Participation and Engagement

In the 2026 United Nations E-Government Survey, online public participation is assessed through the participation and engagement (PE) subindex of the Online Services Index (OSI). This revises the approach previously reflected in the E-Participation Index (EPI), which was comprised of three components: e-information, e-consultation and e-decision-making. Both EPI and PE include e-consultation, concerning opportunities for people to contribute to deliberations on public policies and services, and e-decision-making, concerning evidence that public inputs inform government decisions. Under the revised methodology, data on e-information are drawn from the content provision (CP) subindex of the OSI rather than included in the PE score.

The PE subindex assesses the availability of online mechanisms that enable people to participate in policymaking and provides a basis for comparing their provision across countries. Its purpose is not to prescribe a particular model of participation, but to offer insight into how governments use digital tools to support inclusive engagement and demonstrate responsiveness to public inputs. Owing to changes in indicator coverage and calculation, PE values and earlier EPI values are not directly comparable at this stage.