Government Summit underlines role of innovation and public participation in enhancing service efficiency

Dubai, Feb 13, 2013 (WAM) - The Government Summit, the first of its kind regional initiative, concluded in Dubai on Tuesday, underlining the definitive role that customer-centric innovation, an active engagement of the public in problem-solving, and partnerships with the private sector have in strengthening the efficiency of government service delivery. In addition to a ministerial roundtable that presented the success stories of the region's government service models, the concluding day of the Summit featured several knowledge-sharing workshops, in line with the mandate of the event to promote the exchange of best practices in government service delivery. Three sessions were held that highlighted the UAE's experience in providing government services, apart from special workshops on the UN Public Service Awards, and sector-specific overviews of the UAE's healthcare, youth, education '&' employment, government excellence programmes, the private sector's role in customer service delivery and social entrepreneurship. The workshop on UAE's Government Excellence Programmes was addressed by Ahmed Al Nusairat, Coordinator General, Dubai Government Excellence Programme; Hessa Buhmaid, Coordinator General, Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Programme; Yasser Al Naqbi, Coordinator General, Abu Dhabi Government Excellence Programme; Mohammad Abdullatif Khalifa, Director-General of Sheikh Saqr Program for Government Excellence; and Sultan Al Rumaithi, Coordinator General, Ajman Excellence Programme. Moderated by Eisa Kazim, Chairman of Borse Dubai, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai Financial Market and Director of Nasdaq Dubai, the interactive session discussed the development of structured modalities that improve governmental effectiveness. Ahmed Al Nusairat said that Dubai Government was the first globally to introduce a programme for government excellence, as well as a mystery shopper, customer satisfaction' and employee satisfaction programmes to evaluate government services. "People talk about the need for governments to learn from the private sector; here in Dubai, we tell the private sector to learn from the experiences of our government." The United Nations Public Service Award workshop on Innovation in Regulatory Reform and Administrative Simplification for Effective Service Delivery,' underlined the importance of involving the public in innovative approaches to further strengthen government service efficiencies. The workshop, moderated by Colonel Aziz Al Ameri, Director of Strategy and Performance Development, Ministry of Interior, discussed the UN Public Service Award-winning initiatives of Mexico and The Netherlands, both of which had focused on engaging with the customers directly to address the challenges in government service delivery. Colonel Al Ameri cited the experience of the UAE in promoting government sector efficiencies through the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Programme, whereby various ministries share their collective expertise and knowledge to further enhance the quality of overall government service delivery. Jose Manuel Sucre Ciffoni, Programme Manager of the Latin American and East Europe Programme of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM), Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, who participated in the proceedings, said the Public Service Awards aim at sharing the experience of various countries for potentially replicating it in other regions. He said that the Awards promote a culture of excellence, and urged the creation of a Public Services Award chapter for the Arab region with the support of the UN. Uriel Marquez Carrazco, Former Secretary for Civil Service, Mexico, presented a detailed overview of the innovations and improvements in the country's public service delivery, which fetched Mexico six UN Public Service Awards in 2011 and 2012. He added that the focus of the improvements was to involve the public, through a review of the government procedures with the active participation of civil society organisations, academicians and the media. "To innovate and improve public service delivery, it is important to have a whole government approach' that covers every government office and its database, building it around the needs of the citizens," he explained. Rosalie Brasz, Director, The Informal Pro-active Approach Knowledge Center, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, The Netherlands, presented the country's UN Public Service Award-winning approach that focused on an informal proactive method' to encourage direct communications between government officials and the public to address their problems. Explaining that one of the key challenges before the Ministry was to address the large number of appeals related to government procedures, she said the approach was to create a direct line of contact between the government official and the customer through telephone calls. "This resulted in giving a face to the government satisfying the human desire to be heard by public servants about their complaints." At the workshop on Innovation in Public Governance through Networks and Partnerships,' Dr Ulrich Graute, Inter-regional Adviser in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, observed that having standardised its services, the UAE is heading towards their individualisation. He said that country-specific policies are required to achieve effective delivery of services in the region. Dr Hiroichi Kawashima, Special Advisor, Government of Saga, Japan, observed that it is important to simplify budget information through collaboration with the private sector to further reach out to the citizens. Highlighting the need to promote innovation, he said the drivers for original thinking are a strong leadership, in-depth public private sector knowledge sharing and a proactive attitude of the public officials. Kenichirou Yamada, Executive Director, Saga Civil Activities Support Center, Japan, also focused on the need to strengthen alignments between governments and the private sector to create new public services, through the power of innovative ideas. Lessons in private sector engagement in the UAE were shared at a session on customer-centric service delivery, with the participating private sector entities unanimous in their observation that the country stands out for the quality of services provided in the public sector. Faisal Al Bannai, CEO of Axiom Telecom, observed that the UAE has demonstrated how efficiencies can be brought to the public sector. He said that while it might not be possible to apply all the initiatives undertaken by the private sector to develop services in the government sector, "improvements can be achieved through promotions within the organisation, providing adequate training and applying accountability." Osman Sultan, CEO of du, highlighted the need to measure the performance of every employee. "You cannot deliver what you cannot measure. The incentives for staff members should be linked to performance, as in the private sector. The human element is the most important factor in achieving excellence in services." Peter Baumgartner, Chief Commercial Officer of Etihad Airlines, said that customer service has shifted drastically in the past decade from "customer relations management to customer managed relations." He said that the important factor today in service delivery is empowering the customers, which is relevant for both the public and private sectors, and that excellence must be benchmarked beyond the area of activity or industry to achieve the fullest potential. "Technology is only an enabler of good service; excellence in service can only be achieved by putting customers at the core than by focusing on technology." Covering the gamut of government services related functions, The Government Summit also discussed the power of social innovation, which is gaining considerable traction as a fast-growing sector that fosters public private engagement. - Emirates News Agency, WAM