The Royal Commission for Riyadh City has adopted the program for the coordination and provision of public services in Riyadh and considered it a reference work program for the government agencies participating in the program, in response to the developments that have occurred in the city in the population and urban aspects, and to keep pace with the great expansion it has witnessed in the sectors of health, education, information technology and economic and social development, and the need to reflect this on the executive plans of public services in the city, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to classify 3 Saudi cities among the top 100 cities in the world.
The commission also approved the planning standards for public services contained in the program, considering it the main reference for land planning and distribution of service sites in the city of Riyadh, and launching the “Electronic Portal for Public Services in Riyadh”, which monitors data on public services, updates them periodically and continuously, and follows up the implementation of its projects at the city level.
Program Objectives
The Public Services Program in Riyadh aims to develop a working methodology to coordinate, update and monitor the development of public services citywide, including mosques, educational, health, security, cultural and recreational services, and others, and to determine the level of availability of these services, estimate the current and future need for them, inventory the lands allocated to public services and determine their ownership, prepare a model for the spatial distribution of services, and create a database that includes all information and spatial maps for public services, to meet the increasing demand for these public services.
Program Phases
Public Services Program went through three main phases, starting with the first executive plan for the coordination and provision of public services in Riyadh in 2008, where an integrated database was established that brings together public services in Riyadh from the participating entities and service providers in the city, followed by the second executive plan for coordinating and providing public services in 2015. During this, a field survey was conducted for all the aforementioned public services, where the geographical locations of nearly 11,000 services and their metadata were verified, in addition to developing a service level analytical model using technologies associated with geographic information systems (GIS), to assess the availability and distribution of services and contribute to the selection of optimal locations for public service lands to meet the current and future needs of the city according to the highest planning standards.
The work in the Public Services Program was completed in 2019, where the database is updated periodically by representatives of the participating entities and the program’s work team, and the program’s database includes spatial and descriptive data for more than 13,000 public service sites located on more than 9,000 plots of land, in addition to verifying the vacant plots allocated for public services, which include more than 27,000 plots of land allocated for public services in the city of Riyadh.
The technical Committee of the Participating Entities
A technical committee was formed from the 18 participating public service providers in addition to 3 entities whose work intersects with the scope of work of the program, and workshops were held aimed at introducing the program, discussing the strategies and trends of service providers, and agreeing on a mechanism to update their respective data. Entities participating in the program include:
- Ministry of Health
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Islamic Affairs
- Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development
- Ministry of Justice
- Ministry of Culture
- Ministry of Sports
- Riyadh Municipality
- General Entertainment Authority
- General Authority for Statistics
- Saudi Red Crescent Authority
- Quality of Life Program
- National Center for Public Agencies Performance Measurement
- Ministerial Agency of Civil Affairs
- Riyadh Region Police
- Riyadh Region Traffic Police Department
- Civil Defense in Riyadh
- Riyadh Region Passports
- Saudi Post
- Technical and Vocational Training Corporation
- Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Types of Public Services in Riyadh
The program is concerned with studying the public services provided by the public and private sectors in Riyadh, including mosques, educational services in their various stages of kindergartens, general education schools, colleges, universities, institutes, technical and vocational training colleges, security services from police, traffic and civil defense stations, passport and civil affairs agencies, health services from primary care centers, public and specialized hospitals, medical cities, doctors’ clinics, pharmacies, and the Red Crescent. In addition to recreational services such as parks at various planning levels, starting with children’s playgrounds through neighborhood parks, municipal squares, playgrounds and parks, cultural services such as libraries, museums, theaters, and cultural centers, social services such as social centers, associations, charitable institutions, cooperative societies and social development committees, administrative services such as municipalities, administrative centers, labor offices, courts, notaries and chambers of commerce, in addition to the main and subsidiary post centers, recreational and commercial services.
Program Outcomes
The program includes several outputs based mainly on the updated geographical database of public services, which is updated periodically. The output of the program includes electronic applications (electronic portal, public services mobile application, and service performance indicators panel), in addition to a service level analytical model, which aims to assess the availability and distribution of services and contribute to the selection of optimal locations for public service lands, and other documents that include analyzes of the level of availability and quality of public services in Riyadh.
