| Abstract |
Qatar ranked second in the Arab region on the Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index 2020, 10th in Western Asia and 66th on the UNDESA E-Government Development Index for the same year. Performing well above the global average on most international indexes what are the Qatari lessons to the measurement of the digital transformation of the public sector? This paper focus on three interrelated enablers of digital transformation that is Qatar's approach to governance, inter-government cooperation, and the monitoring and measurement of benefit realization. The analysis finds that the formulation of digital government strategy as well as the monitoring of the implementation of the initiatives follow a joint-governmental approach. This results in a degree of joint ownership and have accelerated IT and technology enabled public sector services production and delivery. In relation to monitoring, measurement and benefit realization the picture is less clear. While there is evidence of Qatar applying measurable success and key performance criteria in relation to the Qatar Digital Government strategy 2020 and applies ex ante, ex post evaluation of strategic projects the results are not publicly available at the time of writing. While past research in countries like Denmark and the UK shows that standardization of the process and close monitoring can reduce the failure factors, this paper only find limited evidence of this in the case of Qatar and is an area of improvement. |
