Saudi Arabia’s Governance Modernization: How Center-of-Government Reform Is Rewiring Policy Design, Delivery, and Trust

Feb 24
6 min read

Saudi Arabia is modernizing the way it governs by strengthening the Center of Government (CoG), the executive core that sets national direction, coordinates across ministries, and monitors delivery. The governance story is not only about new institutions, but about how decisions are prepared (evidence), coordinated (whole-of-government alignment), executed (delivery discipline), and legitimized (transparency and participation).

Under Vision 2030, guided by the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Kingdom has steadily advanced toward a governance model in which policy is treated not as isolated ministerial activity but as an integrated national system characterized by clear priorities, measurable targets, and strengthened accountability.

From Centralization to Inclusion

For decades, public governance in Saudi Arabia was characterized by a greater degree of centralization, with policy design and implementation confined to top leadership and a handful of key ministries. While this system enabled quick decision delivery, it lacked inclusion, feedback loops, and coordinated stakeholder engagement.

The announcement of Vision 2030 in 2016 catalyzed a dramatic shift in this governance paradigm. Vision 2030 provided the strategic anchor for this evolution, enabling governance reforms to be embedded within a comprehensive national roadmap that aligns institutional modernization with long-term socioeconomic objectives.

This modernization resonates with global discourse on inclusive governance, particularly the OECD’s 2024 definition of inclusive governance, which characterizes it as the design and implementation of public policies through processes that are transparent, accountable, and participatory, ensuring that stakeholders have meaningful opportunities to access information, contribute to deliberation during the decision-making process.

Saudi Arabia’s approach demonstrates a pragmatic adaptation of these principles, integrating international best practices within the Kingdom’s administrative traditions and societal context.

The result is a governance model that combines strong strategic direction with expanding mechanisms for consultation, digital engagement, and performance oversight. Analytically, this hybridization underscores the importance of contextualized reform, showing how global governance standards can be operationalized in ways that reinforce national priorities, institutional continuity, and cultural alignment while supporting greater openness and policy responsiveness.

The Pillars of Governance Reform

Saudi Arabia’s governance modernization has been anchored in a set of formally articulated principles that frame institutional development and public-sector performance. The Guiding Manual for Governance of Public Entities, approved by the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 92 (24/01/1446H), codifies disclosure, transparency, integrity, fairness, accountability, and sustainability as foundational values shaping governance practice across public entities. These principles provide more than normative guidance; they establish a common reference point for administrative behavior, decision quality, and institutional oversight, thereby reinforcing consistency across a rapidly evolving government landscape.

Within the Vision 2030 framework, these principles provide a normative and legal foundation for reform initiatives and inform a range of strategic programs designed to strengthen public-sector effectiveness and coherence. Such codification contributes to reducing fragmentation in governance approaches and supports a shared understanding of performance expectations among public institutions.

Operationalizing Governance Reform through Strategic Programs

These principles inform a range of strategic programs under Vision 2030, particularly the National Transformation Plan, which positions governance strengthening and institutional effectiveness as key enablers of public-sector reform. Some of these efforts include:

The Government Restructuring Program has eliminated centralized councils, merged or restructured key ministries, and established specialized strategic councils including the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA) and the Council of Political and Security Affairs (CPSA). This reorganization accelerates policy cycles and improves government performance while maintaining the capacity to adapt to domestic and global challenges.
The Strategic Directions Program ensures that government agencies' mandates align with social and economic needs through highly analytical, evidence-based evaluation processes that assess performance and ensure programs remain relevant and impactful.
The Fiscal Balance Program minimizes costs and establishes efficient mechanisms for budget examination and allocation, following global best practices that emphasize close alignment between strategic and fiscal planning.
The Program for Strengthening Public Sector Governance puts forward the critical role of centralized governance while maintaining agility, transparency, and accountability, ensuring efforts remain unified and streamlined across all government agencies.

The Institutional Evolution of the Center of Government

The disruptive wave initiated by the announcement of Vision 2030 has promptly influenced the public landscape, resulting in a series of restructurings. This is visible in the establishment of new ministries and semi-governmental commissions and authorities, the consolidation or division of ministerial portfolios, and the formation of central support entities and executive delivery units. The primary functions of the CoG agencies, as stated in Vision 2030, are centered around strategic planning and governance, support decision-making, and to monitor and evaluate performance across the government landscape. Two newly established institutions exemplify the CoG's evolution and its commitment to evidence-based, inclusive policymaking:

The Strategic Management Office (SMO) established under CEDA, coordinates all government programs and ensures their alignment with Vision 2030. Beginning with fifteen top national talents, the SMO serves as CEDA's executive arm, monitoring the execution of eleven strategic Vision Realization Programs (VRPs) and bridging gaps between line ministries and stakeholders. The office's role has expanded from implementation support to comprehensive performance tracking, producing quarterly and annual reports that inform ongoing policy refinement.
The Decision Support Center (DSC), represents a deliberate shift from opinion-based to data-driven decision-making. Established in 2016, the DSC provides independent perspectives on national priorities through rigorous scientific methodologies, comprehensive data analysis, and proactive research. Its administrative and financial independence, enables the DSC to deliver impartial, high-quality policy recommendations across multiple domains.

Digital Transformation and Citizen Engagement

Digital transformation has emerged as a central mechanism through which Saudi Arabia advances inclusive governance. The Kingdom now ranks first regionally, second among G20 countries, and fourth globally in the UN E-Government Development Index 2024, with a seventh-place worldwide ranking in E-Participation.

Beyond improving service delivery, the expansion of integrated digital infrastructure has strengthened transparency, accessibility, and policy responsiveness, enabling broader segments of society to interact with government processes in structured and traceable ways.

This digital ecosystem has been complemented by the creation of structured participation platforms that embed consultation within the policy cycle under Vision 2030. Most notably, The Public Consultation Platform “Istitlaa” provides a unified interface through which individuals, businesses, and public entities can review and comment on draft laws and regulations prior to their adoption. By systematizing stakeholder feedback, the platform contributes to improving regulatory quality and strengthens policy legitimacy through early identification of implementation challenges and stakeholder concerns. Such mechanisms illustrate how digitalization can translate the normative objective of inclusivity into operational practice, linking transparency with participatory decision-making.

These developments also resonate with established governance principles reflected in Article 43 of the Basic Law of Governance, which affirms citizens’ ability to communicate with public authorities on matters of concern. Digital tools extend this principle into contemporary governance practice by scaling access and facilitating continuous dialogue between state institutions and society. The result is participatory architecture in which digital capability supports not only efficiency but also a more inclusive policy environment aligned with the broader objectives of Vision 2030.

Cultivating a New Governance Culture

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of Saudi Arabia's transformation has been the organizational culture shift required within the institutions. Early in the reform process, HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman introduced inclusive governance models that were initially unfamiliar to many in the public sector. CEDA meetings in 2015 became extended brainstorming sessions where ministers presented plans based on various insights and engaged in collective decision-making, a departure from traditional ministerial silos toward cohesive interagency dynamics.

This cultural transformation required overcoming initial discomfort with new collaborative approaches, concerns about ministerial boundaries, and the challenge of attracting and retaining highly skilled talent. Strong directives from top leadership, coupled with genuine commitment from senior officials, proved essential in overcoming these political and institutional barriers.

International Recognition and the Path Forward

The transformation has not gone unnoticed internationally. The International Monetary Fund has been welcoming the Kingdom’s progress in strengthening governance and applauded the Kingdom's "unprecedented economic transformation" resulting from careful policy planning and fiscal and economic reforms.

Despite notable progress, the scale and complexity of Saudi Arabia’s transformation continue to place sustained demands on institutional capacity, particularly in aligning multidimensional policy agendas across government and strengthening analytical and performance management capabilities. This evolving reform landscape highlights that national transformation extends beyond structural adjustments to encompass the gradual refinement of decision routines, talent, coordination practices, and accountability mechanisms that shape how government operates in practice.

Saudi Arabia’s experience therefore offers broader insight into how governance modernization can support ambitious development while remaining adaptive to emerging challenges and contextual realities. As the reform process advances, the continued strengthening of the Center of Government stands as a central enabler of policy coherence and implementation effectiveness, reinforcing the Kingdom’s progress and underscoring the role of strategic leadership, institutional learning, and inclusive governance in sustaining long-term development outcomes.

About the Author:

Khulood A. Basha is an expert on strategic governance and a public policy leader with over 20 years of experience in driving public sector transformation through contributing to shaping policy frameworks and strengthening institutional performance. She is recognized for Advancing evidence-based solutions , foresight-driven governance, and managing international collaborations.

** The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Alyamamah International for Research and Development or any of its affiliated institution.