United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Dubai is one of the seven states that constitute the United Arab Emirates UAE which is a country, member in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the League of Arab States, and the United Nations. Dubai has a local government that provides public services to people living in Dubai in cooperation with the federal government of UAE.

Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP) is an integrated comprehensive initiative that was launched in 1997 in The Executive Council, Government of Dubai under the auspices of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai. The mission of the program is “To attain international levels of excellence in government performance in Dubai”. The program has several initiatives that have been successfully implemented in Dubai government departments promoting the principles of excellence, creativity and quality, installing the best administrative and professional practices and implementing the most advanced and effective working methods. Among these initiatives is the Government Excellence Award which has 14 categories such as the distinguished government department, the distinguished government employee, the distinguished team, and the distinguished project… etc.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Since its inception DGEP is playing a major role in fostering and engraving the culture of excellence among all the Governmental entities in Dubai and acts as a role model program in the Arab World…causing a dramatic and tangible change in the government culture. DGEP provides comprehensive international framework for excellence in government performance as will as providing guidance and support for the departments during implementation and conducting training sessions & seminars on the topic of excellence. DGEP managed several periodic assessments by independent assessors trained by the program, establishing by that a pool of qualified assessors in the Arab World. DGEP took the lead to be the first program in the Middle East that start conducting period customers and employees satisfaction surveys for all the governmental entities in Dubai, moreover conducting periodic mystery shopping program in the government. The role of DGEP is not restricted to what was mentioned, since DGEP is acting as an incubator for several distinguished programs aiming at developing the governmental entities in Dubai; such as; Dubai Government Customer Complaints System, Dubai Knowledge Exchange Teams, Dubai Institute for Human Resources Dubai Development, Dubai Government Performance Management Program (KPI’s), Dubai Program for Building Dubai Government HR Excellence, Dubai Government Excellence Service Program and Integrity (to be launched soon)….etc. All the A/M projects have influence the performance of the governmental departments and enforce the culture of being a customer focused government, which in turn provide better, more reliable, more efficient and effective public services All the A/M projects have influence different aspects of the performance of the governmental departments, resulting in adopting various distinguished performance excellence programs & systems related to customers’ relationship management, such as customers identification systems, customers’ need assessment systems, customers’ complaints management systems, customers satisfaction systems, customers’ communication systems, e-government services (72% of the governmental services are electronically based) which in turn provide better, more reliable, more efficient and effective public services

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
 1997: Launching Dubai Government Excellence Program DGEP  1997: Start conducting training courses and conferences on the topics of customer relationship management systems and performance excellence  1998: Launching Dubai Government Customer Satisfaction Surveys Program  1998: Launching Dubai Government Mystery Shopper Program  1999: launching Dubai E-Government  2001: Modifying and updating the DGEP system  2001: Launching Mohammad Bin Rashid AL Maktoum Award for Arab Management  2001: Launching Dubai Government Knowledge Exchange Teams  2003: Launching Dubai Government Employees Satisfaction Surveys Program  2003: Dubai Government Performance Management Program (KPI’s)  2006: Dubai Government Customer complaints System  2006: Launching Dubai Community Opinion Pull initiative

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The need to focus on the following issues constitutes the background for all DGEP A/M initiatives:  Being a pioneer city in governmental excellence and customers’ services  Customer focused government in Dubai  Exchange of knowledge and best practices in the area of customer relationship management  Continual improvement in the government towards providing better customer services  To Enhance transparency, accountability and integrity in the government  Motivated, satisfied, well trained and qualified employees in the government to provide better services to customers  Clear strategies in line with Dubai’s Vision

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Priorities: The projects directly related to customers were given the highest priority; where the projects based on their needs and aiming at measuring and increasing their satisfaction are given the highest priority; such as Dubai Government Customer Complaints System, Dubai Government Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Dubai Government Mystery shopper Program, Dubai Community Opinion Pull, E-government Services …etc) Purposes: Dubai Government Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Measuring the customers’ satisfaction level in Dubai government by conducting periodic independent surveys for customers of the governmental departments of Dubai. The department with the highest customer satisfaction index is awarded in the DGEP ceremony Dubai Government Mystery Shopper Program: Verification of the excellence performance results in the governmental departments of Dubai and using the results for continuous improvements Dubai Government Customer Complaints System: Establishing a comprehensive e-complaints system for all Governmental Departments of Dubai in accordance to the international best practices Dubai Government Knowledge Exchange Teams: Conducting periodic seminars and workshops for exchanging best practices in the area of customer relationship management within the governmental departments Dubai Community Opinion Pull: Measuring the public satisfaction of the general public with the services obtained from Dubai Governmental Departments, through distributing self completion paper questionnaire in Dubai Newspaper and conducting several interviews with public in addition to posting questionnaires on the website. Dubai Government Employees Satisfaction Surveys: Measuring the employee’s satisfaction level in Dubai government by conducting periodic independent surveys for all the governmental departments of Dubai. The department with the highest employee satisfaction index is awarded in the DGEP ceremony Dubai Institute for Human Resources Development: Conducting extensive training courses on the topics of institutional performance excellence and customer relationship management for government employees, in addition to several performance excellence conferences Dubai Program for Building HR Excellence: Providing a group of integrated standards that define the requirements and the framework for achieving continuous HR excellence performance, thus improving the governmental services provided to customers

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
 Preparing frameworks for excellence in government performance that leaves room for diversified nature of work in each department  Training and qualifying Human Resource in government  Utilizing the state of the art in technology and IT  Exchanging the knowledge with governmental departments  Adopting international best practices in performance excellence

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
 Improving the image of Dubai City  Dramatic transformation in the government culture toward adopting the concept of customer delighting  Increasing the customer satisfaction index (70% is the current CSI)  Increasing the number of electronically based services (72% of the governmental services in Dubai are electronically based)  Improving the governmental department working environment  Becoming a role model for governments in the region

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
All the developed systems in DGEP are electronically and physically documented in the form of systems, manuals, books, and letters which are all installed/disseminated to all government departments. The program also enhances the applicability of its models and systems through comprehensive and regular formal training sessions organized for all government employees. In the design stage of any model or system that is intended to be implemented by the governments departments, representatives from these departments are invited for series of workshops with the aim of assuring their ownership and commitment. It is also a common practice in DGEP to acquire inputs to the model’s development from best practices and benchmarks to assure applicability and verification of the developed models and systems. All models and systems developed by DGEP are subject to periodic assessments and reviews aiming at continuous improvements and updates. The program also provide advise and guidance for all government departments when they request a help in the implementation phase of any of DGEP models. The program organizes regular knowledge sharing forums where members from the government departments participate to share their best practices in implementation of DGEP models and systems. Moreover, sustainability of the DGEP initiatives is assured through the commitment and involvement of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai in all DGEP activities and initiatives. This involvement has a major contribution to sustainable implementation of the models and systems.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Leadership and total Commitment is crucial for successful implementation of the excellence model. Government departments with strong and visionary leaders normally achieved better scores in the award assessment and customer satisfaction surveys than the others. To create shift in the mind set from the traditional public sector employee to the quality and customer oriented employee was a challenge that took a lot of effort to achieve through intensive training, several work shops, and hundreds of one to one meetings. Based on that experience it would have helped if a national-wide media campaign was also launched to help in changing the culture. Also this would help in assuring cascading the culture of excellence to all organizational level. Another difficulty that is faced in the excellence award program is the focus on the application process rather than the implementation process. Some government departments dedicate more efforts in writing the application than the efforts dedicated to the implementation of the excellence model it self. In the beginning of DGEP journey some of the government departments were hesitant to share practices and knowledge with other department. This led to the formation of “islands of excellence”. As a counter action, DGEP gave more attention and focus to criterions of partnership and knowledge management during assessment to encourage departments to go into partnerships which achieve great benefits for customers. Lack of qualified personnel in the government departments was another difficulty that hindered progress towards achieving excellence. DGEP succeeded to overcome this through:  Development of effective HR system  Focus on transparency and accountability in the system  Training and development of people  Motivation scheme


Institution Name:		Dubai Government Excellence Department
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Ahmad Nuseirat
Title:		Coordinator General
Telephone/ Fax:		0097143189215
Institution's / Project's Website:		0097143303094
E-mail:		nuseirat@teo.ae
Address:		Emirates Tower, level 43
Postal Code:		00971
City:		Dubai
State/Province:		Dubai
Country:		United Arab Emirates

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information