Questions/Answers

The National Digital Transformation Unit (NDU) is a government agency established by royal decree in order to catalyze digital transformation efforts on a National level addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). NDU was first incubated under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy and Planning, and eventually became a separate entity with an official national mandate. NDU is to drive digital transformation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the welfare of vulnerable groups taken into consideration. The latter is in line with Vision 2030, which is heavily aligned with the SDGs. • NDU sees the individual as their ultimate beneficiary, by ensuring coordination among all stakeholders and relevant ecosystems, policy coherence, identifying gaps and hurdles and addressing them. In doing so, socio-economic outcomes are optimized. This is done under the umbrella of the National digital strategy, led and created by NDU. • NDU, through its efforts, strives to put the Kingdom on the world map as a frontier nation in growth driven by digital transformation. One of NDU’s main objectives is to be on par with advanced nations and to be in a position to help less developed countries.

NDU regards digital transformation as an enablement tool to create a new paradigm of intelligent sustainable developments as an important factor to shape socio-economic growth of the Kingdom. NDU aims to transform the Kingdom into a forward-looking nation in economy, people, governance, environment, and overall living that always accounts for the vulnerable groups. NDU triggers, guides and measures digital transformation through innovation in policy formulation, coordinates and prioritizes efforts through continuous multi-stakeholder engagements, promotes efficiency and openness through digital technologies and constantly increases levels of inclusiveness and thorough assessments.

NDU’s engagement is across the whole public sector touching upon all aspects of life, by actively addressing following SDGs: 1;3;4;5;8;9;10;11;12;16. e.g. Goal 4: One of NDU’s activities from the list is Telemedicine. This provides access to quality affordable health care, irrespective of socio-economic class or location within the Kingdom. Goal 3: Another example is NDU’s involvement in introducing virtual schools. The schools in rural areas (suffering from a shortage of qualified teachers), are connected with teachers from all over the Kingdom. The initiative also has a desirable byproduct: reduction of teacher deaths on road accidents while commuting to remote schools.

NDU regards digital transformation as a tool to bring about sustainable development in the Kingdom. Tackling the issues that face the vulnerable and disadvantaged is therefore a cornerstone of NDU’s mission. Digital technologies can ensure equal access to opportunities to all, eventually allowing for social mobility and improving lives. NDU ensures the right policies are promoted, ushering in better, more inclusive, digitally enabled services that are accessible, efficient, savings-generating, open, sustainable and catering to all different sectors of society. Virtual Schools: The virtual schools project tackles the logistical issues of providing quality education, facing vulnerable groups especially children, women and the elderly in remote and rural areas. In doing so, access is ensured and fatalities from road accidents while commuting to and from schools are minimized. e-Literacy for Children and Women: NDU believes digital literacy is essential to inclusion in the digital economy and society. NDU places great emphasis on ensuring that vulnerable groups (children and women) are equipped with strong foundations for digital skills. Prompting readiness of said vulnerable groups not only to adapt to the digital age, but also to partake in In light of the latter, NDU is involved in regular e-Literacy programs for Children and Women.

The innovation is in the creation of an entity to orchestrate the whole of government efforts to propagate SDGs into society, using digital transformation. This is being done with the notion of the beneficiary being the individual and not the institution. This new coordinated, comprehensive approach will engender tangible socio-economic impact on the individual and thus addressing the specified SDGs.

The approach is not original per se. The design of the initiative was comprised of an international benchmarking exercise for global best practices, input and cooperation from all stakeholders and an exercise to customize the approach to the local context. This resulted in the creation of a locally applicable hybrid that addresses the needs of the Kingdom, while being on par with international trends and best practices. NDU’s strategy was designed with flexibility and agility in mind, it was therefore easy to adapt, adhere to and address SDGs.

Yes, NDU covers the entire kingdom. However, several local government authorities followed suit and created their own specialized adaptation of a digital transformation function within their entities. The Ministry of Civil Service currently has a Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation; the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education have recently created Digital Transformation units. Regionally, The Sultanate of Oman created an information Technology Authority to transform Oman into a sustainable knowledge society. Additionally, Kuwait adopted a digital transformation strategy as a vital component of the overall strategy of the country.

NDU has an annually allocated budget of 34 million USD, guaranteed by royal decree to carry out its functions. The budget was used to hire the right resources, procure headquarters, carry out roles and responsibilities, engagements and execute pilot studies. Moreover, NDU has access to 10 key ministers and 2 senior government officials, for consultations and escalations (when necessary).

NDU was established as a permanent government agency. It is government funded, thus sustainable. It is designed to assist and contribute together with governmental entities in achieving a higher level of maturity and sustainability through adoption of digital transformation. In doing so, growth is inclusive of vulnerable groups, access to basic services is extended and addressing of SDGs is maximized.

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By the National Centre for Performance Measurement, of the digital economy's contribution to non-oil GDP. Additionally, NDU prepares quarterly progress and achievements reports for the National Digital Transformation Committee.

The main two indicators that NDU is evaluated on are 1- Share of digital economy contribution to Non-Oil GDP by the National Centre for Performance Measurement; and 2- United Nations e-Government Index score. Moreover, NDU’s performance is primarily measured through the level of digital transformation maturity of other government entities, as it is a sine qua non of NDU’s mandate to guide the process of digital transformation on a national level.

The outcome of the evaluation is to increase and deepen the scope of NDU, and directly measure the contribution in addressing SDGs and related indices.

NDU’s inception was the result of a sense of urgency among decision makers from various sectors of the government, who sit on the Council for Economic and Developmental Affairs – CEDA. A Digital Transformation Acceleration Committee was establish by CEDA decree, which in turn resulted in the incubation of NDU under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy and Planning. The incubated NDU produced a proposal for a National Digital Transformation Governance, through a series of stakeholder engagements exercises with all relevant entities. The stakeholders involved provided their input based on rigorous research and data gathering and outreach. The proposal was comprised of three main action items: 1- Widening the scope of NDU; 2- Creating a larger Committee for Digital Transformation, from which NDU can derive more authority; and 3- Transforming NDU into a separate entity. The governance structure was raised to the King of Saudi Arabia, who then approved it and issued a Royal Decree calling for all three aforementioned action items.

• More structured, targeted and thorough assessment exercises of SDG targets through NDU activities. • Increasing innovative initiatives that more comprehensively address and serve the SDGs • Lead the propagation of SDGs throughout the Kingdom (and ensure all entities align with SDG outcomes through as many initiatives as possible) • Put further emphasis on more inclusive decision-making by increasing participation of vulnerable groups in co-creating innovative services that directly addresses the SDGs.