Questions/Answers

Government Data Exchange Platform (GDXP) provides secure and scalable exchange of data between government agencies to: • Enhance systematic data-integration among government entities. • Support effective and timely decision making and taking. • Facilitate the digital transformation of the Government of Egypt. • Enhance transparency and trust by using accurate data obtained from its original sources. • Avail the one-stop shop concept with strict access control and well-defined privileges and authorization levels. • Reduce redundancy in government operations and eliminate data duplication and inaccuracy. Key Quality Features: • Accuracy: exchange accurate data between entities with minimized human errors. • Consistency: ensure data integrity and quality. • Availability: provide instantaneous data access to authorized stakeholders. • Completeness: ensure data has all required fields and properties required by various government operations. • Conformance: by adhering strictly to data quality standards. • Credibility: increase trust level in data quality. • Relevance: ensure appropriate level of data completeness and integration. • Timeliness: support real-time transfer of accurate data. Expected Results: • Enables electronic data collection and processing; accurate data analysis, categorization and visualization; open-data and data-sharing. • Supports decision-making, transparency and smoothness in government operation. • Enabling high-quality public services delivery. • Increases the level of citizens satisfaction and trust in government functioning.

• GDXP introduces innovation in simultaneously integrating and exchanging data across different systems and applications. • Adopts frontier technologies such as service-oriented architecture with Simple Object Access Protocol to ensure effective and efficient data integration. • Promotes cross-sectoral digital cooperation by building a scalable environment to automate and secure data exchange between government entities. • Ensures equal access to public services by availing data exchange between government entities • Improves workforce productivity by saving time/effort/cost, provide live updates for data from the connected agencies. • Improves efficiency i.e. by removing non-illegible people for subsidies so the government can accurately target the real needy groups.

GDXP achieves SDG Target 16.7 (ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels) which is cross-cutting to achieve all SDGs: • Responsive through the ease and speed of data-exchange. • ensures: o Government inclusivity in policy/decision making processes. o Consistency, effectiveness in planning and implementation of services. o Informed decision making at all levels by availing up-to-date and accurate data between all parties. o Effective and efficient government operation, reduce costs, optimize and control resources, and improves services delivery. o Creates genuine collaboration and coordination between government entities o Openness, transparency, and equal access to government services.

GDXP supports strategic planning and decision-making at the national level, enable services providers such as Ministries of Health (MoH) / Supply (MoSI) / Social Solidarity (MoSS) to provide quick and efficient support services to vulnerable groups by exchanging required data without the need to make them bear additional costs and efforts by making frequent visits to multiple entities. Data exchange between concerned authorities helped realized, inter alia, the following: • Post Authority was able to identify deceased postal accounts of worth 270M EGP from the first patch of received death records through the Egyptian Birth and Death Registration System (EBDRS), in addition Social Insurance of Public & Private Business Sectors Workers now save more than 100M EGP monthly by using updated death records. • 3 million records exchanged between Ministry of Education (MoE), MoH, MoSS and Central Agency for Statistics (CAPMAS) helped in data-cleansing, and identify the entitled families for social support. • MoE use birth data to determine numbers of future schools to be built. • Availing traffic services for citizens on the Government gateway. • Port Authorities avail strategic goods data to Ministry of supply. • Providing Commercial Registration Data to Port Authorities and Central Agency for Taxation.

GDXP support the digital transformation of the government to enable, deliver, and optimize innovative services delivery to the public in an easier and more accurate manner specially to targeted groups i.e.. the delivery of Solidarity & Dignity Pension, which is offered to poor families and the elderly. Providing large number of entities with their requested data and data security concerns. GDXP through its innovative architecture and techniques, provides a mechanism for exchanging of data in a secure and efficient way without the need to access or migrate the data from their original sources.

The solution’s business and technical models have been developed to be applicable to central, local and regional government – ensuring user identity management and messaging/transaction services for the delivery of all government services. Innovative through its integration with back-end systems via Department Integration System (DIS) based on BizTalk server technology. DIS is providing a way to connect Government agencies to the central Government Gateway with specific requirements such as reducing complexity and time for integration, predictive costs of integration, unified communication protocol between Government Gateway and DIS, and reliable messaging that ensures message delivery and persistence.

• The model is replicable across multiple aspects, by connecting government entities together to provide public services through multi-channels. • GDXP provides multiple levels of scalability for data transfer that can vary from two government sector to multiple government sector and to exchange and combine data horizontally and vertically through flexible Application Interface (API). • The GDXP messaging and transaction services provide a single, consistent point of interaction for government to government (G2G) and online services. • 11 Countries have expressed their interest to apply this system during Cairo ICT Expedition 2018.  

Resources: Financial • The implementation cost of the GDXP was 40 million EGP covered by the Egyptian government. Hardware • Infrastructure contains multiple servers that is capable of handling up to 26 million message per day. The average size of each message is 50 KB, which sums up to total of 1.21 TB of data that can be exchanged over GDXP per day. Human • GDXP operated by a set of skilled and formally trained engineers, administrators, technicians, and developers. • High qualified team to provide technical support 24/7 through a structured operational model

Sustainability: Human Resources: • Regular technical training programs and awareness for updates and training of new comers. • A clear plan to replace the retirees and those who leave job such as layoff, termination, death, job rotation, and resignation. System: • GDXP uses high availability concept to ensure the servers are always online and multiple Applications servers working together through load balancing. • Different layers of backup are performed for the GDXP at servers, application and databases levels. • Designed to support fault-tolerance operation by provisioning redundant servers to ensure operation under server outage or failure. • Ongoing support and maintenance contracts with vendors are in place to assure timely support of incidents and problems during operation as well as to ensure proper updates and upgrades for the system. • GDXP is fully monitored with an event management tools and processes to ensure continuous detection and handling of alerts at both the infrastructure and the messaging system. Financial • OPEX for renewal of hardware is planned according to the international lifetime cycle. In addition, software upgrade and licenses are included within the Ministry of Planning Monitoring and Administrative Reform annual budget. • A business model for operating and charging of beneficiaries support the financial sustainability of the platform.

Yes

The Nile University has reviewed and evaluated the (GDXP) implementation and deliverables, where it found that the GDXP has facilitated the exchange of data among government entities effectively using latest technology, while applying tight security and governance controls. The evaluation process included reviewing the physical system components in place in addition to reviewing the setup design, artifacts, and messaging cycle throughout the system. Also, multiple interviews with the project’s stakeholders and operation team has been done.

- Availability: analysis of an engineering design, time to failure and time to repair, GDXP apply the high availability concept - Sustainability: sustainability of support team, HW backup and maintenance, equipment and operation replacement in case of major failure - Security & Reliability: measure of how long GDXP performs its intended function, fully secure and throughout the messaging cycle, thus only the authorized and authenticated receiving entity would view the content. - Scalability: levels of scalability for data transfer - Alerting and Reporting: GDXP provides reports about Meta data. The setup is fully monitored with an alerting system.

• Servers are always online. • Different layers of back up for servers, applications and databases. • An ongoing support and maintenance relation with vendors and proper updates and upgrades to the system. • The setup assures the messaging content is fully secure including throughout the messaging cycle, thus only the authorized and authenticated receiving entity would view the content. • Multiple levels of scalability for data transfer that can vary from two government sector to multiple government sector to exchange and combine data through flexible API. • Provides reports about Meta data. • The setup is fully monitored with an alerting system of multiple failure probabilities.

GDXP is a national project which includes multi-stakeholders to provide G2G (Ministries / supporting entities – Governorates), G2B and G2C. Before entities used to resist providing access to its information and citizen records in part due to data privacy, however through the GDXP this was taken care of, and cooperation protocols has been signed specifying the roles and responsibilities of connected Ministries / supporting entities. GDXP was established by Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Administrative Reform (MPMAR) by conducting stakeholder management plans as follows: MPMAR: • Finance the design and development of GDXP, its connectivity and required equipment and hosting. • Provide sustainable funding. • Manage the usage of GDXP in all Egyptian government. Ministries / supporting entities: Provide and receive data. Private Sector: • Tele-communication companies (Etisalat - TEDATA) provide leased lines. • Microsoft: Design and development of the GDXP - provide the GDXP engine built on Microsoft BizTalk server that uses Microsoft SQL server as a data repository – system support • National Management Institution: participation in system design and architecture, hosting, operation, (technical support, maintenance and sustainability of HW). The GDXP is now connecting 24 entities providing 9 services dependents on the data exchange by availing and sharing their data records.

1. Multiple stakeholder requires strategic and careful stakeholder engagement plan to achieve cooperation and harmony on exchange of specific data. 2. Transition and change management are crucial to the success of the development and deployment of GDXP. 3. Security, value-addition and trusted data are key elements that must be well-managed to ensure success. 4. GDXP plays a central role in developing innovative services that can affect the quality and standards of citizens life. 5. Further improvement of the GDPX includes connecting more agencies to this platform and expanding it to include Citizen to Government (C2G), Business to Government (B2G) platforms.