Government Summit underlines role of innovation and public ...workspace.unpan.org/sites/Internet/Documents/Government Summit... · PARTICIPATION IN ENHANCING SERVICE EFFICIENCY

GOVERNMENT SUMMITUNDERLINES ROLE OFINNOVATION AND PUBLICPARTICIPATION INENHANCING SERVICEEFFICIENCYUPI 2/12/2013 7:35:12 PM

Dubai, 12 Feb. 2013 (WAM) - The Government Summit, the first of its kind regionalinitiative, concluded in Dubai on Tuesday, underlining the definitive role that customer-centric innovation, an active engagement of the public in problem-solving, andpartnerships with the private sector have in strengthening the efficiency of governmentservice delivery.

In addition to a ministerial roundtable that presented the success stories of the region'sgovernment service models, the concluding day of the Summit featured severalknowledge-sharing workshops, in line with the mandate of the event to promote theexchange of best practices in government service delivery.

Three sessions were held that highlighted the UAE's experience in providing governmentservices, apart from special workshops on the UN Public Service Awards, and sector-specific overviews of the UAE's healthcare, youth, education '&' employment, governmentexcellence programmes, the private sector's role in customer service delivery and socialentrepreneurship.

The workshop on UAE's Government Excellence Programmes was addressed by Ahmed AlNusairat, Coordinator General, Dubai Government Excellence Programme; HessaBuhmaid, Coordinator General, Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Programme; Yasser Al Naqbi,Coordinator General, Abu Dhabi Government Excellence Programme; MohammadAbdullatif 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 ChiefExecutive Officer of the Dubai Financial Market and Director of Nasdaq Dubai, theinteractive session discussed the development of structured modalities that improvegovernmental effectiveness.

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Ahmed Al Nusairat said that Dubai Government was the first globally to introduce aprogramme for government excellence, as well as a Ã‾ØŸÂ½mystery shopper,'Ã‾ØŸÂ½customer satisfaction' and Ã‾ØŸÂ½employee satisfaction' programmes toevaluate government services. "People talk about the need for governments to learn fromthe private sector; here in Dubai, we tell the private sector to learn from the experiencesof our government." The United Nations Public Service Award workshop onÃ‾ØŸÂ½Innovation in Regulatory Reform and Administrative Simplification for EffectiveService Delivery,' underlined the importance of involving the public in innovativeapproaches to further strengthen government service efficiencies.

The workshop, moderated by Colonel Aziz Al Ameri, Director of Strategy andPerformance Development, Ministry of Interior, discussed the UN Public Service Award-winning initiatives of Mexico and The Netherlands, both of which had focused onengaging with the customers directly to address the challenges in government servicedelivery.

Colonel Al Ameri cited the experience of the UAE in promoting government sectorefficiencies through the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Programme, wherebyvarious ministries share their collective expertise and knowledge to further enhance thequality of overall government service delivery.

Jose Manuel Sucre Ciffoni, Programme Manager of the Latin American and East EuropeProgramme of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management(DPADM), Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, whoparticipated in the proceedings, said the Public Service Awards aim at sharing theexperience of various countries for potentially replicating it in other regions. He said thatthe Awards promote a culture of excellence, and urged the creation of a Public ServicesAward chapter for the Arab region with the support of the UN.

Uriel Marquez Carrazco, Former Secretary for Civil Service, Mexico, presented a detailedoverview 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 thefocus of the improvements was to involve the public, through a review of the governmentprocedures with the active participation of civil society organisations, academicians andthe media.

"To innovate and improve public service delivery, it is important to have a Ã‾ØŸÂ½wholegovernment approach' that covers every government office and its database, building itaround the needs of the citizens," he explained.

Rosalie Brasz, Director, The Informal Pro-active Approach Knowledge Center, Ministry ofthe Interior and Kingdom Relations, The Netherlands, presented the country's UN PublicService Award-winning approach that focused on an Ã‾ØŸÂ½informal proactive method'to encourage direct communications between government officials and the public toaddress their problems.

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Explaining that one of the key challenges before the Ministry was to address the largenumber of appeals related to government procedures, she said the approach was to createa direct line of contact between the government official and the customer throughtelephone calls. "This resulted in giving a face to the government satisfying the humandesire to be heard by public servants about their complaints." At the workshop onÃ‾ØŸÂ½Innovation in Public Governance through Networks and Partnerships,' Dr UlrichGraute, Inter-regional Adviser in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs,observed that having standardised its services, the UAE is heading towards theirindividualisation. He said that country-specific policies are required to achieve effectivedelivery of services in the region.

Dr Hiroichi Kawashima, Special Advisor, Government of Saga, Japan, observed that it isimportant to simplify budget information through collaboration with the private sector tofurther reach out to the citizens. Highlighting the need to promote innovation, he said thedrivers for original thinking are a strong leadership, in-depth public private sectorknowledge sharing and a proactive attitude of the public officials. Kenichirou Yamada,Executive Director, Saga Civil Activities Support Center, Japan, also focused on the needto strengthen alignments between governments and the private sector to create new publicservices, 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 theirobservation that the country stands out for the quality of services provided in the publicsector.

Faisal Al Bannai, CEO of Axiom Telecom, observed that the UAE has demonstrated howefficiencies can be brought to the public sector. He said that while it might not be possibleto apply all the initiatives undertaken by the private sector to develop services in thegovernment sector, "improvements can be achieved through promotions within theorganization, providing adequate training and applying accountability." Osman Sultan,CEO of du, highlighted the need to measure the performance of every employee. "Youcannot deliver what you cannot measure. The incentives for staff members should belinked to performance, as in the private sector. The human element is the most importantfactor in achieving excellence in services." Peter Baumgartner, Chief Commercial Officerof Etihad Airlines, said that customer service has shifted drastically in the past decadefrom "customer relations management to customer managed relations." He said that theimportant factor today in service delivery is empowering the customers, which is relevantfor both the public and private sectors, and that excellence must be benchmarked beyondthe area of activity or industry to achieve the fullest potential. "Technology is only anenabler of good service; excellence in service can only be achieved by putting customers atthe core than by focusing on technology." Covering the gamut of government servicesrelated functions, The Government Summit also discussed the power of social innovation,which is gaining considerable traction as a fast-growing sector that fosters public privateengagement.

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