Public Employment Services Digitalization: Reflections from Tabiya on a New World Bank Guidance Note
Digitalization of Public Employment Services (PES) can be costly and challenging, especially in low- and middle-income contexts. The World Bank’s new Guidance Note on PES Digitalization provides a practical framework for inclusive, cost-effective digital transformation. Read more to learn about Tabiya's contribution to the Note.
Contributors
Giulia Moretti
Across the world, Public Employment Services (PES) play a vital role in helping jobseekers to find work through job matching, skills training, and counseling while supporting employers in meeting their workforce needs.
Today’s PES struggle to keep pace with rapid labor market changes driven by digitalization, automation, and the gig economy. They must often deliver expanded services with shrinking resources.
Digital technologies promise to address these challenges and enhance PES efficiency. Digital tools can offer low-cost and scalable solutions across PES operations—from outreach, to service delivery, and internal processes. For example:
- Expanded outreach: Senegal’s PES and the National Youth Employment Agency (ANPEJ) use multi-channel communication to reach all citizens, including isolated rural populations.
- Service delivery: AI-enabled tools like Tabiya’s Compass chatbot and job tracking dashboards like the Kenyan National Employment Authority’s new Integrated Management System prioritize inclusion and help jobseekers navigate available opportunities.
- Streamlined operations: Estonia’s Unemployment Insurance Fund uses a new Decision Support Tool to help counsellors efficiently assess jobseekers’ needs and offer personalized support.
Yet digital transformation can be costly and challenging for PES, especially in low- and middle-income countries. To support PES in navigating these opportunities, the World Bank recently released a Guidance Note on PES Digitalization. The Note provides a practical framework for digital transformation, emphasizing that success depends on more than just introducing new technology.
The Note highlights that PES digitalization remains highly uneven across countries, driven by infrastructure gaps and limited public-sector capacity. Many low- and middle-income countries face prohibitive barriers and costs.
Private sector partnerships offer both opportunities and risks. While PES can leverage external expertise, overdependence creates vendor lock-in, reduces flexibility, and inflates long-term costs. Proprietary solutions’ high upfront investments often deter governments entirely.
Tabiya addresses these challenges through open-source technology. Open-source solutions prevent vendor lock-in, enable local ownership, and allow customization—yet few PES-specific open-source tools exist. [Read more on open source in our blog here.]
We were able to contribute to the Guidance Note by sharing how our open-source solutions address skills recognition and job-matching challenges in South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia. These cases demonstrate cost-effective digital transformation without long-term vendor dependence. We thank the World Bank team for this work and the opportunity to contribute.
Access the full World Bank Guidance Note at: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099062325192540276