Tajikistan, the poorest country in Central Asia, struggles with outdated and inefficient government structures and public service systems inherited from the Soviet era. The country's ministries, which are centrally managed by the President's Office, operate in isolation, with a lack of coordination and data-sharing that encourages bureaucracy and mismanagement.

This inefficiency is reflected in low performance scores in international assessments and high corruption rankings, placing the country among the top 10% of the most corrupted countries. Currently, public services in Tajikistan are predominantly offline and require face-to-face interaction, with only a small proportion of the population using the internet for basic services. Despite some use of digital technologies in some agencies, there is no interoperability or integrated system of public services. The government recognises the need for reform, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and aims to improve service delivery through integrated e-governance and increased digital literacy as part of its long-term reform strategy.

Outcome 1: Strengthened foundations for safe digital government systems and services.

Outcome 2: Enhanced digital skills of the population.

Risultati raggiunti:  

• Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment  and Public Financial Management (PFM) feasibility study provided basis for the intervention from the service delivery perspective and justifies Governance and Macroeconomic portfolio complementarity and interaction.
• Lessons learnt from ongoing digitalization projects of Switzerland in Tajikistan, such as the importance of stakeholder engagement, user-centric design, rigorous testing, and continuous improvement of processes.
• Public services anylises, legal framework for legislation,  electronic register of public services. and development has been completed.
• Cashless payyments effictiveness diagnostic provided baseline information for the project.  

Risultati principali attesi:  

• Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment  and Public Financial Management (PFM) feasibility study provided basis for the intervention from the service delivery perspective and justifies Governance and Macroeconomic portfolio complementarity and interaction.
• Lessons learnt from ongoing digitalization projects of Switzerland in Tajikistan, such as the importance of stakeholder engagement, user-centric design, rigorous testing, and continuous improvement of processes.
• Public services anylises, legal framework for legislation,  electronic register of public services. and development has been completed.
• Cashless payyments effictiveness diagnostic provided baseline information for the project

• World Bank Group
• Ministry of Finance
• Executive Office of the President
• Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies

Switzerland has a long-standing presence in Tajikistan, supporting digital projects and public service reforms such as the SDC's Civil Registry Reform (CRR) and Access to Justice (AtJ) projects and SECO's Electronic and Digital Financial Services (EDFS) programme.

The proposed intervention builds on the experience and lessons learned from these initiatives. Moreover, the proposed intervention is highly complementary to SECO's efforts in the area of Public Financial Management (PFM) in Tajikistan, which focus on financial transparency and coherence in service-oriented sectors.

The project dovetails perfectly with the broader digital transformation initiative led by another long-standing donor, the World Bank, underscoring the importance of the intervention area.