Second Arab Forum on Public Administration

The Forum concluded that digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven public administration are no longer optional but central to the future of governance in the Arab region. It recognised that many Arab governments have developed digital strategies, yet the key bottleneck remains in implementation and institutional readiness - technology is advancing faster than many institutions can keep up. The Forum emphasised the shift from “digitising procedures” to “predictive, proactive, citizen-centric services is needeed. It also underlined that the strength of a government will be measured increasingly by its digital capabilities, its capacity to anticipate the future and the ability to operate with agility while upholding public values.

The main recommendations of the meeting are that governments should redesign public services to be citizen-centric and digitally enabled, build agile institutions and leadership capable of executing transformation, invest in the digital talent and infrastructure needed for the new era, establish robust ethical and regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence and data use, promote regional cooperation and knowledge-sharing, and ensure that digital transformation is inclusive and equitable.