Saudi Arabia is seeking to develop digital governance through the national transformation program of Vision 2030 by launching several services aimed at accelerating digitization in the country to promote the quality of services.
The ‘Tawakkalna’ system is leading the digital transformation in Saudi Arabia, linking most of the services needed by citizens, expats, and visitors in one digitally-efficient platform. It also serves as an electronic wallet that includes all the official public forms and has played a significant role in managing the precautionary measures during the pandemic.
Since its launch in 2020, the system has won several global awards, including the United Nations Public Service Award 2022 in the category of institutional resilience and innovative responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The award was handed during a virtual event organized on June 23, within the annual UN forum that honors distinguished figures in public service in support of achieving sustainable development goals.
President of Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi explained that receiving this award shows the unlimited support from the government, as well as the empowerment and guidance of the Crown Prince and Chairman of SDAIA's Board of Directors, and his unlimited support for the various initiatives launched by Authority to enhance government collaboration to make the most of data and AI.
Alghamdi stressed that SDAIA was able to accomplish many achievements nationally and globally through the efforts of highly qualified people. He also pointed out that this achievement emphasizes the Kingdom's leadership globally and its determination to attain the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030, and reflects the advanced and reliable infrastructure that SDAIA has.
Alghamdi noted that the experience of Tawakkalna, through all the stages it has gone through, proves the professionalism of the young national cadres who stand behind all the achieved success.
SDAIA has launched Tawakkalna to support government efforts to confront Covid-19 as an application aimed to manage the process of granting permits electronically for government and private sector employees, as well as individuals, during the lockdown, a measure that has helped limit the spread of the virus.
The application launched important services that contributed to achieving a safe return to normal life, most notably explaining the health status of users with the highest levels of safety and privacy.
Afterward, Tawakkalna started to include pandemic-related services such as verifying users' health conditions and health passports, providing Covid-19 test and vaccine services, reviewing health travel requirements, and managing the necessary permits during travel.
The application of Tawakkalna is not only local. Users are now able to use it worldwide as a health passport that proves they are fully vaccinated following an agreement signed with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) aimed at internationally verifying the travelers’ health eligibility in accordance with the best international practices, and accepting the health passport platform as an initiative to digitize health certificates from trusted sources and accredited laboratories in cooperation with airlines.
The United Nations launched its Public Service Award in 2003 with an annual forum to encourage and support distinguished global innovations in the field of public service.
