ESCWA digital development framework

The Arab Digital Agenda adopted a holistic design, whereby all its pillars were selected according to the ESCWA conceptual framework for digital development, which consists of five clusters, as shown in the figure:

Cluster 1: The national, regional and international strategic frameworks.

Cluster 2: Policies related to infrastructure, governance and the legal environment.

Cluster 3: Policies related to digital economy, employment and trade.

Cluster 4: Policies related to digital transformation and social inclusion.

Cluster 5: Policies related to culture and media.

This conceptual framework aims to facilitate follow-up of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) processes. As such, the follow-up process has shifted from a linear approach of the eleven WSIS Action Lines to a panoramic perspective.

The framework, adopted to launch the second round of national digital development reviews for 2021–2022, reveals the state of digital development and cooperation in Arab countries. It is also used in the preparation of national digital development plans in countries that wish to do so.

This section reviews the components of the Arab Digital Agenda, which are arranged into five clusters, and provides a detailed explanation of the goals and targets that are at the core of the Agenda.

Below is an explanation of the methodology, which was applied to all five clusters and to all main and sub-themes under them:

Collect as much relevant data as possible on the status of Arab countries with respect to each theme.
Conduct an analytical study to identify gaps within each cluster in two main aspects:
Gaps at the national level, which usually consist of a country’s failure to reach a specific threshold, taking into account the great disparity between the capabilities of Arab countries and their levels of development.
Gaps at the regional level, whereby the state of digital development in Arab countries as a whole is considered.
Select a number of top priority issues within each theme and study them properly. Addressing these issues will hopefully pave the way for a positive change in the policy vision for Arab digital development, leading to a paradigm shift in the region.
For the planning dimension of the Agenda, the following steps were taken:

For each of the selected issues, a plan has been developed that includes a strategic goal to work towards.
For monitoring and tracking purposes, these goals have been described as measurable targets.
A number of indicators associated with the targets have been precisely identified, describing the current situation (baseline value) and the desired situation (target value) over a specific time period within the term of the Agenda.
For the implementation dimension of the Agenda, the following actions have been taken:

A framework has been developed for each goal with a number of proposed actions to meet the targets and achieve the goal.
Proposals have been made for actions at national and regional levels, consistent with the results of the gap analysis.