The delegation of the Parliamentary Division of the Kingdom of Bahrain participated in a virtual symposium organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on methodologies for assessing digital maturity in parliaments, during which it reviewed two integrated approaches for assessing digital maturity, and provided practical tools that help parliamentarians and officials in all parliaments, whatever their level of digital maturity.
The delegation of the Parliamentary Division participating in the virtual symposium was represented by His Excellency Mr. Jamal Mohammed Fakhro, First Deputy Speaker of the Shura Council, and a number of officials and employees of the General Secretariats of the Shura and Representatives Councils.
The symposium witnessed a discussion about parliaments that wish to enhance their digital transformation process based on measuring their level of digital maturity. The Information Technology Maturity Assessment Tool (IMAT) for parliaments was presented as a structured approach to self-assessment of four basic organizational enablers, which include: digital strategy, key IT operations, digital transformation initiatives, and IT efficiency, which helps parliaments plan achievable improvements in the medium term. In addition to the IMAT framework by the European Parliament, which coordinates the IT Governance Center in the Inter-Parliamentary Innovation Center of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
The IPU’s Digital Maturity Assessment (DMA) helps parliaments compare their performance against a global dataset of parliaments, enabling them to identify their relative strengths and areas for improvement. The assessment is based on the six areas assessed in the Digital Maturity Index in the Global e-Parliament Report 2024: governance and strategy, infrastructure, parliamentary systems, user support, digital content publishing, and public engagement.
