Dubai government services seek innovative concepts from students

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Maryam Ehab from the Amna bint Wahab School and her team want to help the government improve their emergency response system.- Supplied photo
Maryam Ehab from the Amna bint Wahab School and her team want to help the government improve their emergency response system.- Supplied photo

Dubai - The winning teams will win a cash prize of Dh30,000 each.

By Sarwat Nasir

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Published: Sat 27 Oct 2018, 6:00 PM

Last updated: Sat 27 Oct 2018, 8:25 PM

Youngsters are being asked to pitch their ideas on creating efficient government services or suggesting how existing ones can be improved as part of a new competition.
Organised by the Dubai Executive Council, the Young CityMakers Championship includes 27 different Dubai government departments that are seeking improvement through the ideas of the youth. The participants will be a set of teams from various schools across the emirate and the winning teams will win a cash prize of Dh30,000 each.
The championship includes two main categories and targets school students between the ages of 11 and 18 years old. The first category, Improving Governmental Services, aims to improve current governmental services and encourages participants to select one of the 27 services and suggest ideas to improve them.
The second category, Future Government Services, aims to shed light on youth innovation ideas for future government services.
One of the participants in the competition, Maryam Ehab from the Amna bint Wahab School and her team want to help the government improve their emergency response system.
Ehab told Khaleej Times: "Our basic idea is to create a quick and quiet method to contact the police in case of an emergency where you can't really grab your phone. It's mainly for children who are suffering from domestic violence and abuse. This one will be for a future invention. It could be a tiny device hidden inside a toy, which would have a three-digit pass code and it would send an alert to authorities immediately. Other ideas that my team and I came up with are underground metro ambulances."
She believes youngsters are being asked for their ideas as it will help government departments become more innovative.
Eman Al Suwaidi, senior director of Dubai The Model Centre at The Executive Council of Dubai, said: "This championship aims to shed light on the youth's ambitions and aspirations, as well as on the necessary collaboration between the youth and government entities. We encourage the youth to participate in this championship and mark their presence in shaping the future."
Meanwhile, the project manager of the Citymakers competition, Maitha Al Gergawi, said the challenge is in line with the country's vision to innovate and to get the youth involved in activities as such.
"This championship stems from the vision of the country's leadership that aims to continuously elevate the level of government services in the emirate and involve future generations in shaping current and future services. The championship also reaffirms our commitment to involve the youth in designing the government services they use; increasing beneficiaries; and elevating it to new levels of excellence," Al Gergawi said.
Participants are being encouraged to sign up in teams of three to five students starting from November 11 to November 21, 2018 through citymakers.ae.
Applications will be reviewed by the judging panel and two winning teams will be announced in December 2018.

Participation mechanism

Category: Improving Governmental Services
>School students in Dubai need to create a team of 3 to 5 individuals
>Select one of the services listed on citymakers.ae
>Propose a project idea to improve the selected service
Category: Future Government Services
>Youth are invited to submit ideas for future government services that aren't currently provided by the government
>Use of videos, imagery, and presentations are encouraged and applications are only accepted from students registered in Dubai Schools.
>There is no limit to the number of teams per school
>The age of the members cannot be less than 11 and not more than 18 years old
>The project idea should originate from the team members

KT NANO EDIT

Youth power
Participation is key to good governance. And the youth - as builders of future societies and rearers of the next generation - play a vital role in shaping not just the future, but the present, too. Hence they can prove to be powerful partners in governance, not only in contributing new ideas but also in making the novel ideas a reality for the youth sector and the community as a whole.
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com
 


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