A Civil Service Ready for the Future

__This article is written by Ohood Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and the Future, United Arab Emirates __

Last week, the United Nations observed the 21st Public Service Day recognising the more than 500 million individuals who make up the public sector globally.

Public service has always been at the heart of modern society, but since the Covid-19 pandemic, it has played an even more critical role. Overnight, public service leaders all over the world had to step up like never before. They found themselves having to make unprecedented decisions and take historical actions in what was unchartered territory.

And today, the world continues to witness major turmoil. Our global society faces complex challenges such as inflation, economic recovery, and climate change. Alongside these challenges, however, we are presented with ample opportunities, driven by technology and automation that is revolutionising the way we live and work. The future is upon us. A complex and exciting future that requires a new form of civil service. As we undertake ambitious projects and increasingly engage with citizens in a digital world, we must foster the right experience for our public servants and build their technical and data skills. And we must nurture sophisticated and flexible relationships with the private sector and beyond. In the UAE, the Covid-19 pandemic was a ‘stress test’ that pushed our civil service to rise to new levels of collaboration and citizen-centric policies. In the process, we learned a lot of lessons and gained valuable experience that will allow us to anticipate and shape a better tomorrow, to be “future-readier.’

We are proud of the resilience our government demonstrated. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the UAE was the top-ranked Arab country and 23rd globally on the Future Readiness Index. And in 2022, it ranked 1st regionally and 12th globally on the World Competitiveness Index. This is reflected in citizens' confidence in the government, where the UAE ranked 2nd globally on the Edelman Trust Index.

These achievements would not have been possible without the power of connection. From the centre of the UAE government to civil society, the private sector and to the frontlines, the pandemic accelerated global collaboration.

And at the heart of this global collaboration is the forging of strong partnerships. It is in strong partnerships that our resilience as a nation thrived. And it is in this resilience that we are not just building back better, but we are building for a networked future based on collaboration and sharing. This is not new to the UAE, a nation born in the spirit of partnership and unity.

This spirit underlies this year’s theme for UN Public Service Day, revolving around SDG 17, which emphasises the importance of global partnerships for sustainable development.

In this same spirit, we hosted a 6-month World Expo of unprecedented scale and impact with 200+ participating countries and organisations and 24 million visitors amid a pandemic.

The very same spirit that sees the nation run a successful Government Experience Exchange Program, a knowledge-sharing platform for government development and modernisation with over 18 countries in 45 areas of collaboration.

At the centre of our efforts is our annual World Government Summit which is dedicated to shaping the future of governments and where we expand our circle of knowledge through partnerships with experts, specialists, pioneers of the private sector, and global research centres.

The Summit is a platform that is true to our values as a government. In 2022, we hosted our 8th iteration under the theme ‘Shaping Future Governments’, where we engaged over 25,000 attendees through almost 1000 sessions and workshops and witnessed the signature of over 80 bilateral agreements.

Globally, the current era is defined by the interplay of complex disruptions, some that will provide us with extraordinary opportunities and others that will challenge us.

These disruptions cannot be tackled alone. They require new thinking and global collaboration. Public service leaders have a responsibility to strengthen the binding power and critical partnerships we developed in our shared crisis.

It is fitting that this year, we celebrate partnerships and aim to grow the global network and impact on improving people’s lives.

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(Image Credit: Unsplash)