Jordan People-Centric Digital Government Program for Results

About the project

The government program supported by the Program is delineated by the intersection of the EMV, the Public Sector Modernization Roadmap, and the National Digital Transformation Strategy and Implementation Plan for 2021-2025. The EMV for 2033, approved by the GOJ in August 2022, is the overarching government agenda. It is underpinned by the Public Sector Modernization Roadmap, approved in August 2022, and the National Digital Transformation Strategy and Implementation Plan for 2021-2025, which are both expected to be extended beyond their initial timeline, upon review. Those programs of reforms target cross-cutting objectives—such as ease of access to and quality of government services, government effectiveness, and transparency and accountability—as well as sector-specific ones, such as education and health. In education, the government program aims to integrate the various tiers of education to better align education outcomes to the market demand for skills. In the health sector, the focus is on improving the oversight of the health sector and the management of health services.

The government program is also expected to benefit refugees and contribute to the implementation of the Jordan Response Plan for the Syrian Crisis (JRP). The 2024-2026 JRP is under preparation, with an emphasis on the importance of continued provision of basic services, notably education and health care. It also emphasizes the importance of fostering inclusion and promoting livelihoods. The Program supports the JRP through the following mechanisms: (1) facilitating refugee access to basic services through digital identification, through which refugees can also open e-wallets; (2) incentivizing the improvement of health services (including through the rollout of electronic medical records (EMRs)) in areas populated by refugees; and (3) expanding refugee access to the general secondary education examination (the Tawjihi) by rolling out digital examination centers in camps and urban areas with a high concentration of refugees. During implementation, the Program will coordinate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on its efforts in providing TA to support registration and the issuance of identification for refugees by incentivizing a more streamlined, digitalized process. On the provision of education services to refugees, the Program will coordinate with KfW on the establishment of examination centers and equipping schools with digital laboratories, and with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the development of an item bank with competency-based questions aligned with the new Tawjihi curriculum. On the provision of health services to refugees, it will coordinate efforts with the European Union on supporting Hakeem systems in governorates with high concentrations of refugees, and with UNICEF, USAID, and the World Health Organization (WHO) on shared health records.

Project Development Objective (PDO)

To improve people-centric service delivery, government effectiveness, and transparency and accountability through digitalization.

Project Implementation Status

The Program has performed well in the past six months and already achieved 17 percent of the value of targeted results USD 61,000,000). It is expected to perform further by the end of 2025.

In addition to prior results (enactment of the statistics law, amendments to the Access to Information Law and the enactment of the new civil service reform governance framework), the Program has achieved two main targeted results in FY25: 1) the operationalization of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system to 55 percent of health facility sites (from a baseline of 37 percent and against a target of 100 percent by Program closure); and 2) 69 percent of recruitments in the civil service has been competitive (against a baseline of 0 percent and towards a target of 72 percent by Program closure.

Progress is already achieved regarding one PDO indicator (on e-participation and four intermediate results indicators (on access to patient centric digital services with the number of patients making use of the health e-service platform MyHakim more than doubling; on digital transformation of public health facilities with an additional 18 percent making use of the Electronic Medical Record system; on access to information with Jordan rating under the Right to Information index expected to significantly improve thanks to amendments to the Access to Information law, and on Jordan rating under the ODIN open data sub-index). A range of other PDO level indicators and IRIs are expected to improve significantly by the end of 2025 (on access to e-services and uptake of e-identification).

Regarding refugees, the mainstreaming of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system to 55 percent of public health facilities has already benefitted 1250 refugees. Also, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MODEE) has organized the onboarding of refugees to the e-government portal (dubbed SANAD) which will allow them to avail of eligible government e-services: to data 8000 Syrian refugees have already registered on SANAD.

Relevant Documents:

• Project Appraisal Document (PAD)
• World Bank Project Information Page