Jordan advancing health sector digitalization, but needs to accelerate progress

The World Bank (WB), which is the major financier of Jordan’s digital transformation program, has described its overall progress as “satisfactory,” with a report showing advances in health sector digitalization and legislative reforms.

The bank has however suggested that efforts have to be ramped up in 2026 if key targets must be met as the program is expected to close on June 30, 2028.

Jordan is currently driving its digital transformation under the Jordan People-Centered Digital Government Program for Results financed by the World Bank to the tune of $321 million, with an additional $29 million to come from a trust fund.

The project aims to reach at least three million Jordanians with trusted digital services by 2028.

Jordan News reports that so far, nearly $152 million of the total funding has been disbursed, which represents about 43 percent of the project’s total cost.

Per the report, $139.6 million of the WB’s own funds have been released, while 12.55 million of the 29 million from the trust fund has already been made available.

While the main funder lauded the ground covered so far regarding the project implementation notably in the areas of access to digital health services and digital participation, it recommended that more concrete steps must now be engaged going forward in order to advance the other critical objectives of the program.

According to project’s latest Implementation Status and Results Report (ISR), about 250,000 beneficiaries and nearly 500 Syrian refugees have access to patient-centric digital services, with a plan to take the number to 683,000 by 2028.

The overall objective of the program is to improve people-centric service delivery, government effectiveness, transparency, and accountability through the digitalization of access to important public and private sector services.

The program went underway in January 2024, and it is scheduled to be completed in the next three years. Moderate progress is reported on civil service professionalization, while DPI development is said to be in its early stages.

In order to close gaps and accelerate progress, the ISR report suggests urgent steps in several key areas including institutional capacity building, fully operationalizing the core DPI components, ensuring inclusive design of these systems to accommodate people living with disabilities, environmental and social safeguards, prioritize data protection, and strengthen stakeholder engagement, among other actions.

Jordan’s national digital ID, which is one component of DPI, is in the process of implementation, powered by IrisGuard biometrics. However, the rollout is expected to be accelerated to reach many more people.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital public infrastructure  |  healthcare  |  Jordan  |  patient identification  |  World Bank