Brief

The 23rd session of the Arab Council of Ministers for Communications and Information was held on December 18, 2019 in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At the meeting, the Council authorized the Arab working group responsible for developing the "Arab Strategy for Communication and Information Technology" to make the necessary decisions regarding the methodology proposed by ESCWA for preparing, developing, and implementing the Arab Strategy for Information and Communication Technology (the Arab Digital Agenda). This methodology was based on observations made during the 31st meeting of the Strategy Working Group, held on September 19, 2020.

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The draft document was prepared in cooperation with experts appointed by Arab countries and international and Arab organizations involved in the strategy's development. This version included a matrix of the responsibilities assigned to each party participating in the work, which were determined through a series of consultations with all partners. The final version of the agenda will accurately reflect the partners' contributions. ESCWA began holding coordination meetings with Arab and international organizations in December 2020 to establish the necessary partnerships for activating this participatory work. ESCWA also held bilateral meetings with regional United Nations organizations representing non-Arab continents or regions, to draw on their expertise and benefit from their experiences in developing the Arab Digital Agenda and the Arab Strategy for Information and Communication Technology.

In March 2021, the first joint workshop between ESCWA and the League of Arab States was held to develop the Arab Digital Agenda (ICT strategy). This meeting took place on the sidelines of the 32nd session of the meetings of the Arab Working Group on the Arab Strategy for Information and Communication Technology, with participation from all concerned partners. Follow-up workshops were held with researchers and experts from countries and organizations involved in the project, as part of the central mechanism for research and technical cooperation and the Joint Technical Committee.

The Joint Technical Committee also held meetings to coordinate the participatory research work and the procedures for developing the structure of the Arab Digital Agenda and its preliminary drafts. This series of meetings culminated in the meeting of the Executive Office of the Council of Arab Ministers for Communications and Information in its 50th regular session, held in Cairo in July 2022. During this meeting, the Executive Office praised ESCWA's efforts and resources mobilized for the success of this important strategic project for the Arab countries and praised its comprehensive and gradual approach to formulating the agenda. The Council also welcomed the planned stages and activities announced by ESCWA for the coming period.

Consultations continued with all stakeholders and experts to ensure the coherence of the agenda's content and its compatibility with regional and global development paths. An expanded consultative meeting was held in Dubai in October to reach the pre-final document, which will be presented to the meeting of the Council of Arab Ministers for Communications and Information in its 26th regular session at the end of December 2022. It is hoped that the agenda will be approved in its final form by the end of 2022 and implemented in the first quarter of 2023.

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