As part of the "Future Partnerships" initiative, the UAE Government Development and the Future Office, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) launched the "Driving Data for Good" initiative, to optimise decision-making and design initiatives that would enhance the UAE's future-readiness.
The initiative aims to employ Big Data in supporting government efforts for designing initiatives, projects and services capable of realising the people’s aspirations and assessing their impact on social wellbeing.
Through its programme, Meta presents multiple innovative tools and offers real-time aggregate public data related to various sectors such as traffic, demographics, social media use, start-up distribution, among others. The provided data will not be categorised as personal or private to ensure individuals’ privacy.
Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and the Future, stated that the initiative reflects the government's role as a platform for building and promoting innovative partnerships with various actors to shape the future. It further reflects the UAE’s approach to concluding partnerships with mega players worldwide, thus enhancing the efforts of shaping the future and developing the government work ecosystem using state-of-the-art tools and solutions.
"Big Data is an essential tool for governments to build a better future and enhance future-readiness. It presents vital indicators highlighting social trends and defining people’s aspirations towards the services and projects that contribute to enhancing their wellbeing," she added. The UAE government is keen to adopt this technological tool to better serve society, while securing individual privacy in the digital world, she noted.
Al Roumi stressed that the partnership with Meta comes within an innovative project to support policy-making, services and projects design, and impact assessment, using their tools and in partnership with the FCSC. The new initiative is expected to promote the quality of government decisions, enhance the effectiveness of government policies, and drive innovation in designing initiatives that improve future readiness, raise performance efficiency and positively affect society.
"Creativity, collaboration and a human-centric approach sit at the heart of the government entities’ approach to the application of Big Data in government programmes and initiatives. The UAE is responding to advances and transformations through a proactive approach and key public-private collaborations," said Hanan Ahli, Acting Managing Director of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre.
"Through this collaborative partnership with Meta and its efforts, I strongly believe we can drive progress, ignite social change, and accelerate the implementation of the nation’s digital transformation. We can support the fulfilment of the sustainable development goals and realise our leadership’s vision in the UAE becoming one of the best countries in the world by 2071," added Ahli Azzam Alameddin, Public Policy Director, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey at Meta.
"We are truly excited to be embarking on this strategic partnership to expand Meta’s Data for Good in the UAE and help grow the academic and research ecosystem in support of the national agenda of the ‘Projects of the 50’," he added.
News Source: Emirates News Agency
