In Saudi Arabia, your opinion matters! We recognise the importance of interactive communication and constructive dialogue between the government and citizens, the business sector, and all other parties as an essential precondition to achieving the objectives of Vision 2030. Digital engagement and participation are of great importance as communication channels that allow you, the citizens, to express your ideas, opinions and suggestions on specific topics relevant to our society. The Government is eager to hear your voice and foster your participation. We count on you to provide us with innovative ideas and constructive suggestions to help us increase the quality of the legislation, policies, strategies, initiatives, and services.
E-Participation Regulation (Controls)
Enhancing community participation and interaction with beneficiaries is one of the most prominent targets of government agencies in Saudi Arabia in accordance with the Kingdom's Vision 2030, which included in its axes supporting communication channels between government agencies on the one hand and between the citizens and the private sector on the other hand, and facilitating ways of interaction in smart ways, listening to the opinions of all citizens and knowing their views, and encouraging government agencies to meet the needs of every citizen and enhance the quality of services they provide. You want everyone to interact and take initiative by sharing opinions and suggestions with us.
The Digital Government Authority has adopted a document entitled "Electronic Participation Controls", which aims to enhance community participation in Saudi Arabia. These controls contribute to raising the level of participation and interaction between government agencies and beneficiaries, and providing a smooth experience for beneficiaries of digital government services, which in turn will enhance the empowerment of beneficiaries to participate in building and supporting the decisions of government agencies, to enhance community participation.
This document also reinforces this trend and is based on the stages of E-participation, which are designed based on best practices that identify the main elements of effective design and strategic implementation in order to achieve higher levels of interaction and participation at the level of Saudi Arabia. The main objective of these controls is to contribute to improving the performance of the government apparatus, and enabling social responsibility through interaction with beneficiaries, and this in turn will contribute to increasing transparency in all government sectors, enhancing communication with beneficiaries, including individuals and companies, as well as the response of government agencies to the opinions of various stakeholders.
The "E-Participation Controls" document is one of the controls included in the regulatory framework for digital government work, which works to activate "beneficiary centralization" within government entities by promoting effective participation based on the availability of information, consultation, empowerment, joint development and innovation.
Consultations
To be part of the decision-making process, we enable you to put your best foot forward and share your opinions and ideas about upcoming laws, economic projects, and developmental affairs in Saudi Arabia, both current and future, before they are approved and implemented.
Government entities seek your thoughts and views and those of citizens, residents, civil society, and the public and private sectors on various laws, regulations, policies, strategies and initiatives.
We strive to meet your needs and provide time-saving solutions. By sharing your rating of all digital government services and information and providing us with your feedback and complaints, we are able to improve your experiences and raise the efficiency of the information and services provided to you.
Service Rating
Achieving an enriching experience is our goal, and you are part of achieving this goal. The rating of your experiences with Saudi government agencies is an essential part of working to improve and develop them into a service that satisfies you. You can evaluate the services and platforms, submit complaints and feedback, and contribute to improving your experience. Please visit the E-Participation Platform (Tafaul) or the Service Evaluation Platform (Watani) to leave your feedback.
Information Rating
We strive to provide you with sufficient information and a fulfilling experience! Share your assessment of the information on government agency pages related to sufficiency and effectiveness and view all previous related statistics. You can find more information on the E-Participation Platform (Tafaul).
Reports and Complaints
We strive for your satisfaction. By sharing your evaluation of all digital government services and information, we will use them to improve your experience and raise the efficiency of what is provided to you. Contact us and share your information, knowing that your message will be shared with the highest privacy standards. You can also submit your complaints about various sectors and services:
If you have any concerns or complaints about the work of any government agency that did not provide you with a good quality service, please submit your complaint on the Platform for communication with the Leadership (Tawasel).
Petitions
The Government seeks to provide excellent services and, in so doing, welcomes feedback from its citizens and residents. One way for you as a citizen or resident to voice your concerns is by submitting a petition. Petitions can be submitted by anybody who is a citizen or resident of Saudi Arabia. It is a request through which you can ask the Shura Council to take or not to take a specific action. For example, you can submit any ideas or suggestions to modify existing legislation, suggest new ones, raise issues of legal issues, or share relevant ideas in other areas. The petitions received are dealt with in accordance with the Council's work regulations. You can visit the National Portal or the Shura Council e-Petitions portal to submit a petition. Once you log in to the portal (using the National Digital ID provided by the National Information Center), you can submit a new petition or check the status of your previously submitted petitions and the decisions made.
Co-Creation and Innovative Ideas
With your innovations, we grow, and with your creative ideas, we achieve! Share your innovative solutions that will contribute to the challenges faced by the public and private sectors. Be part of the change we aim to achieve through our Kingdom’s Vision 2030 of greatness and prosperity.
Challenges
Be part of the challenges, participate in the excitement, and contribute to the growth and stimulation of your community! You can find more information about the current and upcoming challenges on the Participation (Tafaul) Platform.
Participatory Budget
The Kingdom's budget is linked to realising Saudi Vision 2030 objectives and goals. The Ministry of Finance is required to highlight the transparency of its preparation and budgets to ensure sustainability to fulfill the nation's aspirations. Budget approval goes through three stages: starting from initial analysis throughout July, August and September, then final approval within October and November and finally, the official release in December. In any of these stages, you, as a citizen, resident or entrepreneur, can submit ideas or suggestions to the Ministry of Finance or other government agencies regarding the national or government entities' budgets. These ideas or suggestions can be related to the current or new projects and directly related to how to spend some part of the government budget on the national or local level. Citizens, residents and businesses are expected to provide their ideas for national or local projects, which will be accommodated in the national budget. Read more about the KSA Government Budget, Transparency in Government Spending, Budget Cycle, and KSA Annual budgets and performance reports for 2017-2023.
The E-Participation Platform (Tafaul) developed by the Digital Government Authority (DGA) aims to engage citizens and , residents, civil society, and the public and private sectors in Consultation, Feedback, and Co-creation. The Platform aims to enable you to share your views on upcoming policies, strategies and initiatives consultations, provide feedback on government information and services, and participate in co-creating innovative solutions and services.
The Public Consultation Platform for Laws and Regulations (Istitlaa), developed by the National Competitiveness Center (NCC), seeks your thoughts and views, those of citizens and residents, civil society, and the public and private sectors on government laws and regulations before they are approved. The Platform aims to enable you to share your views and feedback on upcoming legislation and projects related to economic and development affairs in Saudi Arabia. The Platform contains all current (open) and future (planned) proposals and encourages you to share your opinion and thoughts on proposals before their approval. You will also find the outcomes of past (archived) consultations on the Public Consultation Platform for Laws and Regulations (Istitlaa).
The Watani Platform is a national platform that enables you, the citizen, resident or visitor, to evaluate the services of government agencies. Watani allows you to share your experience of Saudi government services and provide suggestions for improving them. Your evaluation contributes to a national service performance dashboard that officials and decision-makers use to improve the quality of government services.
The Public Sector Feedback Platform enables you, the entrepreneur or private sector representative, to provide ideas and feedback on government regulations and processes. Officials and decision-makers use your suggestions to improve the business environment and ease of business in Saudi Arabia.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, is keen to provide and facilitate easy access for all citizens to government services. The Tawasel Platform, managed by the Royal Court, enables citizens to send complaints and suggestions about any government agency, to help improve service quality.
Social Media Channels
All government entities are using their social media pages to engage with citizens and businesses. You can subscribe to or follow the government entities’ pages on social media to receive on-time, verified and reliable information. You can also use social media to participate in public consultations, share your views and opinions on different topics, or vote on the current open surveys.
E-Participation measures for women and other vulnerable groups
Saudi Arabia makes all necessary efforts to ensure digital inclusion and digital participation for all its citizens and residents, including vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, women, youth, elderly, migrants, etc. All citizens and residents, including women and other vulnerable groups, can actively participate in the open consultations and polls or share their innovative ideas with the government using the existing government portals. They can share their views and opinions on general topics or issues targeting vulnerable groups (e.g. social protection, education, health, employment).
For more information about the specific measures for enabling the participation of vulnerable groups, please read more about Digital Inclusion in Saudi Arabia.
E-Participation counseling for women and other vulnerable groups
Based on Saudi Arabia's enthusiasm to preserve the rights of all citizens and residents of all groups, Saudi Arabia has put in place laws and legislation that protect the less privileged groups of society. Saudi Arabia has issued legislation related to the rights of women, children, the elderly, people with special needs, the sick and others in the areas of health, education, work, and so on to ensure a decent life for all, which is stipulated in the Basic Law of Governance.
In the era of information technology, it has become necessary to issue new legislation and regulations that suit modern life today, including legislation for the weakest groups in society with regard to electronic participation to obtain the opinions of the public, including these groups, regarding government services, regulations and procedures.
Below is an overview of a few examples of the public opinions on consultation laws, regulations, policies, and services, which are aimed at or include women and other less privileged groups in society, such as people with special needs, children, the elderly, immigrants, and others:
To enable citizens’ engagement and impose mandatory consultations on new legislative proposals, the Council of Ministers adopted decision No.(476) dated 15/7/1441 H mandating the National Competitiveness Center to establish a Rules and Regulations Support Unit in the center to perform the following tasks:
Establishing and supervising the unified electronic platform to solicit the opinions of the public and government agencies.
Preparing survey forms, evaluating the effects, and circulating them to government agencies.
Provide notes and visuals about the results of the survey to the project owner if they request it.
Awareness and dissemination of the culture of the survey of the importance of participating in evaluating the regulatory effects on the projects of laws and regulations and the like.
The Government is dedicated to hearing the voice of its citizens. After finishing the consultative processes, all government entities are obliged to produce and publish a summary report that will provide evidence of how the citizens' voices were reflected in the new legislation, policy, or other decisions.
If you would like to see how government authorities have heard the voice of citizens and how suggestions and feedback are reflected in new legislation, please visit the E-Participation Platform (Tafaul) and the Public Consultant Platform for Laws and Regulations (Istitlaa). All past initiatives have a summary report of the consultation process and highlight the input from the citizens and other stakeholders and how it was incorporated into the document's final version.
Guidelines for Government Entities
To facilitate a culture of engagement in Saudi Arabia, the Guidelines for Using the E-Participation Tools in Saudi Arabia Government Agencies provide instructions and tools for government entities on how to use community participation tools, including social media. It is a result of a collaborative effort between the Digital Government Authority and a wide range of government agencies, academic institutions, private-sector entities, and civil society, whose participation in feedback and expertise was of great importance in accomplishing these guidelines.
Current and Upcoming Events
For current or future E-participation events, please click here.
Comments & Suggestions
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