DRA

Digital Readiness Assessment

From readiness to development impact: Assessing countries’ readiness for digital transformation

Digital technologies are reshaping development, from empowering local communities to accelerating economic growth on the global scale. According to the SDG Digital Acceleration Agenda, 70 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets can directly benefit from these emerging technologies.

While opportunities abound, countries vary in their readiness to both adopt and adapt digital technologies to fully unlock the benefits across sectors and communities.

Aligned with UNDP’s Digital Transformation Framework, the Digital Readiness Assessment (DRA) is designed to aid countries on their digital transformation journeys, by assessing their strengths and weaknesses and providing actionable recommendations to drive inclusive digital transformation to meet the SDGs.

What is DRA?

DRA is a practical and rapid diagnostic tool developed by UNDP, enabling governments to evaluate and enhance their country’s preparedness for digital transformation. Using a survey format, DRA generates insights that allow governments to develop a comprehensive understanding of their digital strengths and opportunities.

How does DRA support governments with their digital readiness?

DRA aligns with the pillars of UNDP’s Digital Transformation Framework, focused on gathering insights on people, connectivity, government, regulation and the economy. The Framework adopts a ‘whole-of-society' approach to ensure that digital strategies, policies and practices are inclusive, people-centred and rights-based. The insights help with identifying entry points for collaboration between governments, UNDP Country Offices, and other international development partners.

diagram, schematic — UNDP’s Digital Transformation Framework is based on five pillars–people, connectivity, government, regulation and economy.

More specifically, the DRA can enable countries to assess critical areas of digital development, such as digital infrastructure, skills and data availability towards planning and coordinating their country’s national digital strategy. By design, the survey format promotes engagement among diverse stakeholders, including from the private sector and civil society.

Once completed, the responses from DRA are integrated with external datasets from national and global sources by way of the Digital Development Compass – a UNDP tool that aggregates digital development indicators from over 140 openly accessible datasets around the world. Besides offering a more complete understanding of a country’s digital ecosystem, its digital maturity, identify strengths and gaps, the Compass can help countries benchmark their progress against their peers in their region and beyond.

diagram — The digital readiness of the country across 5 stages

What are the benefits of DRA?

DRA helps to equip governments with actionable insights and recommendations to deliver impact on their digital transformation priorities. It provides a high-level overview of a country’s readiness for digital transformation, which is useful for:

National and local government leaders looking to shape inclusive, rights-based digital strategies
UNDP Country Offices seeking to support governments in their digital transformation journey
Development partners aiming to align their resources with a country’s digital priorities
Private sector stakeholders and civil society organizations contributing to a whole-of-society approach.

With a baseline for digital maturity established, the results of DRA can guide investments in digital public infrastructure and e-government services; strengthen relationships with development partners and engaging stakeholders; create dynamic local digital ecosystems; and energize stakeholder engagement and political support.

Is your country ready to deploy DRA?

UNDP has deployed DRAs in more than 50 countries to support governments in shaping their digital transformation agenda.

Country insights generated by DRA