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Regional Expert Meeting on National Digital Development Reviews 2.0 – Enhanced Methodology and Updated Guiding Template

15
-
16
December
2020
Location: 
Virtual meeting

Within the framework of the project on advancing digital cooperation and development Arab States Action Programme, ESCWA is organizing the Second Regional Expert Meeting on “National Digital Development Reviews 2.0 – Enhanced Methodology and Updated Guiding Template”, via internet. The meeting will gather the Arab countries that participated in the first round of the National Digital Development Reviews (NDDRs) for 2019 and countries wishing to participate in the 2021 round.
The Regional Expert Meeting aims to introduce the enhanced toolkit to be used for developing the 2021 National Digital Development Reviews (NDDRs) and the next Arab Digital Development Report (ADDR) edition to help Arab policy makers devise tailored evidence-based policies and strategies for advancing digital development and digital cooperation at the national and regional levels. Innovative suggested tools will also be discussed for potential piloting by interested countries and organizations. Furthermore, the meeting will pave the way towards the collaboration in the elaboration of the Arab ICT Strategy/Arab Digital Agenda (ADAICTS) which initiation and details will be further discussed with prospective partners in a dedicated meeting planned to take place on 21 December 2020, whereby ESCWA and LAS will join efforts with Arab countries and concerned UN and Arab organizations to shape the ADAICTS and agree on the way forward for advancing digital development and digital cooperation in the region for the next ten years.
The regional expert meeting, informed by the outcomes of the bilateral research interviews conducted during September and October 2020 with NDDR national focal points from the ten Arab countries participated to the NDDRs first round (2018-2019), as well as the outcome of the recently convened Regional Expert Meeting on "National Digital Development Reviews - Review of Methodology and Guiding Template" held on 18 November 2020, will comprise of the following main blocks:

  • Discussion of the proposed ESCWA Enhanced Methodology and Updated Guiding Template to be adopted by national counterparts for the development of the 2021 NDDRs Round and the next ADDR edition.
  • Partnership to develop innovative complementary tools for enhanced NDDRs/ADDR framework and better evidence-based tools for policy change in ICT for development in the Arab region. These tools include the Digital Development Maturity Index (DDMI) and the Smart interactive observatory.
  • Technical cooperation for designing digital development national and regional agendas.

Meeting Details

Background Documents: