The theme of the 12th edition of the Survey is “The Future of Digital Government”. The Survey looks at how digital government can facilitate integrated policies and services across the 193 United Nations Member States. It supports countries’ efforts to provide effective, accountable and inclusive digital services to all and to bridge the digital divide and leave no one behind. The Survey includes digital government ranking of the 193 UN Member States. The 2022 Survey also marks the first study to incorporate an assessment of e-government in the most populous city in each of UN Member State.

From innovation hubs and policy experiments to regulatory sandboxes : Digital technologies carry a promise to fast track sustainable development by supporting innovative, forwarding-looking policies and digital government solutions. There are, however, numerous risks and complexities of frontier technologies that come along with those opportunities, as well as policy and regulatory challenges such as those related to inclusion, competition, privacy and security. To read more, click on the title/photo.

The Digital Government Capability Assessment (DGCA) is a six-dimension framework of enablers to engage governments in discussions towards digital government transformation. Considering that digital government requires a multifaceted response from governments, the dimensions of the DGCA contain various statements which could guide governments in understanding gaps and policy entry points. This tool can be used at the inter-institutional level as part of a national exercise or as an international comparative exchange between different countries at the regional or global level.

The citizen engagement toolkit is a brief guide aimed at promoting engagement in and implementation of open government in the Arab region. Prepared as part of ESCWA open government initiative, the toolkit covers how to design, develop and implement citizen engagement programmes within the implementation of open government that contributes to better governance.

The open data toolkit is a brief guide for initiating, planning, implementing, and evaluating open data programmes in the Arab region. It includes five sections, covering planning and management, making and updating inventories and catalogues, developing platforms, evaluating, and ensuring open data quality. The proposed steps are fortified with examples from existing open data initiatives that help clarify the process based national experiences of developed and developing countries, including Arab countries.

A panel discussion on data policy is being held by the World Bank in conjunction with the National Center for Digital Economy of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Institute for the Development of the Information Society.

The IGF brings various people and stakeholder groups to the table as equals to exchange information and share good policies and practices relating to the Internet and technologies. The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was hosted online by the United Nations under the overarching theme Internet for human resilience and solidarity. The programme develops around the four main thematic tracks:  (1) Data; (2) Environment; (3) Inclusion; (4) Trust. 

The aim of the training is to improve knowledge and enhance understanding of the complex nature and intersectoral challenges facing sustainable groundwater governance and management in the Arab region. The AWARENET Coordinator Mrs. Dima Kharbotli presented an overview of the network and its most prominent activities. 

This report presents an assessment of the existing National Reporting Platform (NRP)s in ESCWA member countries and introduces the main seven characteristics and principals for designing and implementing a national data platform that enables countries to move towards achieving the SDGs.

GEMS indicator aims to measure the maturity of government services provided through the portal and through mobile applications in the Arab region.