Arab AI Governance Lab
ENFRع

Areas of work

Human capital and capacity

Whether states have the people needed to staff, implement and oversee the AI governance institutions their strategies call for.

Key messages

  • The UAE gained 0.26 and Saudi Arabia 0.10 on the UN Human Capital Index between 2018 and 2024.
  • Human capital fell in eight of 16 states with data, including every fragile or conflict-affected state.
  • Strategies depend on specialist and front-line administrative capacity; where human capital is under pressure, implementation support matters most.
  • E-participation ranges from 0.96 to 0.01 across the region.

The United Arab Emirates gained 0.26 and Saudi Arabia 0.10 on the UN Human Capital Index. Human capital fell in eight of 16 states, including every fragile or conflict-affected state with data. Strategies depend on regulators, engineers and civil servants to carry them out; where human capital is under pressure, implementation support and regional training programmes matter most.

Figure 15The UAE gained 0.26 on the Human Capital Index between 2018 and 2024; the largest declines are in fragile and conflict-affected contexts
Select flags to add or remove states. Source: UN DESA E-Government Survey, HCI sub-index, table F6.
Figure 16Human capital fell in 8 of 16 states between 2018 and 2024
UAE+0.256SAU+0.097OMN+0.096MAR+0.080BHR+0.078QAT+0.043KWT+0.023EGY+0.008IRQ−0.013TUN−0.014DZA−0.022SYR−0.069JOR−0.093LBN−0.122LBY−0.122YEM−0.137
Source: computed from table F6.
Figure 17E-participation ranges from 0.96 in Saudi Arabia to 0.01 in Libya
SAU0.959BHR0.904UAE0.781OMN0.658JOR0.616EGY0.589QAT0.480LBN0.466TUN0.452MAR0.438KWT0.301YEM0.151IRQ0.096SYR0.069DZA0.055LBY0.014
Source: UN DESA E-Government Survey 2024, table F6.
Table 6Human capital, online services and e-participation by state
StateHCI 2018HCI 2020HCI 2022HCI 2024Change 2018 to 2024Online services 2024E-participation 2024State capacity (fsQCA set)
UAE0.68770.73200.87110.9436+0.2560.91630.7810.95
SAU0.81010.86480.86620.9067+0.0970.99000.9590.90
QAT0.66830.66980.71500.7114+0.0430.76550.4800.85
BHR0.78970.84390.81540.8680+0.0780.90310.9040.80
KWT0.68520.74700.77060.7083+0.0230.63660.3010.65
OMN0.70130.77510.80670.7977+0.0960.80770.6580.70
EGY0.60720.61920.63750.6150+0.0080.70020.5890.60
MAR0.52780.61520.63500.6078+0.0800.56180.4380.55
TUN0.66400.69740.69110.6497−0.0140.59510.4520.55
DZA0.66400.69660.69560.6418−0.0220.33200.0550.35
JOR0.73870.68000.69670.6458−0.0930.75910.6160.55
LBN0.66490.65670.66560.5433−0.1220.44890.4660.35
IRQ0.50940.43580.58880.4967−0.0130.18760.0960.30
LBY0.71730.73570.75340.5952−0.1220.08080.0140.15
SYR0.48600.50730.49830.4169−0.0690.30680.0690.05
YEM0.40370.41420.36330.2670−0.1370.13770.1510.05

Note. Sixteen states have EGDI sub-index data. State capacity is a calibrated fuzzy-set membership score (table C1).

The Lab designs and delivers capacity building for ministries, regulators, data protection authorities and regional bodies: executive programmes, regulator training and institutional development, grounded in its comparative evidence and delivered in Arabic, English or French.

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