Launched during the World Government Summit 2023 in the presence of government leaders and industry experts, the report, titled “Public Service Customer Experience and Equity”, offers recommendations for overcoming some of the challenges faced by government agencies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report identifies challenges, including tight budgets and economic and political disruptions, which make handling sudden upswings during crises more difficult, and highlights the need to equitably serve a diverse group of citizens. To address these challenges, Accenture Research conducted a global survey of 7,500 public service users in 14 countries and categorised those surveyed into three groups: The Digital Citizen, The Digital Learner, and The Wary User.

Moreover, the report identifies four key actions for governments to take, Defining and measuring equity as a key performance metric; Investing in outreach to understand customer needs; Developing simple and flexible service platforms; and Redeploying and reskilling the public sector workforce with a focus on increasing "human-to-human" services.

"The pandemic has accelerated the need for governments to digitise their services and highlighted the importance of ensuring that services are accessible to all," said Gianmario Pisanu, Managing Director, Strategy & Consulting at Accenture in the Middle East.

"The importance of Total Enterprise Reinvention to manage disruption and accelerate growth by building a strong digital core, investing in new technologies, and transforming how collaboration works across the organisation is crucial. Our joint report offers a roadmap for governments to achieve this goal and better serve all citizens and residents,” Pisanu added.

The World Government Summit is a global platform dedicated to shaping the future of governments worldwide, and each year it sets the agenda for the next generation of governments with a focus on harnessing innovation and technology to solve universal challenges facing humanity.

The report can be accessed at https://www.worldgovernmentsummit.org/observer/reports/2023/detail/public-service-customer-experience-and-equity.