As Saudi Arabia continues to revamp its key sectors in a bid to become a knowledge-based economy and tech-centric society by 2030 (part of its Vision 2030 national strategy to diversify its economy), its National Center for Performance Measurement (ADAA) has just launched a smartphone application entitled Watani, a user-centric and data-driven tool allowing the Kingdom to measure people’s satisfaction with government / public services.
Watani, which is available for Android and iPhone devices, offers Saudi citizens, residents, and visitors to the Kingdom smooth access to a myriad of services, allowing them to rate and give feedback and suggestions that go towards the improvement of the services used. According to Saudi Gazette, the app gives access to more than 30,000 government service centers and 80,000 identified services covering more than 1,150 cities, towns, and villages in Saudi Arabia. It also enables the assessment of more than 125 electronic services provided by 22 government electronic platforms.
ADAA, the agency behind Watani, is an independent government body presided over by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. It aims to build and initialize performance measurement processes in public entities in the Kingdom “by providing the necessary support through the utilization of unified tools and models that assist public entities in their ability and efficiency to deliver better performance.” This flagship performance measurement platform also offers major benefits to multi-laterals, governments, and NGOs.
Speaking on the launch of the app, Ibrahim Neyaz, the acting director general of ADAA, said, “Toward further transparency and accountability, Watani application enables beneficiaries by presenting them with a platform to provide performance feedback directly to government entities. The beneficiaries’ evaluation contributes to a system of performance indicators measured by ADAA with the aim to improve the performance of all government entities and services nationally.”
Watani is part of a platform that enables decision making through three tools: “The Watani Dashboards,” which enables data-driven decision making for governors of provinces and heads of public agencies through real-time delivery and access of data; “The Watani Service Center Reports,” which will be delivered to service center managers; and “The Beneficiary Experience Quarterly Reports,” which is presented to the Council of Ministers, allowing them to derive data from Watani and three other ADAA tools that measure beneficiary satisfaction.
