Tonga Whole of Government Workshop on GovStack, Digital Policies, Strategies and Government Dashboard.

14 – 18 July 2025

Nukuálofa, Tonga

The Department of Communications under the Ministry of MEIDECC in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) hosting a three-day workshop on Government Stakeholders requirements gathering for Digital Dashboard and Stakeholder consultation to strengthen Digital Strategies and policy opportunities from Monday 14th – Wednesday 16th of July, 2025 at the Ministry of MEIDECC’s office.

The three-day event is facilitated by the experts from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Mr. Kishore Babu Yerraballa, Mr. Shivendra Deo and Mr. Neil Roy Chowdhury with the aim to strengthen Digital Strategies and policy opportunities. 

The objectives of workshop are as follows: 

• Develop well-rounded understanding of digital government endeavors in Tonga including the implementation of Tonga’s Digital Government Strategic Framework 2019 - 2024 and relevant strategies, policies, enterprise architecture and priority service catalogue.
• Introduce the Whole-of-Government approach to digital government transformation concepts and the benefits of building blocks approach.
• Enhance the understanding of the participants on relevant case studies on digital government technical framework, national scale digital transformation programs and the challenges faced in their implementation.
• Build capacity of participants in understanding and utilizing the GovStack toolbox to identify, catalog and prioritize public services for digitization and delivery using a citizen centric manner and, provide a practical framework for operationalizing digital transformation initiatives.
• Develop an understanding of sustainability and scalability of Smart Islands program to achieve digital transformation at the grass roots level
• Build capacity on how to translate technical specs into business requirements for specific use cases/service and RFI/RFP documents for procurement.
• Undertake consultations on strengthening of digital strategies, policies and frameworks to modernise the policy and regulatory environment. 
• Validation of high-level requirements and gather detailed requirements from key stakeholders on the implementation of the Government Dashboard. 

The opening ceremony was attended by experts from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UN Country Coordination Specialist Mr. Sione Hufanga, Director for the Department of Communications, Mr. Stan ‘Ahio, and representatives from various government Ministries including MEIDECC’s CERT, Information, Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Fisheries, Agriculture, Ombudsman, Health, Tonga Fire and Emergency Services, Lands and Survey, Public Enterprises, Tourism, Tonga Police, and the Government Statistics, Infrastructure (MOI), and Public Service Commission.