His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Crisis and Disaster Management in Dubai, laid that efficiently successful management of Covid-19 pandemic crisis originates from dealing it with strong foundation of a scientific methodology, which ensured the adaptation to changing variables and increased flexibility in curbing the repercussions. This was in accordance to the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai and ordinances of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council. The objective was to explore the opportunities available and gain from best methods and practices. His Highness further said that it is necessary to derive innovative techniques to face the challenges of coronavirus pandemic.

“The continuous evaluation of the current situation and finding possible solutions is our way to deal with the crisis, and we have been able to adapt our plans flexibly and smoothly to keep pace with the needs, and this has strengthened the firm foundation for distinguished government management which involves studying and exploring best practices and then adopting them and harnessing them to meet our needs”, said His Highness.

His Highness said this during his evaluation on learning project outputs from adapting best international methods and practices for managing the coronavirus pandemic crisis. The project was launched by Dubai Government Excellence Program with objective of supporting and aiding Dubai government and Supreme Committee for Crisis and Disaster Management. It incorporates 5 prime axes – crisis management, health system, food security supply chain, economic recovery, and community behaviors.

Crisis Management

The project team adopted various ideas to increase Dubai’s preparedness in crisis dealing. The aim was to make plans more flexible and apt for all conditions and scenarios, while ensuring proactivity, clarity and speed in extending guidance and updates.

Health System

The team kept the focus on reinforcing research capabilities, specifically in relation to Covid-19 at a national level, for identification of ethnic groups and their relation to diseases, spread and severity, and to offer accurate scientific data that will be beneficially contributing to all the teams working at different levels.

Food Security and Supply Chain

In relation to food security and supply chain, the team first studies and analyzed current condition. The aim was to identify all the contributions and then elevate technology application for enhancing food supply chain. Use of technology and data was also used for working on sustainability of food supply and reaching food security.

Economic Recovery

The importance of relying on techniques related to artificial intelligence was emphasized by the team in this axis. The objective was to offer advice and support to small and medium sized companies to enable investors and individuals participation, stimulating a system development in support jobs sectors and thus enhancing general income of the emirate.

Community Behavior

The team at Community Behavior Hub worked on evaluating various sub-axes like remote working, distance learning, consumer buying behavior, social divergence procedures application maintaining and health procedures, new societal opportunities and personal welfare. The objective was to promote preserving practices related to social divergence.

Project team also laid importance of using artificial intelligence to track future global trends and process to facilitate the planning and supporting decision making in fields of crisis management, while supporting renewable processes, building capacities and monitoring developments.

At conclusion of meeting, His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed lauded the efforts of project team and the role of Dubai Government Excellence Program for improving government entities in Dubai. His Highness also appreciated the quick response program team extended while adopting to changes in their working environment and achieving leadership in guiding the readiness of country at time of crisis. H.H. also urged the program to continue their work on this project while expanding the scope to learning leading global practices in all sectors.

The project includes offering a well organized and structured approach to help in decision making for rapid actions and gains on basis of the best available information. Project team includes 28 employees from 11 government agencies in Dubai, having experience in institutional learning and benchmarking trained employees through “in Dubai we learn” initiative. The project duration was six weeks that had remote meetings with over 76 representatives from 66 government agencies, semi-government and private sector to discuss challenges and priorities of managing pandemic. Team also reviewed over 200 global methods in this sector being practices in more than 50 countries. This was achieved by preparing a report on project outputs that would be delivered to concerned Dubai government authorities. This would help these authorities to imbibe the practices to benefit in management of Covid-19 pandemic crisis, and ensure their readiness for any future crisis.