Questions/Answers

Despite the global movement for gender equality, portrayed in visions such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), even advanced countries still lack a proper integration of women and youth in government service delivery and decision-making. This issue is particularly faced in policing institutions where male dominance is widespread, and is attributed to the sensitive and harsh working environment of the police forces. In 2016, Dubai Police developed and launched its Women Empowerment and Social Inclusion Strategy for policing institutions, which aims to integrate women and youth to enhance police services and provide the highest level of safety and security to the community. It entails 50% of women employment in top management, administration and field assignments by 2021, with equal pay as men. To activate this strategy, Dubai Police launched its “She is on a Mission to Deliver for the SDGs”, an initiative that adopts current technological resources to advance service delivery by women and to women. It develops the capacity of women and youth to operate in four different roles: the creators, the leaders, the supporters and the connectors, to achieve community happiness and well-being.

The Women Empowerment and Social Inclusion Strategy is the main driver for promoting gender responsive services in the areas of peace and security to achieve the SDGs. As it caters for empowering women and youth, the initiative sets ground rules to achieve a minimum of 50% of women recruitment in leadership roles, and provides a framework to build 100% of all women and youth capacity and skills to innovate in all fields of building peace, safety and security. This includes areas such as criminal investigation, community happiness and well-being, roads and traffic administration, management and operations among other activities.

The initiative caters to achieve sustainable lifestyles and reduce inequalities, adopt and implement human rights and gender equality principles, promote a culture of peace, justice and non-violence and develop a strong institution that contributes to the realization of these SDGs. The main driver to successfully achieve this agenda utilizes a robust quality education framework that relies on community involvement and creation of partnerships with public and private entities to build capacity and ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development within Dubai Police and hand-in-hand with the community of Dubai.

Within the context of the region, women were brought up with the societal belief that their jobs begin and end at home, especially as housewives, while men are brought up with the conviction of being the financial providers. This cultural pressure has resulted in a lack of society’s confidence in women’s potential, and lack of women’s confidence in themselves to step into the working field and grow into leadership positions. Government support, portrayed in initiatives that promotes women empowerment is vital to overcome this challenge. This is where the initiative’s contribution can be sensed, as it provides the tools and environment to raise women and the society’s awareness of the many rights they have in the workplace, including access to equal rights to training, education, and career development opportunities to serve their communities. The effective implementation of the strategy is notable in the increase of women in the police force, representing over 12% of 24,000+ employees in Dubai Police. Marked contributions of women in the organization includes devising a special Personal Protection Unit led by female employees and the development of Dubai Police Happiness Charter by the world’s first female Chief Happiness Officer in a police force.

Women Police officers have been presented with the opportunity to uphold discipline and selfless service, as well as be ambassadors of women empowerment and gender equality. Dubai Police places the UAE as the first country in the region to launch and deploy a women empowerment strategy in a police force. The strategy is set to enhance women’s voice in decision-making, leadership and peace-building, promoting women’s economic empowerment, and ending violence against women and girls. The initiatives developed to activate the strategy bring together female Police officers to provide solutions to issues affecting them in their day-to-day duties.

The strategy is one of a kind in the United Arab Emirates Police Forces and the neighboring region. It has been developed in accordance with local mandates such as the UAE Vision 2021 and Dubai Plan 2021. Furthermore, it basis its goals and key performance indicators on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. All the projects under the “She is on a Mission to Deliver” cater for feeding the local and international visions, missions and mandates. As it is an original strategy in the region, it continues to receive feedback for improvements from the general society members.

As it promotes women participation and leadership in many contexts within government services, many government organizations can benefit from this initiative. The strategy is well-adopted using online platforms that allow female employees and community members to report on their issues and feedback with regards to the organization’s services. The UAE Gender Balance Council and Smart Dubai have utilized the strategy to promote women empowerment from within in their respective organizations. The UAE Ministry of Interior, the mother of all police forces in the UAE, has set the strategy as a benchmark for all police forces in the UAE to follow.

The development of the concept of the strategy required the formation of a team within the force. Members of the team were comprised from different Dubai Police departments and councils including the Youth Council, the Women Leadership Council, the Community Happiness Department, the Human Resources Department, and members from the top management office. Investments in recruiting and developing women in leadership roles have surpassed AED 234 Millions in one year alone, and continues to increase, maintaining equal rights of pay and development as those granted for men.

Women Police officers have been empowered to uphold discipline and selfless service, as well as be ambassadors of women empowerment and gender equality. Their participation in decision making process has increased, with 40% women representation in strategic planning, decision-making councils and top management roles. Today, women represent over 12% of the entire workforce. In its pursuit to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and equal pay for work of equal value, in 2017 only, female wages amounted to a total of nearly AED 234 Million, and continues to rise, as the force plans to increase women representation by 50% in 2021. They assume numerous positions in leadership, field and administrative work. The force witnessed the first female Chief Happiness Officer in a police force in the region, and its recruitment of women in specialized environmental work has resulted in significant reductions in the force’s carbon footprint through the development and deployment of the Dubai Police Zero Carbon Footprint Strategy.

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The initiative is evaluated on yearly basis during the performance review period and in-line with the global sustainability reporting evaluation metrics of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The evaluation entails measuring and comparing the progress and effectiveness of the planned activities with the actual activities. It also requires a verification of the use of resources (human, financial, technological) to achieve the targets and a measure of the opportunity costs and benefits to the organization. The satisfaction rates and feedback of the employees and the community are measured using surveys and the results are reported in the annual sustainability report publication.

Any initiative established in Dubai Police must serve the core business of the organization: the provision of peace, safety and security to the community. The success of this initiative is measured based on its contribution to fulfill the core business mission and vision to achieve sustainable development. Indicators used include the initiatives ability to reduce inequality by adopting and strengthening frameworks and eliminating discriminatory practices to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, and achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, and equal pay for work of equal value.

In the span of two years, women representation in the force exceeded the planned target of 25% by 2018, as women currently represent 40% in leadership roles and decision-making councils. Overall, the initiative deemed effective as the investments of the organization is successfully portrayed in the numerous roles women currently assume. The initiative produced many leading practices including developing a special protection unit operated by females, and the development of expert female officers in forensic science and criminal investigation units. Happiness studies show a happiness rate of nearly 95% in two consecutive years.

The Women Empowerment and Social Inclusion Strategy was developed with the support of the various members of the police force as well as external community members. Internal stakeholders include top management, human resources representatives, women council representatives, and core operation representatives. Main external stakeholders include the Gender Balance Council, the UAE Ministry of Interior, and the community of Dubai. At the designing stage, internal stakeholders were gathered in planned brainstorming and project planning sessions to develop the strategy. Pre-implementation, stakeholder consultation sessions took place to gather insights from the community on their needs and requirements. Meetings with external stakeholders took place during the development of the strategy and throughout the implementation stage to advise and recommend on improvement measures. Post implementation an expert committee on sustainable development reviews the outcomes of the initiative and its contribution to achieving the SDGs on a local level. Through surveys, satisfaction rates are recorded throughout for both the internal and external community, and the results are published transparently in the organization’s sustainability reports.

The biggest lesson learnt is the importance of society inclusion in the planning and decision-making processes. The best way to perform our services would be to use the appropriate channels to identify the community needs. A difficult challenge faced was changing the mindset of those opposing women empowerment for cultural purposes. Showcasing the local, national and international calls and mandates that support women empowerment through festivals, conferences and leadership meetings was key to bridge this challenge. Future work includes developing a public e-learning platform to strengthen the knowledge on gender equality and prevent inequalities to support the SDGs.