UAE Vice President to Honor winners of 'Mohammed Bin Rashid Government Excellence Award' on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi
- The most prestigious award for government excellence in the UAE; focusing on achieved results and spreading awareness about excellence and leadership principles
- More than 2,200 nominations for the award since its inception
- The Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award received 530 nominations from 40 government entities
- More than 470 candidates for the Prime Minister's Medals compete for 15 individual awards
- Three new categories for the Prime Minister's Medals introduced; the Distinguished Assistant Undersecretary, the Distinguished Engineer and Youth
- 200 international experts from 23 countries took part in the assessment of the nominations, including members of leading international quality and excellence organizations and 80 national experts
Dubai, January 12, 2019: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is set to honor winners of the fifth edition of the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award during a ceremony organized by the UAE Government on Tuesday January15, 2019 in Abu Dhabi.
The ceremony marks the 10th anniversary of the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program, which brings together all federal government entities and aims to achieve excellence, superiority and leadership in the federal government sector performance and supervises the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award to follow up on the implementation of the Government Excellence.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award is the most prestigious award for government excellence in the UAE and is designed to develop performance across government sectors according to a set of innovative criteria based on the results achieved. It also aims to boost awareness about the principles of excellence and leadership and highlight their important role in allowing modern governments to better serve the various segments of society.
Global Model of Excellence
The Award epitomizes the directives of HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, to turn the UAE into a global destination for excellence, innovation and development; reflecting a leading and comprehensive future vision through the application of an international excellence model and ongoing development initiatives that would enable the public sector in the UAE to excel in its systems, performance, services and outcomes and instill the culture of innovation, loyalty and excellence in all public entities and employees.
The UAE’s quest to achieve excellence was fully endorsed and followed up by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who established a human-centric approach for future government work, based on the UAE Government Excellence System that His Highness launched in 2015 and that complemented a two-decade-long journey of excellence towards becoming a work model in the UAE and the region.
Since its inception, the total nominations for the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award have amounted to 2,230 nominations. As many as 157 entities and individuals were honored in the four previous editions of the award.
Fifth Edition of the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award: 530 Nominations for 25 Awards and Medals
A total of 40 government agencies, including 14 ministries and 26 bodies, compete in the 25 award categories, which include 10 awards for Distinguished Entities, divided into four main categories, and 15 individual awards in the form of Prime Minister’s Medals. The total number of nominations received by the award accounted for 530 nominations, including 402 nominations for the Prime Minister’s Medals.
Three new award categories for the Prime Minister’s Medal were introduced in the Award’s fifth edition; including the Prime Minister’s Medal for the Distinguished Assistant Undersecretary, the Prime Minister’s Medal for the Distinguished Engineer and the Prime Minister's Medal for the Youth. The Prime Minister's Medal for the Youth is designed to encourage and motivate young people to continuously develop and endeavor to achieve excellence and leadership in all areas that contribute to attain the Government's strategic objectives.
More than 200 experts from 23 countries around the world took part in the evaluation of the nominations for the fifth edition of the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award along with 80 national experts. The judging panel in charge of choosing the Leading Federal Entity featured eight (8) international experts from leading international quality and excellence organizations.
Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program Ushers in the Excellence Journey
The most notable milestone in the UAE Government's Excellence journey was the launch by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, of the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program (SKEGP) in June 2009. SKEGP was the first integrated program for government excellence, and the governing framework to boost performance and excellence practices via a set of initiatives based on scientific methodologies and best global practices.
The program is designed to improve performance of federal institutions and agencies by implementing and developing tools to gauge performance and assessment criteria. It tackles four different areas; awareness and learning, knowledge transfer, capacity-building and excellence awards.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has been keen to follow-up on the latest developments pertaining to government excellence, as well as the various forums and seminars organized to introduce this methodology; outcomes of field surveys of customers’ feedback and government creativity workshops. He also gave his directives to launch the Emirates Government Excellence Award, which was the most prestigious institutional excellence award across the Federal Government and awarded distinguished employees the Prime Minister’s Medal.
2013 – Launch of the Emirates Government Excellence Council
In May 2013, His Highness issued his directives to establish the Emirates Government Excellence Council, to bring together all the UAE's federal and local excellence programs; notably the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program, the Abu Dhabi Excellence Award in Government Performance, the Dubai Government Excellence Program, the Sheikh Saqr Program for Government Excellence and the Ajman Excellence Program.
On January 21, 2014, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum honored 120 graduates from the Excellence Experts Diploma for Federal Entities and UAE Residents Rehabilitation Program, including 85 Excellence Experts and 35 residents, as part of the government's commitment to pursue the development of institutional performance, improve government services and build national capacities in all areas of excellence and evaluation.
2015 – UAE Government Excellence System
March 7, 2015 marked a key milestone in the UAE excellence journey. On that day, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the fourth generation of the government excellence system, the first of its kind in the world.
This government excellence system was designed to upgrade government performance efficiency and focused on results as a key pillar for excellence in government services, in three main areas: achievement of the vision, innovation and empowerment to attain the highest satisfaction rates and people's satisfaction.
The system quickly became the common standard for excellence programs in the UAE and was adopted as part of various excellence programs across local governments; whilst its criteria were implemented in the assessment of local government agencies in the UAE.
On 21 November 2017, the UAE The UAE has achieved a new global breakthrough with the UAE Government Excellence Model, GEM, becoming a global reference for supporting ambitious governments in improving their efficiency and shaping the future of their entities.
Jordan and Egypt Adopt the UAE Government Excellence System
In November 2017, the UAE Government signed an agreement with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan allowing the latter to adopt the UAE's Government Excellence System.
In April 2018, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates inked a strategic partnership to improve the Egyptian government performance and achieve the development-oriented Egypt Vision 2030. The partnership covers government performance, excellence and capabilities, as well as smart services and government accelerators. As part of cooperation between the two countries and in line with Egypt’s desire to immediately activate the launch of the inaugural Egypt Government Excellence Award, the UAE Government Excellence Model was adopted as key reference for the Egypt Government Excellence Award categories.
In line with the strategic partnership between the UAE and Egypt, the United Arab Emirates took part in the inaugural Egypt Government Excellence Conference in June 2018, which marked the early outcomes of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the UAE Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future and Egypt’s Ministry of Planning, Follow-Up and Administrative Reform.
As part of the two-day conference, the UAE’s successful experience was imparted to the Egyptian Government in three areas: performance, efficiency and government excellence; government capabilities and smart services.
First Edition of the Award: 355 Nominations
The first edition of the Emirates Excellence Award took place in November 2010 with the participation of 37 federal government entities. Assessment teams, which included 53 experts, received 355 nominations fir the different award categories and Prime Minister’s Medal.
Winners were honored in the award’s different categories, which include the Main Category Awards (awards for entities, zones and departments); the sub-categories’ Awards (recognizing leadership, strategic planning, operations, human resources and customer service); as well as the Best Practice Category Awards (honoring exceptional creativity, performance management, knowledge and government communication); the Distinguished Experiences Category Award, granted to the Distinguished Administrative Experience and the Distinguished Technical Experience; and finally the Work Group Category, which is awarded to the Distinguished Teamwork within federal agencies and the Distinguished Joint Teamwork between more than one federal agency.
In the individual awards, Prime Minister’s Medals were granted to distinguished employees in six categories, recognizing supervisory excellence, technical excellence, field excellence, administrative excellence, specialized job positions and distinguished new employees. Two leading national figures were awarded the Prime Minister’s Sash.
Second Edition of the Award: 423 Nominations
In the second edition of the of the Emirates Excellence Award, 423 nominations were received from 41 federal entities, including 16 ministries and 25 government authorities. Assessment was carried out by a panel of 70 local and international experts in quality and excellence, selected based on expertise, professional, practical and academic efficiency to ensure the highest levels of neutrality and objectivity, according to strict international criteria. Winners were honored on May 13, 2012.
In this edition of the award, four UAE Nationals were granted the Prime Minister’s Sash, and three received the UAE Medal of Pride.
Third Edition of the Award: 493 Nominations
In May 2014, President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has given the directive to change the name of the Emirates Government Excellence Award to Mohammed bin Rashid Excellence Award, in appreciation of the contribution of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to excellence in all areas of government work.
The third edition of the award was revamped to include new categories and amendments to the main category criteria, to better assess the extent to which federal entities achieve their key tasks, especially the ones related to enhancing customer service and providing these services in creative methods.
The third edition received 493 nominations, including 248 nominations for the Prime Minister's medals.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum honored the winners of the third session on May 14, 2014, during which two UAE National figures received the Prime Minister’s Sash, and six received the UAE Medal of Pride.
429 Nominations in the Award’s Fourth Edition
At the fourth edition of the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award, the Assessment Committee, which included 159 experts, examined 429 nominations for the award, which included 386 nominations for the Prime Minister's Medals from 14 ministries and 24 federal entities. Award categories accounted for 22 categories, with 10 awards for federal entities and 12 Prime Minister’s Medals. Federal Entities’ awards were parceled out between the Grand Prize, two awards in the category in the main category, four awards in the categories at the level of the main criteria and three awards in the categories at the level of sub-criteria.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum honored the winners in the different award categories and winners of the Prime Minister’s Medals and awarded six UAE National figures the UAE Medal of Pride in a grand ceremony on January 11, 2017 in Abu Dhabi.