Dubai: Under the directives of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, the Dubai Government Excellence Program hosted the signing of the Global Excellence Council’s Declaration of Principles.
Dubai is the first city in the Middle East to host the meeting of the Global Excellence Council, which has previously met in cities such as Brussels, Tokyo, Sydney, Washington, Sao Paulo, and Singapore.
The signing of the Declaration was attended by Abdulla Mohammed Al Basti, Secretary General of the Executive Council of Dubai, and Chairman of the Dubai Government Excellence Program. He was joined by the founding members of the Global Excellence Council, representing the African Excellence Forum; Business Excellence Australia; Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, USA; China Association for Quality; Confederation of Indian Industry; Dubai Government Excellence Program; European Foundation for Quality Management; Instituto para el Fomento à la Calidad Total, Mexico; Japan Quality Award; Malaysia Productivity Corporation; FUNDIBEQ, Iberian peninsula and Latin America; and Fundação Nacional da Qualidade, Brazil
Joint events
The Global Excellence Council, which includes 12 founding members from five continents, aims to define and promote a culture of excellence to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of organisations across the globe. The first initiative of its kind, the Council will work to conduct joint events and activities in the field of quality and performance excellence in cooperation with international partners. It will also highlight international best practices in the management of quality and excellence accreditation, evaluate the most effective management practices, consolidate the foundations and principles of excellence, and stimulate the adoption of excellence models.
Commenting on the importance of the signing, Al Basti said: “The signing of the Declaration is in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to establish a culture of excellence in government and institutional work. It also forms part of implementing the directives of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, to provide an organised institutional framework for government development globally, to promote excellence and ensure high-quality service delivery. This announcement constitutes a promising new phase of joint international actions to recognise and amplify the world’s leading practices and experiences in the field of government excellence — starting with those demonstrated by Dubai.
He added: “Dubai has created a global model for government excellence over the past 25 years, and its success has established new international benchmarks. Today, it is sharing best practices in the field of excellence through the Dubai Government Excellence Program, thanks to the leadership’s clear strategic vision to enhance quality in all fields.”
The Best Government Practices Series
The Best Government Practices Series, organised by the Dubai Government Excellence Program, was relaunched on Tuesday, with the participation of heads and representatives of government entities in Dubai and members of the Global Excellence Council.
Al Basti said: “As we celebrate the silver jubilee of the establishment of the Dubai Government Excellence Program, Dubai has succeeded in consolidating its position as a global hub for excellence and government innovation. The Dubai Government Excellence Program has played a vital role in achieving this status through its programmes, initiatives, and specialised events. Besides, we have successfully evaluated and enhanced the performance of 32 government entities. We have helped improve the level of customer and employee happiness by nearly 30% and provided more than 1,500 training hours, apart from evaluating more than 5,000 government employees, and honouring over 1,000 winners across various initiatives.”
The first day witnessed panel discussions that shed light on global experiences of building excellence and demonstrating leadership.
Consolidating excelllence
Lieutenant General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, participated in a session titled “The Role of Excellence in Achieving Leadership”, during which he said the UAE is a country that constantly strives to enhance quality in all fields, and Dubai’s achievements over the past years have directly contributed to consolidating excellence and leadership in government work, placing the emirate among the world’s most developed cities and ranking it high globally in various development indicators.
He added: “The culture of excellence was established by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to raise people’s comfort, security, and well-being. This has always been the fundamental rule that inspires all government entities to achieve the highest excellence.”
Another session titled “Modern Global Trends for Excellence”, hosted members of the Global Excellence Council, including Russell Long Muir, CEO of European Foundation for Quality Management; Krishnan Parayil Mana, Principal Counsellor and Head of Business Excellence at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); Matome Modipa, Chairman of African Excellence Forum (AEF) — South Africa. Moderated by Dr. Hazza Khalfan Al Nuaimi, Coordinator General of Dubai Government Excellence Program, the session reviewed government excellence best practices based on the concepts of total quality, and ways to develop the performance of work teams to produce a creative generation capable of thriving in the future.
Dubai Government Elite
The closing session, titled “Dubai Government Elite”, which shed light on government best practices, featured the participation of Brigadier Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Al Mualla, Director of the General Department of Excellence and Pioneering, Dubai Police; Waleed Salman, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Excellence, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority; Ahmed Behrozyan, Chief Executive Officer of The Public Transport Agency at the Road and Transport Authority; and Juma Al Ghaith, Executive Director of Customs Development at Dubai Customs. The session was moderated by Amal Salem from Dubai Media Incorporated.
The session discussed the journey of government departments in Dubai towards excellence, driven by efforts to anticipate the future, enhance government readiness and flexibility, invest in human resources, build the capabilities of national cadres, and empower them with the tools and skills necessary to participate in the development of frameworks and practices, which will enhance the development process and enhance the leadership of the state and its global competitiveness.
Raise excellence
The Best Government Practices Series aims to foster exchange of knowledge and best-in-class experiences among government entities in Dubai to promote exemplary leadership in government performance, and present best practices in the field of performance management. Over the course of two days, the participants will review their government experiences and international best practices in line with the future directions of Dubai government to support efforts to raise excellence and government performance.
Dr. Hazza Khalfan Al Nuaimi, Coordinator General of Dubai Government Excellence Program, said: “Since its establishment 25 years ago, the Program has enjoyed continuous development. We were a founding member of the Global Excellence Council in 2018 and have witnessed comprehensive progress in the levels and mechanisms of evaluation and recognition, and introduced a series of improvements to work systems and initiatives aimed at enhancing the added value of the programme. In signing the Declaration, we renew our commitment to share Dubai’s world-class expertise in the field of excellence with our partners.”
