The National Delivery domain seeks to assess the ability of the national government to oversee the delivery of public services, including those services it delivers itself. It should be noted that the responsibility and nature of public sector delivery varies considerably between jurisdictions; the Index does not and cannot seek to be a comprehensive comparative assessment of all types of public service delivery. Deliberately, the Index has sought to avoid services which are highly varied in their constitutional/ operational arrangements and/or where their delivery is highly tied to policy goals (e.g. health, education, labour market). As a result, higher rankings in this domain do not necessarily mean that countries have better policy outcomes, rather that based on the available data, they have better approaches for overseeing/managing their public services than those they rank above.

This domain is made up of five themes: system oversight; digital services; tax administration; border services; and social security. Four of these five themes can be measured in our Index, however unfortunately at this time we have not been able to identify any suitable data to measure the social security theme.

Overall, the National Delivery domain is led by Singapore (1st), Germany and Sweden (joint 2nd) and Canada and Denmark (joint 4th). Denmark and Singapore both rank in the top 10 for three of the four themes that make up the National Delivery domain, while Canada, Germany and Sweden each rank in the top 10 for two of the four themes. Bulgaria and Thailand (joint 30th) are the highest ranking upper middle income economies, followed by Türkiye (33rd). Jordan (22nd) is the highest ranking lower middle income economy followed by Vietnam (36th) and then India and Kenya (joint 43rd). Rwanda (59th) is the highest ranking low income economy, followed by Uganda (63rd) and Ethiopia (94th).

After Canada, the United States (22nd), Uruguay (25th) and Brazil (36th) are the highest ranking countries in the Americas. After Singapore, Australia (9th) followed by New Zealand (12th) and South Korea (14th) are the highest ranking countries in Asia and Pacific. Latvia (14th), Estonia (17th) and Lithuania (19th) are the highest ranking countries in Eastern Europe. Jordan (22nd), Israel (30th) and Saudi Arabia and Türkiye (joint 33rd) are the highest ranking countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. Mauritius (40th), Kenya and Zambia (both 43rd) are the highest ranking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

System oversight

The system oversight theme seeks to measure the extent to which the government can achieve its policy objectives through its own means and through leadership and stewardship of wider delivery systems. It is measured by two metrics that based on expert opinion of whether countries can achieve their policy objectives; in practice most countries only have one of these two metrics.

Germany and Sweden rank joint first and eight countries rank joint third (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom). After excluding high income economies, there are seven countries which jointly rank 28th: Albania, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mauritius, North Macedonia and Vietnam.

Digital services

The digital services theme seeks to measure the government’s support for digital public services through the strategies and policies that support their development, the technologies that enable them to work effectively, and the end user experience. It is measured using three metrics, covering digital strategies, backend technologies, and the existence of end-user services.

Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Korea rank joint first, followed by Spain in fourth and France in fifth. Other countries of note: Estonia (6th) is the highest ranking country in Eastern Europe, Uruguay (7th) is the second highest ranking country in the Americas, and Uganda (49th) is the highest ranking low income economy.

Tax administration

The tax administration theme seeks to measure the operational quality of a country’s national level tax administration. This theme has 12 metrics which cover the management of the tax agency, taxpayer compliance (e.g. filing and paying on-time, tax debt) and the uptake of digital methods for filing and service contacts. Spain ranks first, followed by Singapore in second and

Ireland and Jordan in joint third. Other countries of note: Serbia (5th) is the highest ranking upper middle income economy, Mongolia (6th) is the highest ranking country in Asia and Pacific, and Rwanda (11th) is both the highest ranking low income economy and the highest ranking country in sub-Saharan Africa.

Border services

The border services theme seeks to measure the operational quality of a country’s national borders, the extent to which legitimate goods/services can be transacted across the border, and the ease with which tourists and business visitors can enter/leave the country. In practice this theme covers only a single metric on the efficiency of customs procedures.

Singapore ranks first, Denmark ranks second while Canada, Finland, and Sweden rank joint third. Other countries of note: Poland and Slovenia (both 17th) are the highest ranking countries in Eastern Europe; China, Malaysia, South Africa and Thailand (all 24th) are the highest ranking middle income economies; and Vietnam (34th) is the highest ranking lower middle income economy.

Results table