Questions/Answers

The Omani renaissance, which began in 1970 under the leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, ushered in an era of rapid economic planning and development. During the period 1970-1995, the Sultanate successfully laid the foundations of a socio-economic shift and embarked on a journey towards progress, continuous self-sustaining growth, and interaction with the outside world. In 1995, the economic vision Oman 2020 was developed which focus on the shift from an economy that depends on government initiative and spending, oil resources as its main drivers, to one that relies on private initiatives, a higher skilled national workforce, and renewable resources to achieve sustainable development. The Sultanate then devised the 9th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), which underscores its determination to keep pace with evolving international development instruments, particularly the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. During the last four years of the 9th Five-Year Plan, Oman made significant progress towards the SDGs. Subsequently Oman Vision 2040 was promulgated in 2013, which was meant to discern the socio-economic reality and chart an objective, forward-looking course that would serve as a fundamental guide and reference to the Sultanate in any planning exercise during the following two decades. Oman long term inclusive development plan (Oman Vision 2040) revolves around four main pillars: social development, economic development, governance and sustainable environment. The implicit integrating theme across these pillars is a new “Social Contract” where the main role of the state is to support, rather than compete with, private sector as the main engine of growth and employment; and where the other actors in the society, households and non-profit, non-government organizations (NGOs), have an explicit role to play. Oman Vision 2040 becomes the next blueprint to drive and guide the sultanate to attain sustainability and achieving the SDGs. Annex A for the Oman Vision 2040.

Oman Vision 2040 initiative fits perfectly into Category 2, Promoting integrated mechanisms for sustainable development. As an overarching blueprint, the plans and policies are integrated into a common framework and platform which facilitate harmonization and collaboration within the government bodies, private sectors and the citizens as well as the residents of the sultanate. There are key indicators in which every aspect of this initiative is measured to ensure that the objectives are met, and progress are sustainable. Annex B for First Voluntary National Review of the Sultanate of Oman 2019, UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Jul 2019.

The Oman Vision 2040 outlines 12 Strategic Directions which encompass all aspects of the SDGs. The key areas are inclusive education, sustainable learning, and scientific research that leads to a knowledgeable society and competitive national capabilities, a diversified and sustainable economy that embraces knowledge and innovation, operates within integrated frameworks, attains an accomplished competitiveness, keeps abreast of industrial revolutions, and achieves fiscal sustainability, dynamic labor market that attracts talent and is responsive to demographic, economic, knowledge, and technological changes, an empowered private sector that drives a competitive and globally integrated economy. Geographically comprehensive development according to a decentralized approach that develops a limited number of urban centers and ensures an optimal and sustainable use of lands. Effective, balanced, and flexible ecosystems in order to protect the environment and ensure the sustainability of its resources in support of the national economy A participatory legislative system; an independent, specialized, and swift judiciary; and efficient and transparent oversight and a flexible, innovative, and future-shaping administrative apparatus that is based on the principles of good governance. Annex C the Consistency and Coherence between the Oman Vision 2040 initiative and the SDGs.

This initiative provides the strategic directions to achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability for the sultanate. For example, for SDG 2, the strategy promotes the agricultural sector sustainability, increase economic revenues, create job opportunities for nationals, support rural communities, and limit structural imbalances in the agricultural sector. These strategies have been successful in controlling malnutrition diseases among children. The percentage of overweight among children under five years of age was reduced from 23.6% in 1995 to 3.1% in 2017 and wasting has also declined from 13% to 9.3%, while stunting dropped from 22.9% to 11.4% during the same period.

The formulation of the vision passed through multi phases, starting with identifying the building blocks of the vision; among other national documents, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were recognized as one of the main blocks, and were reflected in the Visions’ main pillars, strategic directives and objectives. Oman Vision 2040 was formulated with unprecedented, broaden societal participation from all segments of society including public sector, legislative power, judicial power, private sector and investors, civil society organization, Governorates and Municipal Councils, media and academia, expats communities, SMEs, women, youth and persons with disabilities, throughout innovative initiatives and tools. Output of each stage was monitored and evaluated by all participants. More than 41000 participants, while participants via social media exceeds 2 million. Through a participatory approach at very level, the plans reach out to every sector of the economic and society. The development of institutional and social innovations could contribute to increased productivity, improving organizational efficiency and achieving the goals set out in the vision.

Education is part of the strategic directions of Oman Vision 2040, which emphasizes inclusive education, lifelong learning, and scientific research that leads to a knowledgeable society and competitive national talents. Women receives equal education and the ratio of female to male enrollment in K1-12 school is 0.990. The percentage of illiteracy among females witnessed a significant drop from 12.6% in 2013 to 6.3% in 2018. Omani women occupy public-sector leadership positions in ministries as well as diplomatic bodies abroad. Moreover, the Sultanate consecrated women’s right to vote and run for elections in 1994, the first Gulf country to do so.

This initiative cuts across gender, social groups and special needs. The initiative includes an integrated system of social protection which allows for the improvement of living conditions, especially for the neediest (i.e., widows; orphans; the elderly; divorced, unmarried, and abandoned females; families of prisoners; incapacitated individuals; and disabled persons).The Social Action Strategy 2016-2025 is underpinned by three principles: social integration, equity, and empowerment. It aims to lay down a system of social protection that is effective, efficient, and sustainable, and contribute to socio-economic empowerment through a complementary partnership between the public, private, and civil sectors. Through economic diversification, more jobs will be created in the following sectors; fisheries, tourism, manufacturing, petrochemicals, logistics and mining. This will boost capacity building and ease the high unemployment rates among jobseekers, about 44k annually.

Oman Vision 2040 was formulated with broad societal participation from all segments of society. More than 41,000 participants, while participants via social media exceeds 2 million. The vision development started with the preparation and status quo Diagnoses phase on March 2017; the phase of future foresight and building of scenarios on December 2017; the phase of identifying the strategic directives and objectives on March 2018; Launching communication initiative as a main tool of monitoring and evaluation on July 2018, setting of targets and KPI’s on December 2018, formulating the preliminary version of the vision on early January 2019 and Conducting the National Conference as a second stage of Monitoring and Evaluation on late January 2019. The implementation of Oman Vision 2040 will be based on medium-term planning, tied to the medium-term fiscal framework and the establishment of a system of implementing documents which must be codified in and linked to the Public Finance decree. Five-year national development plan (NDP) and a medium-term fiscal strategy will be drawn up and will be extended annually. The NDP will include measures and activities based on the goals set out in the Vision and the corresponding horizontal and sectoral strategic documents. The body responsible for development will, via interdepartmental coordinating processes, monitor the drafting of the individual sectoral documents and ensure their compliance with the Oman vision 2040. For the monitoring of achieving Oman Vision 2040, a set of main performance indicators are defined for each of the development goals in the Vision desired targeted values. The government will establish a body that includes representatives of social partners, the private sector, civil society, regional and local governments and the national government. The responsible body to provide recommendations regarding improvements to the efficiency of the implementation of the goals and any changes required.

Obtaining consensus on the vision from all segment of society and on all levels is a challenge. This is overcome through active public participation all phases of the vision through forums and workshops, committee meetings, public opinion polls, the national conference. Fragmented and overlapping efforts is another challenge. This is overcome by faster and more coordinated development through promoting synergies among sectoral strategies and targets, and better management of development potentials at the regional and local level. Digital transformation is the Innovative tool embedded with the vision strategy to achieve inter agencies synergy and create an integrative and inclusive society.

Before the advent of social media and Information Technology, public-private dialogues and feedback sessions were held only at main cities and limited to key appointment holders and community leaders. Few women attended those sessions. However today through social media platform, anybody, anywhere in the country have access to Vision 2040 sites. They can discuss, raise awareness about Public-Private participations in dialogue sessions, workshops and laboratories. Such broad community participation at the national and local level facilitated the active participation of all segments of society in the sustainable development efforts in Oman.

Vision 2040 draws guideline from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The outcomes and goals of Oman Vision 2040 were aligned with the SDGs and their targets according to their corresponding sectors in the 2030 Agenda. Such alignment ensures that the 2030 SDGs and targets are embedded in Oman Vision 2040 and are therefore granted the same level of attention as the goals of the national vision, thus guaranteeing that the necessary resources are allocated to their implementation in accordance with the agreed timetable, and that the national and international indicators required to measure progress made towards the SDGs are available.

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This initiative is unique for Oman due to the political, social and economic structure of the country. The vision proposed creative solutions to challenges, with an emphasis on the introduction of digital transformation as an Innovative tool for improving internal operations of institutions. Management change and the open and active inclusion of citizens in designing solutions. The development of institutional and social innovations could contribute to increased productivity, improving organizational efficiency and achieving the goals set out in the vision.

The Oman vision 2040 Office takes overall responsibility for implementation, co-ordination and monitoring of the Vision Agenda in Oman. The office was supported by the permanent national and technical committees which tasked to promote policy coherence by sharing information and solving policy conflicts. Once established, an adequate budget has been allocated to enable the office to meet timely delivery of the vision. The Vision office was equipped with good caliber working group of national staff, and national and international expertise in various fields including economic, development, social protection, education, health, communication and strategic planning.

The Oman Vision 2040, with its primary objective of “Oman Joining the World’s Developed Countries” and its twelve national priorities and strategic directions considered as the country’s comprehensive development framework and will act as an umbrella for all sectoral strategies, regional and municipal strategies and development initiatives. Each sectoral strategy should be aligned with the development goals of Oman Vision 2040. The next four Five-Year development plan will be drafted according to the Oman vision 2040 and tied to the medium-term fiscal framework which will act as the Financial envelop of the vision.

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In phase 1, individual meetings, questionnaires, and focus groups. In phase 2, workshops were conducted to evaluate and agree on national priorities A set of communication initiatives were launched to evaluate the output of this phases from all stakeholders. The outputs were disseminated on the vision’s website for the public to provide their evaluation and comments. A national conference aimed at a final evaluation step for the vision, and how it meets the population aspirations and needs. Following the national conference, a period of four weeks was announced for all Omanis to evaluate and to provide their feedback and comments.

The indicators used throughout evaluation includes: a) The extent of public and society engagement in drafting the vision. b) The extent of consensus from all segments of society on the vision’s content. c) The extent of demonstrating Omani society aspirations and needs.

The main finding of community evaluation centered on implementation and monitoring frameworks; on implementation of long-term development strategy, two specific dimensions of public governance were raised, resulted from lack of flexibility and innovation in the way administrations are structured and managed. a) Budgeting practices: how to ensure flexibility in budgeting and accountability frameworks so that departments can engage in multi-year planning, pool resources, setting joint performance targets and applying result-oriented budgeting. b) Government coordination and steering: how to organize coordination across departments and outside government to monitor progress with key priorities, agreeing on joint and individual outputs and timelines, agreeing roles and responsibilities with respect to implementation. c) On monitoring framework, the evaluation raises the issue to include representatives of social partners, the private sector, civil society, regional and local governments in monitoring achievements toward targets. The evaluation outcomes were directly reflected to the vision document, by introducing a single directive with actionable goals and measurable targets on “Economic Leadership and Management” to have a dynamic economic leadership with renewable competencies, operating within an integrated institutional framework. In addition, including social partners and non-governmental sector in monitoring framework.

Oman Vision 2040 National Committee is formed chaired by the Minister of Heritage and Culture, with Deputy Chairman of Supreme Council of Planning (SCP) as Deputy committee chairman. This is a high-level committee which oversees the preparing and drafting of Oman vision 2040, and to ensure active participation of all government departments. A Technical Committee was initiated to undertake the tasks of setting the timetable for preparation and drafting of the vision, proposing qualitative and sectoral studies, supervising the findings and recommendations of different reports and leading horizontal and vertical integration between all government institutions. To this end, six sectoral and qualitative committees has been formed with members representing broad government institutions, legislative and judicial powers, private sector, NGOs and individuals as follows: - People and society Committee. - Economic and Development Committee - Governance and institutional performance Committee - National Priorities and alignment of Strategies Committee - Organization and Monitoring Committee - National Conference Committee In the same context, the Office of the Oman Vision 2040 was established, with executive national team being provided with adequate competencies, national and international expertise who all undertook the tasks of delivery the final vision document.

In compliance with the Royal Decree, the Main Committee, which included representatives of the Government, Oman State Council, Shura Council, and the private sector, ensured that all institutions were represented in the various sectoral and quality committees that were formed. These committees included representatives of the Government, the Council of Oman, the private sector, civil society institutions as well as representatives from all sectors of society. The main committee was keen to activate community participation in all stages of the preparation of the vision, in order to promote the adoption of the vision by all members of the society. The process of developing the vision includes participation of governors, representatives of government agencies, members of the Oman State Council, Shura Council, members of municipal councils, civil society institutions, Media, sports, cultural and community clubs, academia, Omani women associations, youth, students of schools, colleges and universities, businesses, people with disabilities, expats and citizens from different sectors of society. The engagement took place throughout a set of communication initiatives which includes meetings, discussion sessions, workshops, focus groups, questionnaires and virtual labs.

Preparation of strategic development policies should follow a methodology based on down-to-top hierarchical model, with broad participation from all segments of society, which could promote and support the adoption of the vision. Strategic development policies should not be focused on the structural transformation of the economy alone; addressing the community and social transformation consider to be a prerequisite in the process of comprehensive development. A clear organizational structure that shows the roles and responsibilities of institutions concerned with the implementation and identifying a reference body that will carry out the realization of the vision are key pillars to achieve strategic goals. Realization of the vision requires an efficient governmental body that believes in joint action and teamwork, adopting the foundations of efficiency, professionalism and accountability. Identifying key enablers for the realization of the vision is the first step on the implementation journey. This is essential so that the vision implementation is congruent at all levels in every sector in order to achieve the objectives. This initiative addressed the aforementioned lessons, and they will be transferred and adapted to other contexts, especially for developing sectoral strategies which should be aligned with Oman vision 2040.