Dubai Health Authority wins 2021’s Hamdan bin Mohammed Programme for Government Services Flag for its pioneering Dubai Health Sheild Program


His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, awarded the prestigious Hamdan bin Mohammed Programme for Government Services Flag to Dubai Health Authority for winning the Best Government Initiative award for its Dubai Health Shield initiative.

The programme recognises pioneering government initiatives and underpins the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to ensure government services contribute to making Dubai the world’s greatest city.

The winner was announced at the Hamdan Hub 2021, organized by the Dubai Model Centre, affiliated to the General Secretariat of the Executive Council.

Congratulating the winner, His Highness said: “We congratulate the Dubai Health Authority for winning the Hamdan Flag. It is a well-deserved achievement for the authority's continuous efforts to improve and innovate their services. Dubai is a role model that has continued to strengthen the foundations of creative, innovative, and competent government work under the direction of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Our future vision is driven by the competency of our cadres that will raise this flag to the sky in recognition of their exemplary commitment to improving public services and contributing in making Dubai a global benchmark of service innovation. I express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the participating entities, which have continued to provide services that ease our people’s lives.”

His Highness valued the distinguished community contribution that emerged through the wide participation of customers of various government services in Dubai voting for the 9 nominated initiatives. His Highness added: “We fundamentally believe that the community plays a vital role and became a strong partner in Dubai's development, therefore, Dubai Government opened various communication channels to receive consistent feedback and inputs from customers on services, our priority is   to meet their needs and aspirations for Dubai. The active participation of the public in government work has continued to enhance our position as one of the best global cities in providing seamless, integrated, proactive, and customized government services that provide the welfare and happiness of everyone that resides in the Emirate.”

Proactive innovation

His Excellency Abdulla Mohammed Al Basti, Secretary General of the Executive Council of Dubai, said: “Since its launch 12 years ago, the Dubai Model Centre has made qualitative development in government services actioning the exceptional vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and directions of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum that emphasises on raising service efficiency and enhancing customer centricity by placing customers at the heart of the designing process of government services to ensure the customer’s need and expectations are met.”

Al Basti added: “Our role to support government entities will continue to improve the quality of  government services, to provide exceptional experience for everyone who resides and visit Dubai. Our mission through the newly launched  360 Services Policy,  ensures the provision of proactive, integrated, and smooth services with efficiency and effectiveness for individuals and businesses. We are committed to continuously improve government work, to be a government that serves its people .”

Eman Al Suwaidi, Senior Director of the Dubai Model Centre, said: “Partnership between the government and the communities remain a cornerstone of our work. We are pleased to see members of the public vote for their most used service initiatives that contributed to ease their experience whether through individual or business services. Congratulations to Dubai Health Authority for receiving the Flag of Hamdan bin Mohammed Programme for Government Services for the cycle of 2021. We also extend our gratitude and appreciations to all participating government entities, in which their continuous improvement raised the efficiency of government services in Dubai.”

The Dubai Health Shield Initiative

The Dubai Health Shield initiative was voted best government initiative by the public and a jury evaluation of 17 experts from 11 countries. Nine initiatives were shortlisted out of 26 that reached the final stage of the competition. DHA will now fly the flag of the Hamdan bin Mohammed Programme for Government outside its headquarters for one year, until the next edition of the programme. 

Nominated Initiatives

Nominated initiatives included: Lost and Found System by Dubai Police; Dubai Municipality’s My Food initiative; Dubai Courts’ Proactive Precautionary Attachement initiative; the ESTIJABA initiative by the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services; RTA’s Click and Drive initiative; the Smart Transformation initiative for financial benefits by the Community Development Authority; DEWA’s Green Charger initiative; and the Golden Visa initiative by the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai.


Global Standards

The winning initiative is selected based on a criteria that measures the efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and commitment to the government's pioneering approach. A committee of experts jury members evaluates the submissions before customers voting phase, the criteria for the selection of best initiative depends on many assessment measures and methodologies including the quality of services, ease of use, performance and simplicity, among other things.

Seeking customer support to evaluate the initiatives aligns with the leadership’s vision to people at the heart of service development. Their wellbeing, happiness and satisfaction at the top of priorities, as part of Dubai Model Centre’s efforts to enhance public services in Dubai.

The involvement of customers in evaluating the initiatives and contributing to their improvement comes in implementation of the vision of the leadership that places human well-being, happiness and satisfaction at the top of priorities, and in an effort from the Dubai Model Centre raising the level of government services in Dubai to unprecedented levels, to make the emirate among the best in the world, and to enable Government entities to improve the level of services provided to individuals and society to a global competitive level, in line with the mission of the Government of Dubai, which works on designing its services by involving the various members of society in creating and evaluating these services.