National Digital Development Reviews in 2021 Guiding Template

The National Digital Development Reviews guiding manual for 2021 comprises technical and organizational guidelines to gauge and reveal digital development and digital cooperation status in the Arab countries. It aims to promote digital development in the Arab region, to empower everyone, to ensure the inclusion of all citizens and to achieve their wellbeing.

The guiding manual is based on a comprehensive conceptual framework for digital development consisting of five clusters, and was developed by ESCWA in 2018. It includes all aspects of digital policies related to the strategic frameworks, the State, the economy, the society, the culture and the media, in order to facilitate the follow-up on the action lines of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) . In doing so, the follow-up process shifted from applying a linear approach to the 11 WSIS action lines, to adopting a panoramic perspective.

The 2021 standard model, adopted to launch the second round of the national digital development reviews for 2021-2022, will contribute to revealing the status of digital development and digital cooperation in the Arab countries. It will be used in preparing national digital development plans in countries wishing to do so, and the Arab digital agenda/Arab ICT strategy expected to be issued in 2022. It is an Arab cooperative work, under the management of ESCWA and in partnership with the League of Arab States and the relevant organizations.