links disbursement of funds directly to specific achievements. Similarly, to mitigate procurement risk in Tunisia, the GovTech project was defined as an IPF operation, but with PBCs that attempt to balance the need for an incremental approach with the goal of catalyzing real change. At the same time, project teams have found complementary technical assistance beyond operational lending tends to be necessary for GovTech operations. In Tunisia for instance, the World Bank’s Moussanada multi-donor trust fund has provided targeted technical support on governance issues, such as support for budget transparency, the citizen journey exercise, modernizing procurement and for implementing the OGP Action Plan. 51 5. Reflections As discussed at the outset of this report, GovTech initiatives may harm rather than strengthen the social contract, if designed and implemented poorly—yet despite the risks, moving forward with public sector digital transformation is increasingly nonnegotiable given its enormous upside potential. Drawing on the three country cases, this concluding section identifies key themes for World Bank practitioners and their country partners to consider as they engage in policy dialogue and develop GovTech operations. The reflections are grouped under the broad headings of 1) Leadership and Governance; 2) Technology and Data; and 3) Capabilities and Project Management. They do not provide a comprehensive survey of issues under each of these three categories, but rather highlight certain themes that surfaced, along with ideas for addressing them (some based in approaches taken by the countries themselves, and others based on recommendations drawn from the research and interviews conducted). The themes cut across the five lenses, and track closely with the “Key Lessons Learned� identified by the GovTech Launch Report and Short-Term Action Plan.87 The case studies can therefore be thought of as practical illustrations of those principles in different settings. Moreover, they highlight essential analog complements to technical digital initiatives, including whole-of-government approaches (“coordination�), relevant skills in the public administration (“capacity�), and leadership and a culture of innovation (“culture�).88 1) Leadership and Governance The extent to which countries have a motivating vision and strong leadership driving GovTech implementation seems to play a key role in explaining GovTech successes and failures. None of the countries considered here has fully realized the whole-of-government aspiration (it could also be argued that no country in the world has yet done so in full). However, for example, Jordan has anchored digital transformation in the national development strategy and linked it to specific objectives, including increasing youth employment. This provides a clear motivation and helps government prioritize when considering the infinite menu of potential digital initiatives – it also illustrates that operational entry points for GovTech initiatives can be found nearly anywhere. When the motivating problem is already a national political priority, this naturally elevates the importance of the digital transformation agenda. In Jordan, signals of the importance of digital transformation from the highest level of government have propelled GovTech forward, and created a vision of a nationwide digital ecosystem in which public and private initiatives reinforce each other. This is not to suggest that GovTech implementation has unfolded without issues, but to underscore the importance of leadership. A whole-of-government approach starts with political leadership but also requires an empowered, centralized entity to manage the process across all MDAs, and ensure coordination among government and non-government stakeholders. Whole-of-government efforts coordinate work toward shared policy goals horizontally (across line ministries) and vertically (between central and subnational government entities) and aim at seamless service delivery for citizens. Roles and responsibilities of government entities, private sector actors, and other partners need to be defined to develop robust and scalable service delivery mechanisms. 87 World Bank 2020b. 88 World Bank 2022c. 52 Institutional arrangements for GovTech implementation have been a challenge in the case study countries, with ministries to varying degrees jostling for control over their digital estates, and vested interests slowing progress. While the World Bank is limited in its ability to influence these arrangements, it can recommend that governments create clear lines of responsibility. If it is not possible to situate the entity with the mandate for digital transformation at the highest level of government, a committee or network of senior representatives from key ministries led by a Chief Information Officer in the center (e.g., in the Prime Minister’s office) could be an option to consider. Moreover, it is pragmatic for the World Bank to work with individual and institutional champions where they emerge, even if the structures are imperfect. This underscores the need for balancing the whole-of-government aspiration with ensuring that projects have realistic objectives and are not so institutionally complex that they become unwieldly. Cohesive messaging and harmonized approaches should apply across the digital transformation agenda to drive cost efficiencies and make progress on policy goals. For example, this could mean strategic cohesion among procurement teams buying digital products and services across government, to improve value for money and help achieve reform outcomes such as more opportunities for small and medium enterprises (see Box 3). The World Bank can support centralizing ICT procurement and budgeting through Development Policy Loans (DPLs). The Open Contracting Partnership89 playbook sets out the importance of agreeing on procurement priorities, goals and a problem statement in order to be able to tackle reform in a structured way. System interoperability and a unified e-government architecture provide the technical foundations for services that require information and approvals spanning multiple MDAs. Box 3. Centralizing ICT Procurement in the UK In the UK, centralizing ICT procurement through the Government Digital Service (GDS) resulted in more effective spending and more opportunity for small businesses. In 2009, about 80 percent of government ICT procurement spending in the UK went to just 18 large suppliers, and only 1 percent to small companies. The government decided to centralize control of this expenditure, empowering GDS with a strong mandate: every government agency was required to get GDS approval before proceeding with any ICT procurement. The aims were to diversify the pool of suppliers, eliminate duplicative and unnecessary spending, increase transparency and accountability, and improve the quality of services. GDS took a lifecycle approach to procurement decisions that promoted coordination and reuse of solutions across government. Now there are 7,000 ICT suppliers available to government entities through a centralized digital marketplace, and all tenders are published, creating a transparent and competitive playing field. Around 40 percent of government ICT procurement spending goes to small and medium-size businesses. GDS supports both procuring entities and suppliers through a user-centric approach. It has simplified contracts and documentation and streamlined the procurement process to make it easier to navigate. It ensures quality and consistency in digital services across the government by enforcing a defined Service Standard and a Technology Code of Practice. GDS also educates civil servants on how to choose the right technology for a project, including through a Service Manual that covers user-centric design, technology, agile delivery, accessibility, and performance measurement. Source: Communication from Alex Segrove, Scott Logic. For service standards and other resources, see: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual. 89 https://www.open-contracting.org/what-is-open-contracting/global-principles/. 53 GovTech approaches demand that governments place users at the center of reforms from planning to implementation to monitoring. Embedding an understanding that services should be based on user needs is essential to ensuring quality outputs. This shift in thinking must be underpinned by capacity building and training for civil servants. A citizen-centric approach applies to all phases of digital reform, from planning to implementation to monitoring.90 The World Bank could potentially improve procurement of digital solutions in its operations by pushing for citizen participation in the process, e.g., in the formulation of high-quality terms of reference for technology solutions. The life event approach taken in Tunisia led to identification of service delivery bottlenecks from a user perspective that informed the priority areas of the GovTech operation. Proactive, continued engagement efforts throughout the process of generating content and services is also key. Service delivery monitoring data should be timely, granular (such that they can be disaggregated by service location, gender, race, refugee status, and other classifications), and representative of the target population, which necessitates a proactive government data collection strategy. Such proactive measures complement reactive feedback collection measures (e.g., grievance redress mechanisms) by enabling governments to respond to specific service delivery bottlenecks individual users may be facing. Good monitoring data enables agile and targeted government responses, thus strengthening the “short route of accountability�.91 To underpin a public communications strategy, World Bank practitioners can consider highlighting the importance of universally accessible and user-friendly government content in increasing citizen trust and engagement with digital services. A citizen-centric orientation to developing web content allows users to find the information they need quickly and efficiently and avoid costly journeys or phone calls. This is a shift from editing website content and proofreading language on government services to looking at government content as a way of answering a user's need in the best way for the user to consume it. These considerations will be especially important following a likely spike in website and portal traffic after a communications drive to the public. Data on user click-through rates between services and content pages and other user research can inform the content architecture. Clear, simple and accessible digital services offered by governments also afford women and marginalized users a greater opportunity to access information and autonomously navigate their relationship with government through various different life events, such as learning to drive or registering to vote. Qualitative user insights are an important complement to quantitative service data. Recognizing the importance of building user research capabilities within government will be a key part of increasing governments’ digital maturity, supporting a shift from “government first� to “user first�. This also means moving from “consulting users� to citizen centered design (World Bank 2022b). How to build this capability within the digital supply chain should also be considered. User research and qualitative feedback methodologies to consider include, for example: � Experience mapping: service teams build a visual representation of what users do, think and feel over time, from the point they start needing to access a service to when they stop using it 90 For a comprehensive guide to delivering citizen centered services via GovTech approaches, see World Bank (2022b). 91 Bhatti et al. 2015. 54 � Research interviews: service teams learn more about different types of users, their circumstances, how they use a service and what they need from it � Moderated usability testing: service teams observe users trying to complete specific tasks using a service, while asking them to think out loud as they move through the service Evidence and data from these approaches (such as videos of the users interacting with the service from moderated usability testing) can be powerful when working to persuade other government entities to support re-engineering and simplification of internal processes, particularly where the backing from the entity is required to do so. The combination of this research plus performance data collected during service delivery can help governments make iterative improvements based on a more holistic picture. While quantitative data provides a sense of the scale and impact of services, qualitative data can bring more context to patterns. Moreover, governments must not lose sight of the role continuous iteration and improvement play in securing the trust of citizens in the government’s digital service offering. Detailed evaluations such as a public value assessment conducted of 25 e-services in Jordan can help shape the digital transformation journey. But they do not replace regular testing and interactions with users intended to understand how well digital services are meeting user needs as well as government needs (such as value for money, e.g., by diverting traffic from phone lines and physical service centers). Sound data governance anchored in a robust policy, legal, and regulatory framework is critical. In comparison to other African countries with recently connected transoceanic cables, Djibouti’s telecommunications sector has made a relatively modest contribution to economic growth, which demonstrates the importance of regulatory and structural reforms in conjunction with GovTech initiatives. Along with Ethiopia and Eritrea, Djibouti has been one of the last countries to preserve a monopoly in the telecom sector, but the government has now taken significant steps toward its goal of introducing competition. This also highlights the importance of aligning sectoral strategies with broader visions for reform. While Djibouti’s Vision 2035 emphasizes the need for a “diversified and competitive economy, with the private sector as a driver� as one of its five key pillars,92 the strategy adopted across the ICT sector until recently contradicted this principle. While effective sequencing of GovTech approaches varies, every context demands strong policy, legal, and regulatory foundations. Policies and implementation mechanisms on personal data protection and cybersecurity, for example, should underpin digital identification. Asking citizens to submit sensitive personal information to the cloud in the absence of such protections can undermine trust, while a clear and enforceable framework would be expected to enhance trust in digital services. In an environment in which citizens view government with suspicion, a rapid GovTech rollout (e.g., e-services and citizen engagement platforms) may erode societal trust. Since data privacy and consumer protection often seem to be areas of legal and regulatory weakness, which can paralyze progress on aspects of the GovTech agenda, these may be good entry points for World Bank development policy lending and operations. The implementation gap on GovTech-related policies such as access to information in the case study countries is significant. World Bank support in all three countries has therefore had an emphasis on the enabling environment, helping to enact relevant policies and regulations and supporting their implementation. Skill and capacity gaps in public administration partly explain policy implementation gaps, underscoring the need for capacity building. Understanding the current status of the enabling 92 Republic of Djibouti 2014. 55 environment for GovTech is critical, which underscores the importance for the World Bank and partners to undertake solid diagnostic work prior to project design. This would include looking at existing laws, regulations, and policies to identify weaknesses and gaps, using tools such as the Digital Government Readiness Assessment (DGRA) and Digital Economy Country Assessment (DECA), and guided by the principles of a social contract for data outlined in Data for Better Lives.93 The GTMI can also be used to identify gaps and potential operational entry points. 2) Technology and Data With an effective whole-of-government approach, one would expect there to be a transformative impact that is greater than the sum of the individual initiatives. This does not seem to be the case in the case study countries yet, perhaps due to weaknesses in whole-of-government integration on both the client and donor sides. Jordan has progressed the farthest in terms of a coordinated financing approach, followed by Tunisia. Given challenging contexts, a modular, pragmatic plan that takes advantage of entry points that seem the most promising offers a way to make incremental progress while working toward a more coordinated, holistic approach. Reflecting the concept of a whole-of-government approach, the idea of Government as a Platform (GaaP) can guide the deployment of components such as payments gateways and digital identity tools. These platforms should be underpinned by a mandate for usage across government services so they can be established as common tools for citizens, providing a seamless government experience. This centralized approach to common platform development, rollout and iteration will leave digital teams the space to focus on understanding user needs and developing services responsive to those needs. Collaborating regularly (potentially adopting agile project methodologies) with the suppliers responsible for building these products will help to ensure that products are being developed in adherence to agreed guidance and standards throughout development, as well supporting knowledge sharing with government staff, who can also use these engagements to oversee continuous improvement and iteration planning once the components have been delivered. Countries should prioritize change management and coordination, and sequence activities depending on initial conditions, as well as paying close attention to the question of system adoption and usage after implementation. Each step of a business process should be evaluated before proceeding with digitization. Other important parts of the change management process can include stakeholder mappings, identification of pockets of resistance, and risk analysis. Preparatory work such as the public value assessment conducted in Jordan is important to laying the groundwork for business process reengineering exercises and prioritizing which services to reform first, avoiding a scattershot approach. In Tunisia, the GovTech project included an explicit “change management� component, and recognized the need for significant training and communications to facilitate eVAX rollout. Despite the implementation of new systems in Djibouti, systems adoption and user takeup have been central challenges. The World Bank can help shape institutional incentives for change, and help bring in relevant partners. PBCs are one method. The cases have also shown that complementary technical assistance or mobilizing additional resources via trust funds to support operations may be important. Additionally, teams can consider bringing in an implementing partner. For example, in the case of Jordan, a joint World Bank/MoDEE delegation to the UK’s Government Digital Service International (GDSI) was organized to 93 World Bank 2021f. 56 promote peer-to-peer learning between the countries. The ensuing partnership between MoDEE and the GDSI94 provides a model that could be appropriated elsewhere. The World Bank also connected MoDEE with a private firm based in India that has extensive experience with India’s digital ID system and has been useful as an advisor with respect to the digital onboarding of citizens. Building on a sound data governance framework, governments need a cohesive and actionable data management strategy, as well as data and digital service delivery standards. Improving the quality and granularity of public sector data will be key to improving services, and can lead to more effective targeting of historically marginalized populations, which in general are often underrepresented or left out of existing datasets. Data also provide support for drafting policies to make service delivery more inclusive and effective for marginalized populations and for women, and data can provide a foundation for advocating for the adoption and implementation of such policies. A data management strategy and related standards should be owned and enforced by the entity with responsibility for government-wide digital transformation, with necessary backing from senior leadership, to ensure it has the required authority and mandate to implement reforms. The leading entity should effectively facilitate cross- government conversations on data and service delivery standards alongside regular engagement with government data professionals as a way of addressing challenges. Increasing data usage and enabling innovation and knowledge transfer through open data efforts also implies a need to prioritize the type of data to publish first by identifying high-value datasets. Data standards are foundational elements of a government's data infrastructure. For a process such as obtaining a work permit, there may be more than a dozen ministries involved, implying a need for interagency process integration and change management. This also means establishing unified standards for data classification, sharing and usage of datasets, to support interoperability. The goal is to enable effective data use and reuse by government and external stakeholders for service delivery, evidence- based decision-making, and innovation. Data standards help government entities share the same understanding of how information should be represented, how reliable it is and how best to maintain it. This also requires attention to where and how data are currently being stored, which data are being collected and why, how they are used in decision making, and what steps would be needed to support data-driven management. Assessing the potential or lack thereof for good data collection and management can also help governments prioritize which services to digitize. Clear, accessible and adaptable standards for digital services are also fundamental elements for any government looking to scale digital services and establish common benchmarks. This is particularly true when looking to develop an outsourced or hybrid model for service delivery, as in Jordan, to ensure that services built by different companies are cohesive and follow agreed criteria. Governments can review existing service guidelines, conduct a gap analysis on the as-is conditions for standards, and understand where standards can be simplified or clarified to support private sector delivery and develop a shared understanding of what good service delivery looks like. Standards should take a holistic approach to service delivery, taking into account government content and information architecture, service design and interaction including look and feel, and choice of technology. 94 For more information on this partnership, see https://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/jordan-sharing-lessons-uk- improving-digital-public-services. 57 To underpin this, governments should consider how they can test services being developed by suppliers before the services go live and enforce standards for quality and consistency. Partnership with the private sector is important to Jordan and Tunisia’s digital transformations, but requires clear arrangements around responsibilities and accountability. A robust assurance mechanism can help government gain more control over its service delivery estate and ensure a consistent quality of services across platforms and channels. Services could be assessed of a variety of criteria, including 1) how aligned it is with user needs; 2) accessibility; 3) plans for iteration and continuous improvement based on data; 4) security and privacy; and 5) choice of tools and technology. 3) Capabilities and Project Management Recruiting and retaining technical and digital talent is an element of transformation that many governments find challenging, and can also benefit from a user-driven approach. Typical blockers stem from a variety of factors, such as an opaque hiring process or salaries that are not benchmarked against what the private sector is able to offer. In the short to medium term, governments can consider outsourcing as a second-best solution, but a review of the application process could prompt improvements in recruitment. Typically, applying for roles in government is very different to applying in the private sector, and this can create a barrier to entry for people with the right skills. Taking a user- centered design approach to recruitment can help, beginning with understanding the needs of applicants and what government can do to support people in producing higher quality applications for government roles. For example, to increase the number and quality of applicants for Content Designer95 roles into the UK’s Government Digital Service, a recruitment guide96 was developed as a supporting document for applicants, addressing a range of questions and providing clarifications on the role. Project preparation lays an essential foundation for GovTech implementation. A solid assessment of technical and nontechnical aspects of the enabling environment and country context provides critical input to project design, and the World Bank can leverage its convening power to facilitate this. Given the complexity of evaluating legacy systems and understanding a political economy context that spans the entire government, it takes time. Assessments should cover strategic, institutional, operational (business process), and technical aspects of the GovTech environment, determining the status of existing systems. In some cases, the timeline for project preparation does not allow for this, which can lead to overestimation of current capabilities and cause delay, unexpected expenses, or necessary adjustments during project implementation. The aim is to build on systems and processes that are working without undue reliance on technical weak links, and respond to the political economy and current institutional capacity. At the same time, it may be necessary to build a project around a second-best IT solution because of existing systems to which the government has committed, but it is important to be fully aware of the situation ex ante. Projects should also factor in recurrent maintenance costs including both technical (e.g., systems maintenance) and non- technical (e.g., data management) and other factors related to sustainability of GovTech initiatives. Finally, the landscape is constantly changing, even during the project preparation phase, indicating the need for an agile approach, as each of the flagship projects in the country cases have illustrated. 95 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-designer. 96 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RxUmicHfk3FK90lxkLxkd3MuHu3ufQy1Aq0D2TASWTQ/edit. 58 The World Bank should consider investing in IT expertise among its staff. Evaluating the environment and potential for GovTech requires skills in the World Bank’s areas of core competence , but also a technical understanding of IT systems and capabilities. While IT consultants can help, increasing the World Bank’s in-house capacity to evaluate technical opportunities and risks may be beneficial, as objective assessments of initial technical conditions are essential to making realistic project plans. The GovTech agenda is multisectoral, and affects all parts of the public sector, indicating the need for global practices (GPs) within the World Bank to work closely together in a “whole-of-World-Bank� approach. The pandemic has contributed to stronger collaboration across GPs (such as on digital health and education initiatives) – this should be sustained to maximize the results of individual projects. Many GovTech projects provide good examples of cross-GP collaboration. Teams should carefully consider the combination of World Bank financing instruments and support. A reliance on PBCs can provide strong incentives for results, but limited up-front YTJ financing for the government to undertake key steps became difficult in Jordan due to the unexpected deterioration in the government’s fiscal situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Tunisia, following the success of the initial GovTech Project disbursement – which was front-loaded after the first restructuring – disbursement relied increasingly on IPF components executed through cumbersome government procurement procedures, and progress slowed considerably as a result, despite significant and sustained investments in Trust Fund-financed technical assistance to help facilitate operational implementation. A substantially higher share of project resources programmed as Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLIs), or adoption of a Program-for-Results (PforR) instrument, could have helped to counteract this. Yet procurement risks tend to be high in projects with large IT components, suggesting the need for IPFs in many cases. In Tunisia, the team thought creatively about mitigating these risks and finding strategies to incentivize private sector involvement, e.g., splitting indoor and outdoor connectivity. Moreover, while the restructurings in the Tunisia GovTech project undoubtedly broadened the application of the GovTech approach across government, it has also added to the complexity of the operation and spread resources, both within the government and the World Bank, more thinly, thereby slowing implementation at a time when institutional pressures for disbursement have grown. With complex GovTech operations, it is important to recognize the likely tradeoffs between the breadth of the approach and the speed of implementation. Looking Ahead This systematic approach to capturing GovTech country experiences has highlighted some of the emerging themes of GovTech operations in the MENA region, and also shed light on areas where further research is needed. In future, it could be valuable to conduct additional country case studies to continue to capture the MENA region’s GovTech journey, including from the higher income countries. There is also space for research on additional thematic topics, potentially including Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) contexts; public sector capacity challenges including digital skills; change management and sustainability of reforms; procurement; and disruptive technologies. 59 Bibliography Arezki, Rabah; Rachel Yuting Fan; and Ha Nguyen. 2019. Technology Adoption and the Middle-Income Trap: Lessons from the Middle East and East Asia. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 8870. 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