Digital Leaders Spotlight: Djibouti

Djibouti is committed to leveraging digital technology in its public service delivery, including regulatory and policy reforms, as part of its Vision 2035 objectives. In 2022, the country launched its Digital Economy and Innovation Roadmap, which, among other things, seeks to digitalise administration. However, many Djiboutians are yet to enjoy the benefits of the country’s digital government infrastructure

GovStack Approach  

GovStack in Djibouti is implemented through the Multi Donor Action “Initiative for Digital Government and Cybersecurity” (IDGC) in the Horn of Africa , a Team Europe Approach together with Germany, France and Spain and co-financed by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

GovStack in Djibouti focuses on:

• Digital Government Strategy and Roadmap: Evaluation of the strategic, technical, and regulatory prerequisites to introduce government e-services, through the implementation of a digital readiness study and roadmap development for the introduction of government e-services.
• Service Design of e-government Use Case: Use case selection and design of priority digital public services based on the GovStack Approach to the digitization of government services.
• Capacity Development: Capacity development measures on digital government and change management for civil servants for the digitization of government services; regional and global communities of practice for peer-to-peer learning

The project is done by GovStack implementing partners. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) supports the technical service design of priority use cases. The Estonian Centre for International Development (EstDev) supports the development of Digital Readiness Studies and Digital Government Roadmaps. The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) and the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) support the work around capacity strengthening by setting up Communities of Practice and by developing capacity development measures

Where we stand 

In Djibouti two use cases were selected for prototyping, using the ICT building blocks. GovStack is supporting the implementation of an e-cabinet and the digitisation of construction permits to foster efficient information sharing. The service design process has been completed successfully for both use cases and consisted of a series of consultative meetings and co-design sessions with the focal points from the Department of Land Management, Urban Planning & Housing (DATUH) and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in Djibouti. In parallel, informed by several interviews with the Djiboutian partners, a Digital Readiness Study for Somalia was developed

Next Steps

• The main next step is to jointly develop prototypes for the two use cases, Construction Permits and eCabinet.
• In addition to the continuation of the service design for the e-government use cases, the initiative will provide needs-based capacity development measures for Djibouti government staff, both online and offline, and support the development of regional communities of practice for peer-to-peer learning and best practice exchange.
• Furthermore, building on the construction permit use case for Djibouti, GovStack is working on a generic reference construction permit use case which will be designed as a GovStack demo application, i.e., a simulation, on the GovStack Sandbox. Moreover, based on the Digital Readiness Study, the Initiative will develop a national Digital Government Roadmap as a guiding document and a strategic plan for the government’s digital transformation journey.