Greater urgency for digital overhaul of public services: UN Public Service Forum

Governments must ramp up the urgency of digital transformation to deliver inclusive, transparent and effective public services. That was the message from attendees at the annual UN Public Service Forum (UNPSF) hosted in Uzbekistan for the first time.

Only five years remain to meet the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals with public sector leaders, digital experts and international officials convening in Samarkand discussing digital divides and how to bridge them.

“In today’s interconnected world, sharing experiences and innovative practices in digital transformation has become more important than ever,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president of the Republic of Uzbekistan, addressing attendees at the forum.

“This means finding smarter ways to deliver public services, making government institutions more efficient, nurturing modern leadership, ensuring ongoing training, and identifying the skills future leaders will need.”

Leaders from around the world shared insights, learnings and their experiences. Adea Pirdeni, Albania’s minister of public administration and anticorruption, spoke on her country’s digital journey, which began in 2013 with just 13 public services available online. Today, that number is more than 1,200 covering over 95 percent of all services.

“Digital services reduce corruption by removing physical interaction, cutting queues, and creating transparency,” she said, speaking to Euronews. “Citizens no longer wonder who’s behind the counter. They simply get the service.”

Albania, like other countries such as the UK, is adopting AI as it develops tools to improve public procurement transparency and training public servants to use generative AI in government functions.

Georgia meanwhile is bringing public services beyond urban centers. The country’s justice minister Paata Salia described vehicles kitted out with full digital infrastructure. These vans are driven out to rural communities as mobile public service centers, making over 500 services available.

Georgia’s new e-wallet initiative is making access to digital documents available to all citizens through biometric authentication. “These tools make our system more efficient,” Salia said,” but they also reconnect people to the state, especially those who felt left behind.”

At the Forum United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Navid Hanif commented that digital tools are “levers of equity, trust and transformation.” He pointed to examples in Estonia, Georgia, Rwanda and Uzbekistan where ID-based payments and data exchange platforms are reshaping access to health, education and social protection.

A key outcome from the three-day meeting was the Samarkand Ministerial Declaration, a global roadmap promoting inclusive, sustainable and citizen-centered public services The Declaration also backs a new initiative for cross-border exchange and export of GovTech solutions.

Uzbekistan’s rapid digital progress

In 2024, Uzbekistan joined the “very high” tier of the E-Government Development Index and climbed 37 places in the UN’s GovTech Maturity Index, the host country highlighted during the forum. The Central Asian nation now has more than 760 services available via its unified online portal and over 11 million users.

“We’ve created a digital government platform that processes over 12 million requests a day,” Shermatov said. “And we’re just getting started. By 2025, IT exports will hit one billion dollars, and we’re launching a national cloud platform and training one million AI prompters.”

Uzbekistan has now integrated over 390 services from 49 government agencies through a single digital ecosystem via its GovTech strategy. The country also plans to build 20 data centers in partnership with private investors. According to Shermatov, it is part of a smarter governance shift that emphasizes automation, open data, and public trust.

The forum, co-organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Government of Uzbekistan, underlined the growing international consensus — digital transformation is no longer optional but essential to improving lives and shaping a sustainable future.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital government  |  digital inclusion  |  government services  |  UN Public Service Forum  |  United Nations  |  Uzbekistan