UAE government and META Launch the First-of-its-kind "Driving Data for Good" Initiative
As part of “Future Partnerships” initiative, the UAE Government Development and the Future Office, Meta; the parent company of Facebook; and the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Center (FCSC) launched the “Driving Data for Good” initiative.
The first-of-its-kind initiative in the region between the UAE Government and Meta aims to optimize decision-making and design initiatives that would enhance the UAE's future readiness leveraging Meta’s program, Driving Data for Good, and in partnership with the FCSC.
The initiative aims to employ Big Data in supporting government efforts for designing initiatives, projects and services capable of realizing the people’s aspirations and assessing their impact on social wellbeing.
Through its program, Meta presents multiple innovative tools and offers real-time aggregate public data related to various sectors such as traffic, demographics, social media use, startups distribution, among others. The provided data will not be categorized as personal or private to ensure individuals’ privacy.
Her Excellency Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and the Future, stated that the “Driving Data for Good” initiative reflects the government's role as a platform for building and promoting innovative partnerships with various actors to shape the future. It further reflects the UAE’s approach to conclude partnerships with mega players worldwide, thus enhancing the efforts of shaping the future and developing the government work ecosystem using state-of-the-art tools and solutions.
“Big Data is an essential tool for governments to build a better future and enhance future readiness. It presents vital indicators highlighting social trends and defining people’s aspirations towards the services and projects that contribute to enhancing their wellbeing,” H.E. added, noting that the UAE government is keen to adopt this technological tool to better serve the society, while securing individual privacy in the digital world.
H.E. Al Roumi stressed that the partnership with META comes within an innovative project to support policy-making, services and projects design, and impact assessment, using the tools provided by META and in partnership with FCSC. The new initiative is expected to promote the quality of government decision, enhance the effectiveness of government policies, and drive innovation in designing initiatives that enhance future readiness, raise performance efficiency and positively affect the society.
“Creativity, collaboration and a human-centric approach sits at the heart of the UAE’s government entities’ approach to the application of Big Data in government programs and initiatives. The UAE is responding to advances and transformations through a proactive approach and through key public-private collaborations,” said Hanan Ahli, Acting Managing Director of Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre.
“Through this collaborative partnership with META and efforts, I strongly believe that we can drive progress, ignite social change, and accelerate the implementation of the nation’s digital transformation, support the fulfillment of the sustainable development goals, and realize our leadership’s vision in the UAE becoming one of the best countries in the world by 2071,” added Ahli
“We are truly excited to be embarking on this strategic partnership to expand Meta’s Data for Good in the UAE and help grow the academic and research ecosystem in support of the national agenda of the “Projects of the 50”,” said Azzam Alameddin, Public Policy Director, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey at Meta.
“We believe that leveraging privacy-preserving insights from our global community can support evidenced-based decision making. Driving Data for Good will ultimately strengthen communities in the UAE and enable progress on social and policy affairs such as urban planning, sustainability and crisis response,” he concluded.