Questions/Answers

This initiative aims at alleviating the relative poverty in the Emirate of Dubai through financially empowering the less advantaged groups in the society, improving the quality of their lives, and reducing the gap between the least income strata and other higher income strata in order to achieve family and community stability and to satisfy the concepts of social protection and social justice.

This initiative is underpinned by the concepts of equity and comprehensiveness; where lowest income quintile of families was determined, and an eligibility line, that observes the family head income, the number of family members, and the additional needs they have, was drawn. All families under the eligibility line are eligible for a bundle of comprehensive financial benefits; including financial support with extra amounts for the elderly, people with disability, and children in school age which promotes their inclusion into the society and their social participation. In addition, there is a group of in-kind benefits that aim at empowering people with disability, including them into the society, and increasing the income of the target group, whether through financial support to finish their education, or develop their skills and acquire knowledge that help them find convenient jobs, or through supporting them to start small projects.

This initiative is directly related to the first sustainable development goal, which is to end poverty. Despite the high economic standard of the Emirate of Dubai, Dubai Government worked on reducing the relative poverty of the lowest income quintile through a social protection system that treats males and females equally and gives extra care to children. This system originated from a policy on financial benefits that was developed in accordance with the best practices. The initiative promotes, through legislative instruments, the necessity of developing the skills of the beneficiaries and transforming them from dependency on benefits to financial self-sufficiency and participating in the workforce, which builds the capacities of the national human capital to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in accordance with the fourth and the eighth sustainable development goals.

During the period 2013 to 2018, the period of the policy implementation, the less advantaged groups in the society benefited from the financial benefits, where 82% of the target group was covered. Families headed by divorced, widowed, or abandoned females constituted around 50% of the beneficiary families. 11% of those female family heads have health issues, and 42% are less advantaged with education level. Also 32% of males heading beneficiary families have disabilities or health issues, and 62% of them are less advantaged with education level. 2,387 persons with disability, forming one-third of this group, benefited from the in-kind benefits. The initiative also contributed to improving the quality of life of the beneficiary families and to increasing the standard of their living, where 2,247 families were provided with housing, and 3,089 families were provided with furniture. The initiative also boosted the buying power of the beneficiary families with 700 million Dirhams during the period 2013 to 2018.

This initiative it’s a process & policy innovation that covers two types of innovations ; 1. Enhancing the customer experience & journey, by providing the services to the customers with a unique customer journey, And increasing the efficiency of the government services “designing an integrated electronic government database and services” . 2. The concept of relative poverty in the region; where it is based on the research methodology of determining the lowest income quintile of families regardless of the amount of income.

This initiative is the first of its kind to use the concept of relative poverty in the region; where it is based on the research methodology of determining the lowest income quintile of families regardless of the amount of income. Therefore, the initiative requires continuous periodic review of the eligibility line in order to determine the target group.

Abu Dhabi Emirate used the same methodology used in this initiative, where it adopted the concept of relative poverty for its financial benefits system which is being developed in the meantime. Other social entities also adopted the same methodology to draw an eligibility line for their services, such as Mohamed Bin Rashid Housing Establishment and Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation.

Generally; CDA focused their resources to run the financial benefits & empowerment services successfully, because around 90% of our transactions is related to that services, and more than 70% of CDA budget allocated for that services & finally more than 75% of our customers are linked to that services. Our Main core business sector within CDA is the Financial Benefits & Empowerment Sector; which responsible to provide that services to the customers: The sector consist of three department; Customer Services; Financial Benefits, Financial Empowerments Departments with around 50 employee. The yearly budget allocated for the financial benefits & empowerments around 250 AED million. All The Processes, transactions and services are 100% electronic and smart services using the ICMS – Integrated Case Management System - Oracle Seibel system “CRM solution” .

The Sustainability issues of this initiatives are covered with many Economical Side; Rather than the Government budget are allocated in a long terms for Financial Benefits & Empowerment Services! Also the financial Benefits law no. 7; allows CDA to collect money through CSR from Government, Private, and NGO’s organization’s in order to get and fund the financial benefits & empowerment services from outside of government budget, under the name of Social Solidarity Fund, and currently their providing CDA with more than 30 AED million in a yearly basis. Social Side: CDA worked hardly worked on reducing the relative poverty of the lowest income quintile through a social protection system that treats males and females equally and gives extra care to children. And the process of Financial Benefits & Empowerment services are designed based on a Case Management techniques, which means that the customer journey starting with providing the customers with a financial services in order to cover all their needs then they will be participated in a very well training & empowering programs “long terms programs” to be finally empowered with a suitable Job, working & life competencies and skills to be an empowered & vibrant citizen who can take all his choices independently. Environmental Side; CDA implemented ISO 14001: 2015, successfully for all activities that effects the environment elements. All transactions are done through a system, and the customers they can register & got the services from their living places without any visit to CDA customers services locations. Financial Benefits & Empowerments Services are a part of CDA & Dubai Paperless Strategy 2020 “getting all services and transactions with zero paper” end to end process.

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A joint assessment, internal and external, was conducted under the supervision of the Executive Council of Dubai covering the following pillars: 1. Assessment of the implementation, as set out in the implementation plan approved by the Executive Council of Dubai. 2. Assessment of the social impact of the policy using an impact assessment tool that covers the aspects of individuals and community, economy, Government, living experience, and urban environment. 3. Study of the beneficiary families, to determine the impact of the financial benefits on the quality of their lives through a comparative analysis for their living conditions before and after the implementation of the initiative, covering the aspects of Health, education, family relations, happiness, community participation, and contribution to volunteering and community service.

• Percentage of beneficiaries from total eligible • Percentage of beneficiaries who feel that their income is sufficient to meet their needs • The affordability of healthcare • The quality of healthcare • Physical and psychological health • Family cohesion • Social Cohesion • Volunteering and philanthropy • Economic justice • Happiness • Financial self-sufficiency

Using the aforementioned tool for impact assessment, the mean for assessment was 2.03 (on scale of -5 to +5), which reflects the positive impact of the initiative in general. The most positively affected aspects were the living standards, family, and justice; followed by physical and psychological health, education, community, governance and government services; followed by culture and entertainment, business environment, urban environment, work, and natural environment. As for implementation, the initiative covered 82% of the target group, where the percentage of those receiving benefits and feel that their income is sufficient to meet their needs is 45.6%.

All stakeholders of CDA they are determined in our Context of Organization matrix through PESTEL & SWOT analysis. In Designing Phase; The policy and law “Dubai Financial Benefits & Empowerments Law no. 7”, was discussed and brainstormed with all partners “government partners” who are shared with our services , The Executive Council of Dubai “There’s a committee in the council called Social Sector Committee which include a members from all related entities in Dubai “, Customers “through focus groups”, the NGO’s who providing a financial aids to the customers. In Implementation phase; Now the end to end process of getting the financial benefits & empowerment services are linked and integrated electronically with many government & NGO’s database, to have the accurate information about our customers “enhancing the big and open data to have an governance, and accountability system”. In evaluation Phase; CDA it’s a part of Government of Dubai, and our Financial Benefits & Empowerments Services are linked directly to Dubai 2021 Strategy, KPI’s & Initiatives, and our Processes & services KPI’s “Productivity, Efficiency & effectiveness KPI’s” they are measured through internal performance management system, and all KPI’s we are reported back to the Executive Council of Dubai. The share KPI’s between CDA and their Customers and also our services providing partners “Customer Experience KPI’s” are evaluated from Dubai Smart Government & Dubai The Model Center; who are responsible about improving the government services.

The most important learnt lesson is launching the initiative under the name of “Financial Empowerment” instead of “Financial Benefits”, so it remains a very clear target to those concerned with implementation, development, and assessment to achieve financial self-sufficiency for the beneficiaries and reduce their dependency on benefits. Because these benefits adopt a relative eligibility line, and given the outstanding economic standard of Dubai, the risk of getting dependent on benefits is incrementing.