GOVASSIST-RDC: Design, Instantiation and Analytical Demonstration of an Inclusion-Oriented Retrieval-Augmented Architecture for Digital Public-Service Access Under Connectivity Constraints

Vollständiger Abstract

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Background: In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), access to digital public services is constrained by fragmented administrative information, uneven digital infrastructure, heterogeneous interfaces, and unequal access to reliable connectivity. Policy evidence indicates that universal digital access, digital public infrastructure, and digital skills remain foundations that require consolidation.  Objective: This study designs and instantiates GOVASSIST-RDC, a mediation architecture through which citizens can search by administrative need, receive answers accompanied by identifiable public sources, and reach a human channel when automation is insufficient.  Method: Following Design Science Research, the study connects documentary problem analysis, requirements engineering, architectural design, instantiation, and analytical demonstration. Evaluation is anchored in FEDS through artificial, predominantly formative episodes that inspect requirement coverage, architectural traceability, and visible component instantiation while excluding unmeasured effectiveness claims.  Results: The documented architecture integrates a RAG-oriented assistance layer together with a centralized service catalogue, intent-oriented retrieval, visible provenance, human escalation, content administration, and analytics. Four requirements are visibly instantiated, three remain specified or technically unverified, and one has mixed evidence. Seven design principles are derived: intent-based access, visible provenance, safe abstention, human–AI continuity, inclusion by design, non-substitutive interoperability, and governed traceability.  Contribution: The article defines administrative mediation as a non-adjudicative sociotechnical capability that translates citizenexpressed needs into discoverable services while preserving authority attribution, documentary inspectability, safe nonanswer, and human continuity. It contributes a documented prototype, a reference architecture, a formal model, seven derived design principles, boundary conditions, and testable propositions without conflating interface evidence with backend execution or public-service outcomes.