The Republic of Türkiye recognises that using digital technology and data to help the public sector become more responsive, resilient and proactive contributes to national competitiveness and economic growth. The introduction of a presidential system in 2018 placed greater importance on this objective and the Digital Transformation Office (Dijital Dönüşüm Ofisi, DTO) of the Presidency of Republic of Türkiye was created to provide a strong foundation for transitioning from e-government to digital government.
Robust governance is crucial for embedding digital transformation throughout the public sector and the DTO enjoys strong support from the highest leadership of the country as well as the respect of organisations throughout the country. The new national digital government strategy will provide an opportunity to build more effective institutional capacity by setting out an ambitious vision, defining priorities, and establishing clear responsibilities for achieving comprehensive change.
Leadership for digital government needs to be distributed throughout the public administration. While Türkiye benefits from existing digital capabilities and established technical practices, the public sector workforce as a whole needs ongoing investment in order to maintain its 21st century skills. It is also critical for managers to foster operational environments that enable continuous learning and provide flexibility to attract digital talents and encourage them to reach their full potential.
The digital age presents both opportunities and challenges for how the design and delivery of public services can contribute to building trust and reinforcing democracy. In Türkiye, the recognition of technology and data as enablers for better understanding users and responding to their needs, is reflected in the activities of a number of public sector organisations. These inspirational pockets of good practice can be a model for developing a user-driven, inclusive and proactive culture across the whole of government for meeting the needs of all users, be they from the administration or the public at large.
The government of Türkiye has successfully established a range of building blocks and technical solutions for digital transformation. These include türkiye.gov.tr, the e-Government Gateway, providing a focal point for services that work seamlessly across organisational boundaries as well as a digital identity solution that is increasingly ubiquitous. The wider ecosystem of enablers for supporting public service design and delivery would benefit from consolidating guidance, providing clear standards about assessing quality and adopting an omni-channel perspective to ensure that digital transformation efforts do not contribute to digital exclusion.
Finally, the Government of Türkiye has a strong understanding of data as a strategic asset and the importance of ensuring its security. The country now needs to augment its existing data governance approaches with clear leadership to set out a vision, develop a comprehensive strategy, and co-ordinate different stakeholders. Such leadership would help establish the necessary data infrastructure and practices for the use of data by the Turkish public sector to positively contribute towards public trust.