LEBANON - Under the Social Impact category, 26-year-old Lebanese entrepreneur Ihab Hallab earned a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Middle East and North Africa 2025 list for his work at the intersection of technology, governance, and social innovation.
The recognition highlights his contributions to the Code for MENA program, the development of the GovTech ecosystem, pioneering research, and his most recent initiatives: Maliyati and Raqeb.
In an exclusive conversation with Enmaeya, Hallab, who describes himself as a “social impact entrepreneur” and serves as the executive director of SmartGov, explained that his organization is a “think and do” tank.
SmartGov focuses on public sector innovation, government reform, and modern civic participation, with a particular emphasis on e-government and civic technology.
Hallab notes that governments often rely on corporate technology providers that approach projects in isolation, focusing narrowly on implementation without considering long-term sustainability or research-backed strategy.
One of SmartGov’s flagship initiatives, Maliyati, is Lebanon’s first platform for digitizing public finance data and its first dedicated transparency portal.
The platform allows researchers, policymakers, and the public to explore fiscal data in a way that is accessible and understandable, using AI chatbots and interactive visuals rather than dense charts and complex navigation.
By translating government data into an intuitive format, Maliyati makes fiscal information usable for both experts and non-experts alike.
Digital democracy, Hallab explains, is about revisiting the core principles of democracy while digitizing them incrementally. The goal is to bring citizens and governments closer together in a system that is transparent, efficient, and resistant to corruption.
“You cannot corrupt a well-designed digital system,” he notes, “because the rules and processes are built into the platform itself.”
"In Lebanon, e-governance has become an increasingly urgent necessity. Operational inefficiencies, limited human capacity, and fragmented bureaucratic processes often frustrate citizens and slow down government services," he added.
Hallab believes that by gradually implementing e-governance, ministries can interlink their systems, reduce corruption, and improve overall efficiency.
He also emphasizes that cybersecurity and privacy by design must be foundational to any digital governance platform. Sensitive data should be accessible only to the intended institution, and political participation systems should remain neutral and impartial, ensuring trust and integrity throughout the process.
