Digital Transformation and Connecting People (SYC0007)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? There is a general long-term shortage of trained and qualified personnel in both the public and private sectors. The list of required personnel includes software architects and developers, system administrators, hardware and networking technicians, 1st level support (service desk) personnel and IT consultants, to name just a few. Expertise in cybersecurity and AI are also required. This shortage has resulted in an ongoing, decade-long inability for the public and private sectors to implement, support and maintain (sustain) digital projects such as for the E-Portal, Open Data or for Cybersecurity. We are even unable to properly begin or efficiently continue any digitalisation process or maintain daily digital operations. Currently the local IT industry is purported to be producing substandard work, leading to a certain degree of mistrust in its abilities. As a result, most IT projects are outsourced to overseas firms. In doing so, one however neglects the fact that software systems “live”, i.e. they need to be continuously maintained, updated and supported, for which local personnel is lacking. Also, communication issues with overseas IT service providers have resulted in multiple IT projects failing. Unfortunately, there is at the moment little incentive for young people to enter an IT sector, due to the lack of said sector properly existing. Low government salaries, including for university graduates, leave the public sector devoid of qualified IT staff. This commitment builds on existing efforts and updates the necessary steps to complete reforms. Seychelles OGP 2019-2021 commitments on public participation in budget processes, implementation of access to information and FiTI were progressed and continue to take root. The commitment to create an e-engagement portal to increase citizen responsiveness has not begun and is an important foundational commitment to add to. This type of commitment broadly supports all layers of engagement from online education, mass outreach, access to all types of information in fisheries, tourism, health, media, environment, finance and all sectors and countering disinformation, recently passed regulations and policies such as mentioned cybersecurity strategy, less red tape, time effectiveness etc. It considers the challenge of maximizing a shrinking local workforce and upskilling purposefully to meet the demands of the future.

What is the commitment? The commitment is a review of existing relevant government IT policies, followed by either their improvement or the introduction of a policy which actively fosters a suitable environment to establish and grow local IT knowhow, both in the public and private sectors, through education and legislative facilitation. The growth of a local IT industry that can support digital projects in the public and private sectors would be key. This would require the following: • Increasing the general level of IT literacy among the populace through public education measures. This also ensures that no one, such as the elderly, is “left behind” in terms of future public digital engagement processes. This can include mobile trainings and the establishment of small computer rooms / makerspaces in district centers. This measure also includes the engagement with the citizens to encourage their participation in the below programs. • Educational programs that foster an interest in IT at the primary and secondary levels of education. Primary schools can provide a first contact with digital technology as well as fundamental skills, which can be deepened at the secondary level. • The introduction of suitable tertiary IT education programs, such as UniSey bachelor and master programs. • The introduction of suitable short-term IT educational programs, offering bootcamps and courses for professional certifications and qualifications. This can also include on-the-job training programs in the public and private sectors. • Enabling the Seychelles Qualifications Authority (SQA) to accept and process professional certifications and qualifications, such as the Cisco Certified Network Professional and Microsoft Certified Professional qualifications. • Government incentives to support the local Industry, such as reduced taxation on IT equipment. • Proper tender procedures for public sector IT projects and their enforcement, including long-term outsourcing. These measures will empower our citizens to participate in terms of human resources for digitalisation, thus creating the foundation of knowledge that is necessary for the implementation of public sector digital projects.

How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? •The fulfillment of current and future requirements in trained IT personnel. Different IT professions require different levels and durations of training; thus a phased approach is recommended. This is quantifiable in the form of X personnel of profession Y, qualified locally or externally, and verified by the SQA, by the year Z. •A fostering of local IT businesses, to ensure a healthy and IT competitive sector. •Increase in financing avenues for digital projects. Bi- and multi-lateral fundraising efforts to advance an upgraded public portal/interface, repository and staffing. •The support of government IT projects and operations by (local) IT service providers where possible.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? In our modern times, the information and data that are necessary for transparency to exist are accessible through information technology (IT). This however requires significant public sector IT infrastructures with the necessary hardware and software, both of which need to be implemented, maintained, updated and supported. These tasks require a qualified workforce that is currently not available. This commitment seeks to help establish said workforce, thus enabling digital projects for information and data access. With the required IT workforce and a suitable IT infrastructure in place, public agencies will have the necessary foundation on which to build the digital tools that foster accountability, monitoring and evaluation. Private citizens have made progress with access to standard hardware such as smart phones, computers, TVs and have reliable privately sourced internet providers. Informal engagement currently takes place mostly through Meta’s Facebook social media service. To catch up and deliver professional services an updated GoS-civil online interface system (an extrended E- Portal) would be beneficial as a potential go-to repository of information. Increasing the level of IT literacy in the populace will further enhance this.

Additional information

A Digital Economy Steering Committee was been established in 2021. It has pushed for an action plan, featuring a curriculum review, from the Ministry of Education, which however still needs to be oprimised. Establishment of the required education programs: 2 years Concrete results of said programs: 4 to 5 years NB.: Building up know-how is a long-term affair, which begins with at least secondary education. Establishing a healthy IT sector is also measured in years. A phased approach would be best here, scaled according to the training requirements of the different IT professions E.g. Computer technician: 1 to 2 years after secondary education Computer Programmer without degree (through coding bootcamps): 1 year Bachelor of Computer Science: 3 years The Ministry of Education has also recently sent a group of primary and secondary school teachers to a training under the Commonwealth of Learning. This group will then be able to impart their newly gained knowledge and skills to their colleagues. The DICT is aware of the issue. They notify public sector staff of available trainings by foreign organisations as they are made public by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was however noted that the participation in such trainings is low. However, much of the IT infrastructure in our educational institutions is in a dire state, thus youngsters are unable to properly use it to gain experience and interest. Where high-quality equipment is available staff have, in some cases, been unable to use it in the past, due to a lack of expertise.

Milestone activity with a verifiable deliverable | Start date | End date

Catalogue of IT personnel requirements in the public sector and in the private sector | January 2024 | June 2024

Review of current government policies, practices, incentives for the digital industry; and current policies and programs in secondary and tertiary education, as well as public education | July 2024 | September 2024

Drafting and review of a suitable policy / policy changes, based on the findings of the previous milestones; Creation of a public education campaign to increase IT literacy and engagement with the citizens to encourage further participation in IT education. | January 2025 | June 2025

Enabling the SQA to process professional certifications and qualifications; Interest generation by developing suitable programs for primary and secondary education. | January 2025 | June 2025

Capacity building by developing suitable programs for tertiary education. Capacity building by developing suitable short-term educational programs, offering bootcamps and courses for professional certifications and qualifications. Programs that train IT professionals on-the-job and in accredited academies. | June 2025 | December 2025

Action Plan Review

This commitment addresses the important issue of digitalization of government and government services. However, as currently written, it does not promise to make government more transparent, accountable, or participatory for the public. The commitment focuses on reforms internal to government that may contribute to a digital foundation to open government in the longer term. [36] The Government of Seychelles notes that this commitment will be implemented by a technical committee chaired by the Vice President comprising government and private sector representations, with the intention to include civil society representation. While not stated in the action plan, the Government of Seychelles highlighted that implementation would include the creation of a Civic Tech platform to facilitate public feedback on government services. The platform would be accessible through a website and mobile application with an initial function for the public to report issues with transportation infrastructure to be expanded to other functionalities over time. The government intends to hold consultation workshops to identify priority use-cases for citizens. Implementation of the Civic Tech platform carried out in the course of this commitment will be taken into account by the IRM in the Results Report. [37]