Questions/Answers

In 2010, the government of the UAE launched a comprehensive national strategy based on the ‘UAE’s Vision 2021’, a vision that aims at making the UAE among the best countries in the world by 2021. This strategy includes a set of measurable National Key Performance Indicators (NKPIs) built around six national priorities (world-class healthcare, competitive knowledge economy, safe public and fair judiciary, cohesive society and preserved identity, first rate education system, sustainable environment and infrastructure) linked to the UN SDGs. In 2016’s strategy review, it became apparent that some of the NKPIs were not on track to meet their 2021 targets and that there was a complete misalignment between the traditional ways of working in government versus the visionary future the leadership envisioned for the country and its citizens and residents. A drastic change had to happen which led to the establishment of the Government Accelerators (GA) inspired by incubators and private sector startups. The GA were launched in November 2016 as a platform for cross-sectoral government teams to address challenges that directly impact people’s lives and achieve ambitious goals in short periods of time. The GA aim to disseminate this culture across government entities and to rethink how Government works by introducing a unique model built on accelerated results, increased collaboration and innovation. The GA act as a catalyst engine to accelerate initiatives that are aimed at improving people’s lives by addressing the most pressing challenges the UAE Government and its citizens and residents face. Beside the NKPIs challenges the GA work on accelerating Government services, legislations, and laws. Some of the challenges addressed through the GA include: increasing employment of people with disabilities reducing deaths from road accidents, accelerating resolution of labor workers complaints, empowering and rehabilitating women. The GA allows for collaboration and integration between different Government entities, private sector, NGOs and Academia.

The Government Accelerators is designed to mobilize the entire country. It emphasizes integration, collaboration, and partnership between multiple stakeholders namely, federal and local Government entities, private sector, academia, and NGOs with the purpose of eliminating siloes and driving innovation. It places an important focus on empowering government employees – in particular the front-line to collaborate, take initiative, and deliver sustainable results and impact. Multi-stakeholder Acceleration Teams publicly commit to achieve a common goal and address a high-priority challenge. Acceleration Teams are therefore accountable for the results towards themselves, their entities, and the Prime Minister’s Office.

As an initiative, the Government Accelerators (GA) directly helps develop effective, accountable, and transparent institutions at all levels. GA methodologies are designed to change mindsets and current ways of working within the Government to build more collaborative, transparent, and agile institutions. Leadership of Government entities cede authority to front-line employees and to trust them to solve high-priority challenges. In parallel, front-line employees are requested to provide timely updates and feedback to their leadership to keep them informed. Furthermore, through the various challenges and cohorts, the initiative contributes to achieving several SDGs. Multi-stakeholder Acceleration Teams of front-line employees work in a neutral state-of-the-art space with the support of experienced coaches that nurture their innovation skills. These teams have contributed to: - Zero Hunger and Food Security (2.4): introducing innovative solutions to raise the efficiency of national food production - Gender Equality (5.2, 5.5): supporting women empowerment, leadership, and protection - Good Health (3.1, 3.4, 3.6): reducing maternal mortality rate, death from cancer, and road traffic accidents - Decent Work and Economic Growth (8.2, 8.5): increasing employment of Emiratis in the private sector and to employment of people with disabilities - Climate Action (13): GA's special cohort for setting the road map for UAE net NetZero strategy

The Government Accelerators function with a minimum of financial resources (running cost of the space and its employees) and Acceleration Teams work with no additional budget or resources and solve challenges with the resources available. The mandate of the GA is to address high-priority government challenges that have a direct impact on people’s lives. This allows the initiative to remain relevant to the various Government entities that are struggling in resolving their challenges. In order to expand the reach of the initiative, the GA launched a Diploma for Government entities to learn the principles and methodologies and apply them autonomously.

Each of the challenges that are selected to join the Government Accelerators (GA) must fulfill a set of criteria: (1) initiatives that are highly visible, have high impact on the UAE society, help advance the national agenda which is closely linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, and increase overall Government performance; (2) initiatives that are typically stalled due to limited innovation and experimentation; and (3) initiatives that are typically stalled due to lack of collaboration and alignment between stakeholders. As such, the GA allows to address high-priority challenges that are shared between stakeholders and that are linked to the country’s National Agenda and strategic priorities. In addition, the GA methodology is being shared with a number of countries where currently seven countries are implementing or in the pipeline to implement the methodology. Through the provision of a platform for Government entities to address common high-priority challenges together, siloes between entities and governments were broken and links between employees of various entities were established. This in turn allowed for less bureaucracy, faster achievement of targets, as well as better and more efficient delivery of services.

The initiative’s mandate does not include gender inequality, but it is designed to address high-priority challenges faced by the Government. In this context, a cabinet decision dated Dec 4, 2018 requested the Government Accelerators to support the General Women Union in implementing its Women Empowerment Strategy. A cohort of challenges was launched and focused on protection from abuse, employment (in particular for women with disabilities), provision of post-natal medical services (in particular in remote areas), access to child care, access to financial services, and women in leadership in financial institutions. More details available in Supporting Document #1 – List of Challenges

The Government Accelerators were set-up to address high-priority challenges for the country and its citizens and residents. As such, the initiative indirectly affected the entire UAE population and outputs that were achieved all contribute to improving people’s lives – in particular, Cohort 2 that focused on enhancing the quality of eight government services. In addition to the 1500+ government and private sector employees who benefited from their experience as participants in the various cohorts and diplomas, around 60,000+ people have directly benefited from the impact achieved by the Acceleration Teams. In particular, the initiative has improved outcomes for women, labor workers, and unemployed nationals: • Screened 2,200+ women for breast cancer and raised awareness of the importance of early detection in remote areas, established a shelter to protect women and their families from abuse, provided post-natal medical services in remote areas and raised awareness of the importance of these services • Reduced the time it takes to resolve labor complaints (from 30 to 5 days), launched the green room to resolve complaints on the spot and trained mediators to support in the process • Employed 6,944 job seeking Emiratis across strategic economic sectors, out of which 123 were People with Disabilities

In 2016’s strategy review of the country’s Vision 2021, it became apparent that some of the NKPIs were not on track to meet their 2021 targets. A drastic change had to happen which led to the establishment of the Government Accelerators (GA) inspired by incubators for startups. In October 2016, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) decided to pilot the Rapid Results Approach ® on a first set of targets. Construction of a modular and visible space was also commissioned – the objective of the space is to allow participants to step out of their comfort zone and to provide them with visibility to the senior leadership (the space is located on the ground floor of the PMO). We launched in November 2016, and with the support of the Rapid Results Institute (RRI), we coached 7 teams that achieved impressive results and impact. Building on these results, coaches from the PMO were trained and another cohort of challenges focused on Government Services was launched. In parallel, we adapted the approach to the specific needs of the public sector and developed a proprietary manual on the “100-day Challenge”. This manual includes criteria for selection of challenges and details the main milestones of the journey. In addition, we developed a full-fledged website and built a collaborative IT platform to engage all participants during and after their journey with us. We constantly aim to improve – in five years, we: • Developed three methodologies • Put in place a follow-up mechanism to ensure sustainability of results • Launched and completed two cohorts of Diploma to expand the reach of the GA innovative ways of working to all Government entities • Shared the GA methodology with a number of countries in different Asia, Africa, & Europe. • Are developing an impact assessment framework and applying it on previous cohorts to assess the impact

The Government Accelerators (GA) proved to yield efficient and sustainable results and impact. After two years of operation, the GA started receiving multiple requests from federal and local Government entities to join upcoming cohorts. Yet, many of these requests looked more like pending “to-do lists” rather than high-priority challenges and did not fit the GA selection criteria. In order to cater to these requests, the GA launched an experiential Diploma program to teach its principles and methodologies to Government entities. In addition, the GA started a series of one-day-workshops for Government entities to explain its principles and simulate the 100-day journey.

The Government Accelerators initiative uses the 100-day challenge methodology to bring together relevant stakeholders in a crisis mode to tear away from bureaucracy and achieve a common goal. Through its methodology, the initiative allows to: • eliminate existing siloes between stakeholders • increase integration between these stakeholders • empower front-line employees – who are closest to the challenges – to collaborate, take initiative, and deliver tangible impact and results • provide a safe environment to experiment and learn from failure • instill a “yes, and” mentality to tackle challenges The leading platform Apolitical wrote an article about the initiative (categorized as an Innovative Public Partnership) - https://apolitical.co/solution_article/uae-solves-policy-problems-giving-public-servants-100-day-deadline/

When thinking about how to accelerate the achievement of 2021 targets, the Prime Minister’s Office analyzed different potential solutions that are inspired from the key success factors of start-up accelerators i.e., driving healthy competition, coaching and mentoring, using time-bound methodologies, bringing people together. We then decided to pilot the Rapid Results Approach® on two of the NKPIs (the Air Quality Index Indicator and the Road Traffic Death Rate per 1,000 Population). The leadership saw potential in this methodology and decided to adapt it to the United Arab Emirates and to create the Government Accelerators initiative and the 100-day challenge methodology.

When it comes to integrating emerging and frontier technologies, the GA built a collaborative IT platform to engage all participants during and after their journey with us. With the use of AI technologies, the platform is being developed and improved for better tracking of all the necessary statistical data related to the participants, entities, and more. This allows for better anticipations and selection of challenge identification for the future. In addition, with the spread of COVID 19 pandemic, the GA shifted the workshops virtually where the cohort continued with minimal disturbance and three graduation ceremonies were conducted virtually

The Government Accelerators launched the Diploma to expand its reach to all federal and local entities and allow them to apply the methodology within their entities. Where 81 participants from 41 different entities worked on solving real challenges utilizing the GA methodology. Different federal and local entities have set-up full-fledged Government Accelerators to cater to their internal challenges. On the other hand, a teaching case entitled “You Have 100 Days” was developed for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative (a partnership with Harvard Kennedy School of Government). The case (https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/you-have-one-hundred-days) is taught to mayors and city leaders and aims to inspire them and equip them with the tools to lead high-performing, innovative cities. In addition, the UAE GA has been collaborating with a number of Governments to share the methodology to enable innovation acceleration. Uzbekistan and Jordan have successfully completed three cohorts. As part of this collaboration, the UAE GA has conducted capacity building for core teams in these countries as part of a train-the-trainer program. This further underlines the success of the initiative and speaks to its innovation and replicability.

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The Government Accelerators function with a minimum of financial resources. Other than the cost of building the space and the cost of running it (from the budget of the Prime Minister’s Office), Acceleration Teams work with no additional budget and are encouraged to innovate with the resources available. The Government Accelerators department consists of eight permanent staff members who also act as coaches. In addition, the Government Accelerators has trained around 40 coaches from the Prime Minister’s office to support the Acceleration teams in their journey.

Being part of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the mandate of the Government Accelerators is to create impact in line with the country’s strategic direction which touches on social, economic, and environmental aspects. In institutional terms, the influence of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) allows the Government Accelerators to stay relevant and swiftly rally the troops to create impact in short periods of time. In financial terms, we are exploring potential ways of making the initiative self-sustained by monetizing our space and renting it out as a space for training or other types of workshops, public talks, or official events.

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The initiative was evaluated jointly by the Government Accelerators department and the Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Government Innovation (MBRCGI). The evaluation was conducted using a survey of ten questions that was shared with previous participants (Leadership teams, Acceleration Teams, Coaches, and Diploma participants) to get their feedback on their experience with the GA and to seek their recommendations in terms of improvement opportunities. The results of the survey were jointly analyzed and revised by the GA and MBRCGI.

As one of the objectives of the MBRCGI is to evaluate innovation in Government, the main topics of the survey focused on the key elements of innovation on one hand, and on the impact and sustainability of the initiative on the other hand: • Level of Disruption introduced by the initiative to both the usual ways of working and to the ideas generated by Acceleration Teams • Replicability of the initiative • Agility of the initiative • Innovative Mindset nurtured as a result of participating in the initiative • Impact on addressing severe public sector challenges and achieving SDGs • Sustainability of results achieved

The results of the survey are provided in the evaluation report.

As a department within the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) - the Center of Government of the UAE Federal Government - the GA works closely with the Strategy & Innovation and the Government Performance Sectors to identify potential high-priority challenges that require intervention from the GA. Once the challenges are identified, the GA reaches out to the leadership of the main and supporting stakeholders involved in these challenges to confirm the challenges and select team members to address these challenges. This exercise is key to receive the commitment of the leadership on the challenges that will be addressed at the GA. Once challenges are confirmed and teams are selected, the most important role of the GA begins – bringing together Government entities and increasing innovation, collaboration, and integration between these entities. The GA is positioned as an initiative of the UAE Federal Government. Its organizational place within the PMO provides it with the legitimacy it needs to operate. Whereas its open working space is accessible to any Government entity that wishes to resolve a challenge, provided it is in line with the GA’s criteria. It is a tool available to all Government entities to use, learn from, and even adapt to their own scale.

The Government Accelerators was designed following the Rapid Results Approach ® with the Rapid Results Institute. The initiative not only mobilizes resources from all government entities but also engages heavily with the private sector, academia, and NGOs. To date, we launched seven 100-day challenge cohorts, three special cohorts, and solved more than 50 high-priority challenges. For each of these challenges, several government and non-government stakeholders were carefully mapped and selected based on their levels of interest and influence. These stakeholders then each chose passionate, open-minded change agents from their teams: 1500+ government and private sector employees were engaged in the various workshops and activities we organized. The GA thus created a network of alumni who still engage and share knowledge beyond their participation. To ensure collaboration, engagement, and partnership between these stakeholders, 40+ coaches from the PMO work closely with the GA to mentor Acceleration Teams and push them to achieve sustainable results and impact. In addition, Acceleration Teams constantly engage with the public to raise awareness about the challenges –awareness campaigns can be found on our Instagram account. To evaluate the GA, we requested our alumni to complete a survey and assess the impact of the initiative.

In the words of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, “To take risk and fail is not a failure. Real failure is to fear taking any risk". This is the motto of the Government Accelerators. This initiative introduced a framework that not only allows for better integration between government entities, but also enables experimentation and innovation. It is the first platform for government entities to collaborate and solve challenges. By empowering front line employees and giving them the reins, the initiative has bypassed bureaucracy, fostered agility, and allowed to hone government human resources leadership capabilities. Sustainability and scalability of the results and impact achieved by Acceleration Teams are key to the long-term success of the initiative and close follow-up with entities is necessary. In addition, reviewing and upgrading our methodology constantly is important, in particular to include new tools and techniques to drive more innovation during the journey. On the global front, despite the high levels of replicability of the initiative, setting up the GA can be politically sensitive. It is indispensable for the Senior Leadership of the country to provide their full buy-in and to champion the Government Accelerators initiative and to effectively support in its set-up.