Slovenia is shifting towards a more coherent, whole-of-government approach to digital transformation, supported by new strategies and institutions that aim to deliver user-centred public services. However, there is opportunity to strengthen its key enablers, including governance, digital government investment, data sharing and reuse, digital government infrastructure, AI in government and service design and delivery.
Digital Government Scan of Slovenia
Abstract
Slovenia is currently undergoing a significant transition that prioritises a more comprehensive, whole-of-government digital transformation of the public sector. Following the OECD Digital Government Review of Slovenia in 2021, the country has introduced a new institutional-set-up and strategic framework, notably the establishment of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in January 2023 and the adoption of the Digital Slovenia 2030 strategy and the Digital Public Services Strategy 2030 (together with the corresponding Action plan of measures). The overarching objective of these reforms is to guide the digital transformation journey across various sectors, including government, economy and society. The reforms seek to prioritise the needs and preferences of users by placing them at the centre of the design and delivery of public services.
The overarching Digital Slovenia 2030 strategy sets out the country’s ambition to become a leading digital society by 2030. The strategy identifies priority areas such as gigabit infrastructure, digital competences and inclusion, digital public services and cybersecurity. It explicitly links digital transformation with improved economic performance and quality of life. A central objective is to enhance Slovenia’s standing in the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), with the target of ensuring that no less than 80% of the population possesses fundamental digital competencies and use digital public services by the year 2030.
Within this broader framework, the Digital Public Services Strategy 2030 provides a dedicated roadmap for the transformation of public services. It establishes a clear vision of “citizen- and business-centric digital public services” and defines concrete high-level targets for 2030: all key public services must be available digitally and accessible to all users, and at least 80% of users relying on a digital identity when interacting with the public sector.
Despite the enhancement of the strategic and institutional framework, Slovenia’s performance in the OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) suggests that the country is still in the process of establishing the key foundations of a mature digital government. In the most recent available results, Slovenia attained a score of 0.58, falling short of the OECD average of 0.70. This finding suggests that essential components are in place, yet further endeavours are necessary to systematically integrate user-driven, data-driven and proactive approaches across the public sector.
The Digital Public Services Strategy 2030 is a strategic document which translates the overacting Digital Slovenia 2030 vision into concrete commitments for the public sector. The emphasis is placed on user-friendly, secure and interoperable services around citizens’ and business’s needs, greater use of data for decision making, and the progressive development of proactive and cross-border services. The strategy acknowledges that technology alone is insufficient and underscores the need for organisational change, strengthened governance, and enhanced collaboration with users and stakeholders.
The government has initiated the operationalisation of these ambitions through reforms. The adoption of the Digital Public Services Strategy 2030 in 2022 and the establishment of the government Council for Digital Transformation are two key measures that have been implemented. Furthermore, recent legal reforms, including the Electronic Identity and Trust Services Act, amendments to the Identity Card Act, and changes to the General Administrative Procedure Act, have expanded the scope for digital procedures and enabled the roll-out of a national digital identity recognised under the EU eIDAS framework.
These developments respond to several of the recommendations set out in the OECD Digital Government Review of Slovenia. The Review called for a renewed digital government strategy, stronger governance arrangements, better use of common digital building blocks such as digital identity and interoperability standards, and a greater focus on digital rights, trust and experimentation. Furthermore, the establishment of the organisation-in-charge and the coordination body serves to establish a foundation for the delivery of more coherent and human-centred services, particularly in light of the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s assumption of responsibility for the steering of digital transformation across various sectors and governmental levels.
Slovenia is investing in complementary enablers for public sector digital transformation, building on the Digital Slovenia 2030 and the Digital Public Services strategies. These include the modernisation of administrative processes, the strengthening of data infrastructure, the improvement of cybersecurity, and the establishment of a competence centre for human resources to promote more strategic management of skills, including digital skills in the public administration.
When considered collectively, these efforts provide a significant foundation for the advancement of Slovenia’s objective to deliver seamless, user-centred and trustworthy digital government. However, the full impact of these is contingent upon the consistent implementation, effective coordination across various governmental levels, and systematic monitoring of outcomes.
Many of the findings of this scan are informed by Slovenia’s performance in the 2025 OECD Digital Government Index (DGI). The DGI “assesses the efforts made by governments to establish the foundations necessary for a digital transformation of the public sector that is coherent and human-centred” (OECD, 2024[1]). The DGI measures the degree to which countries have established the foundational elements required for a mature digital government. It is important to note, however, that the DGI does not evaluate the digitalisation of government services or the take-up of these services by users.
The DGI assesses the level of maturity of countries across the six dimensions of the OECD Digital Government Policy Framework (DGPF) (Figure 2.1). It is a policy instrument designed to assist governments in identifying the key drivers for effective design and implementation of strategic approaches towards digital maturity of their public sectors. The DGPF facilitates the assessment of countries’ digital government maturity based on qualitative and quantitative measures across six dimensions (OECD, 2020[2]):
Digital by Design – governing and leveraging digital technologies to rethink and re-engineer public processes, simplify procedures, and create new channels of communication and engagement with stakeholders.
Data-driven – valuing data as a strategic asset and establishes the governance, access, sharing and re-use mechanisms for improved decision-making and service delivery.
Government as a Platform – deploying platforms, standards and services to help teams focus on user needs in public service design and delivery.
Open by Default – making government data and policy-making processes available to the public, within the limits of existing legislation and in balance with national and public interest.
User-driven – centring people’s needs and convenience in the shaping of processes, services and policies; and by adopting inclusive mechanisms that enable this to happen.
Proactiveness – anticipating people’s needs and respond to them rapidly, avoiding the need for cumbersome data and service delivery processes.
Source: (OECD, 2020[2])
Slovenia’s 2023 and 2025 results in the OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) reveals clear progress across all dimensions of the DGPF. The composite score increased from 0.50 in 2023 to 0.58 in 2025, representing an improvement of 16.4%. This trajectory suggests that Slovenia is gradually transitioning towards a more mature, strategic model of digital government, in accordance with the DGPF. Nevertheless, in the 2025 DGI, Slovenia performed below the OECD average of 0.70, ranking 32nd of 36 participating OECD member countries (Figure 2.2, Figure 2.3).
Note: 2025 results only cover information from 2023 to 2024. 2025 results do not include data from Germany and the United States. 2023 results do not include data from Greece, Switzerland, the Slovak Republic, Germany and the United States.
Source: (OECD, 2025[3])
Note: 2025 results only cover information from 2023 to 2024. 2025 results do not include data from Germany and the United States. 2023 results do not include data from Greece, Switzerland, the Slovak Republic, Germany and the United States.
Source: (OECD, 2025[3])
The most significant improvement is evident in the ‘User-driven’ dimension, which exhibits a substantial increase from 0.33 in 2023 to 0.57 in 2025. This indicates progress in having concrete operational goals related to user-driven in the national strategy, inclusive participatory processes when devising national strategies, and a well-developed action plan to reduce digital divide. Nevertheless, there is still opportunity to placing users’ needs at the centre of service design and delivery, for example by strengthening user research, usability testing and mechanisms to engage citizens and businesses in the design of services. In addition, further investment is needed in establishing monitoring and assessment mechanisms to ensure that government services are designed and delivered to meet the expected outcome.
Slovenia has also demonstrated notable advancements in the ‘Digital by Design’ Dimension, with an increase from 0.56 to 0.65. Higher score in this dimension is indicative of a more systematic use of digital technologies and data as strategic assets. For instance, Slovenia has moved away from ‘digital by default’ and embodies ‘digital by design’ approach in its national strategy. Furthermore, the national digital government strategy includes various enablers to support its implementation. Last, the establishment of an external advisory body has supported more coherent and inclusive approach to digital transformation. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement in further strengthening the mandate of its organisation-in-charge to ensure the sustainable implementation of the national strategy and to convene all relevant stakeholders in the process.
The country’s performance on the ‘Data-driven’ dimension also shows an increase, from 0.49 in 2023 to 0.62 in 2025. This reflects progress in putting in place the governance and technical foundations to use data as a strategic asset. For instance, Slovenia has an operational data interoperability system used by the public sector institutions, as well as data inventories. Semantic data guidelines are being drafted, as a baseline for data governance, data quality, data inventories and data roles, and will be published in first quarter of 2026. It also implemented policy initiatives to promote the ethical use of data. However, these strengths are not yet matched by systematic practices to assure data quality. The absence of data quality framework, regular assessments of data inventories and formal requirements to assign data leadership roles in each public sector institution limits the extent to which data can be consistently leveraged for decision making, and service design and delivery across the administration.
The ‘Government as a Platform’ dimension remains Slovenia’s strongest area with 0.62 in 2023 and a modest increase to 0.64 in 2025. The results represent the government’s ongoing commitment to investment in common digital infrastructure, including digital identity, shared standards that can be reused across the administration. This is evident in the implementation of digital identity, and the availability of standardised model for digital project management, shared guidelines for digital procurement and cloud infrastructure initiatives. However, there is still opportunity to advance further on this dimension by introducing a dedicated funding for digital projects, a monitoring system to track progress of digital projects and a dedicated team to manage and implement the GovTech initiatives.
In contrast, Slovenia’s performance barely changed in the ‘Open by Default’ dimension (from 0.46 to 0.46) and the ‘Proactiveness’ dimension (from 0.53 to 0.54). On the ‘Open by Default’ dimension, the findings indicate that there remains considerable scope to enhance openness by making publicly available information on the progress of digital projects and the use of algorithms, as well as to strengthen mechanism to incentivise open data publication. In addition, while there is a guideline to use open source to develop digital government initiatives, actual actions related to use of open source is absent. As for the ‘Proactiveness’ dimension, Slovenia could further invest in the use of data in service design and delivery and policy monitoring. Another important missing element is a mechanism to leverage the implementation of the “Once-Only Principle” in its service design and delivery.
Finally, Figure 2.4 shows Slovenia’s results across some of the key areas measured in the DGI. When mapped onto the six dimensions of the DGPF, these results create a heat map that demonstrates some of the focus areas for the country’s digital maturity, especially for elements of data, digital infrastructure, digital talent, digital government investments, and service design and delivery.
Source: (OECD, 2025[3])
The results from the 2025 DGI underscore the pivotal domains on which Slovenia could concentrate its efforts to cultivate a more effective and efficient digital government. These domains will be examined in detail in the subsequent chapters. The key areas that have been identified as being of particular importance in this regard include digital governance, digital government investments, digital public infrastructure, government data, AI in government, and service design and delivery.
By addressing these key areas, Slovenia could enhance its maturity across the six dimensions of the DGPF and strengthen its foundations for effective and efficient digital government. By taking this action, the government may be able to mitigate some of the incidental barriers that may have impeded more favourable outcomes with respect to the objectives of its national digital government strategy, and bring greater impact to the public sector and the society.