What challenges are MENA governments facing when digitising public services? What are the problems they’re trying to solve to make life easier for citizens and residents? How can digitisation foster inclusion and widen access to services across geographies, communities and demographics?

These are the questions Siren Analytics CEO Jihad Bitar and I grappled with last week at GIZ's summit on “Inclusive Digital Governance in the MENA region.” Attending the event in Tunisia, we had the pleasure of discussing and exchanging learning on GovTech issues with a wide range of participants, including decision-making officials from several countries in the region, international experts in IT, AI and change management.

A few takeaways.

It's clear that digital transformation is very much “in” at the moment. The MENA region is undergoing rapid digitisation, with most countries and international organisations seeking to digitise their processes and services to some degree.

As in Lebanon, resource constraints, outdated processes and bureaucratic inertia commonly affect regional public administrations. This influences where their digital transformation journeys begin. International organisations and donors are typically choosing to partner with municipalities or local government units (LGUs) on digitisation initiatives, leveraging their relative proximity to citizens and smaller scales to trial solutions. In doing so, they are alleviating the burden on central governments, which are all too often drowning in problems and paperwork.

The opportunities

These are many. In theory, digital services allow anyone with a computer or a phone to access government services, even in the remotest areas. This can enhance the feeling of unity and belonging in countries where traditional governance systems prevail, and where rural-urban inequality is pronounced.

When combined with effective oversight, e-governance systems can be effective at fighting corruption, enabling fair and equitable access to services by reducing direct contact with government agents. This removes the potential for human interference and preferential access by design; thus, promoting social inclusion.

The same goes for gender inclusion. In Lebanon, some women would typically never dare enter certain public administrations due to the barrier imposed by hyper masculine work cultures and spaces that can be threatening for women. Taking services online helps reduce this barrier.

The elderly and people living with disabilities can also gain better access to services through digitisation. If implemented, guidelines such as those developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, ensure platforms are accessible, and there are companies that can help ensure voluntary compliance by conducting accessibility audits on websites.

E-democracy is opening the gates to much wider citizen participation in public decision making and civil society oversight. The Consul Democracy platform, which is free and open-source, was an example presented at the conference that LGUs can use to gain citizen ideas and feedback, and to facilitate internet voting and participatory budget allocation.

The challenges

These are also numerous. The challenges posed by unequal access to the internet or electronic devices, low bankarisation levels, and the lack of electronic payment means are relatively well known. But one challenge that participants kept mentioning was trust.

Trust is not granted. It has to be gained and then built on. By engaging in human centric design - involving citizens in the design and conception phase, trying to answer their real needs, and looping them in for feedback – we can create a virtuous circle of trust.

Data and especially personal identifying information also has to be handled in a secure and transparent manner. People need to know what data is stored and how it is used. Here, we can draw upon some of the concepts formalised in the GDPR. Security is also a major concern, and by upgrading encryption algorithms every five years, splitting databases horizontally or vertically, and scattering them in different administration systems that communicate through APIs, we can reduce the risks of major data breaches.

Artificial Intelligence also has to be concerned about inclusion. Developers’ own biases –  and we all have them – as well as overfitting models (using a training dataset not representative of the whole population), can greatly affect the performance of AI tools and introduce discrimination, even if the intention was the exact opposite.

Personally, I feel that time will take care of some of these problems. The internet and cheap electronics from East Asia are spreading, new generations are embracing all kinds of digital services, and international organisations, consulting groups and local tech companies are ready to help. What we lack in the region are digital transformation roadmaps, and political will at the governmental level to engage and include all citizens.