Amna Al Ketbi (Dubai)
Over the past years, the UAE has strengthened its interest in the future, and has excelled in developing its capabilities in the field of foresight, readiness and proactive policy-making through a series of initiatives focused on developing vital economic sectors, preparing to meet future challenges and developing infrastructure to help move to future strategies at a steady pace.
The country has adopted the concept of a future government, by proactively enhancing government knowledge and expertise and being ready for the future, and by designing new and sustainable business models that can improve performance to build a better future for individuals and societies. and food and water security.
structural changes
In 2016, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, adopted the largest structural changes in the history of the federal government. With the aim of improving effective and efficient performance, and enhancing readiness for future challenges accompanying the post-oil era of the UAE, where some sectors received utmost care by the future government due to their importance to the Emirati individual, and the economic and social development of the state in general, such as: happiness, innovation, sustainability, tolerance, and youth .
The most important changes in the future government emerged, with the creation of three new ministerial positions, which included: Minister of State for Happiness, Minister of State for Youth, and Minister of State for Tolerance. The aim of creating the position of Minister of State for Youth is to address issues related to youth, meet their interests, and enable them to participate dynamically in the development of the state. The position of Minister of State for Tolerance was also created, in order to consolidate tolerance, moderation and acceptance of others as basic values in the UAE society.
first experience
Dr. Mansour Al-Awar, President of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, said: Hamdan Smart University has developed the first “Metaverse” experience that allows entering the university in a virtual way, visiting all its departments, talking to its employees through the avatar character and meeting with them in meeting rooms, as well as registering and visiting the library, all of which is supported In the arabic language.
And he indicated that the Dubai Metaverse strategy is in line with the UAE Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031, and the country’s efforts to promote digital transformation and empower individuals, entities and various sectors, to provide new opportunities, consolidating the UAE’s position as a destination for artificial intelligence and an open testing platform for future technology to improve people’s lives.
future challenges
Dubai Belhoul, CEO of the Fikr Foundation, said: The UAE seeks to shed light on future challenges in various sectors, and is always working to anticipate the future through future visions. She added that the challenges are an incentive for all to cooperate to establish partnerships aimed at creating, designing and creating the positive future that humanity aspires to, for comprehensive progress and integrated sustainable development that achieve a better life for humanity. She emphasized that technology, digitization, human innovations and creativity are capable of transcending geographical boundaries and designing a future based on knowledge and science and the exchange of knowledge and experiences to multiply the positive impact on the paths of economic, social and human development.
UAE strategy
The “Emirates Strategy for the Foresight of the Future” aims to anticipate opportunities and challenges in all vital sectors in the country at an early stage, analyze them and develop proactive, long-term plans for them at all levels to achieve qualitative achievements to serve the country’s plans.
The strategy seeks to contribute to the formation of a future government that seeks to embrace all new global opportunities and anticipate the upcoming economic and social challenges.
The strategy includes building future models for the health, educational, social, development and environmental sectors and harmonizing current government policies, in addition to building national capacities in the field of future foresight, establishing international partnerships, developing specialized laboratories, and launching research reports on the future of various sectors in the country.
The strategy includes the government’s work mechanism, capacity building, and the future direction. Within each of its axes, there are tasks and duties that we will work to implement within the specified timetable.
The strategy aims to develop governmental systems that make foreseeing the future a part of the strategic planning process in government agencies, launching studies and scenarios to foresee the future of all vital sectors, and setting plans and policies accordingly.
sustainable cooperation
Salem Al Marri, Director General of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, said that the future challenges of the space sector lie in the increase in space debris, due to the increase in the number of satellites, thousands of which are launched annually, indicating the importance of all countries participating in the field of research and exploration in the space sector, pointing to the The support given by the UAE to support space science and technology and to promote innovation. Al Marri stressed that the UAE seeks to expand horizons and develop capabilities in various fields, with a focus on exploration, innovation, and the development of international cooperation in sustainable ways, in addition to dealing with the challenges facing the space sector and seeking to formulate international policies to treat them, noting that the space sector in the UAE is constantly evolving.
Adopt an interconnected approach
Dr. Nisreen Laham, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Forum for Future Studies for Africa and the Middle East, stressed the importance of adopting the urban interconnectedness approach in order to improve levels of water, food and energy security while preserving natural resources, by looking at the interdependence between different sectors, and at all administrative levels from the regional and national levels. Even the local level.
She indicated the importance of emphasizing the role of government agencies in adopting the interconnected approach with regard to government procurement, by setting environmental standards for these procurement, and adopting the interconnected approach in government buildings, using renewable energy sources and improving energy efficiency, to set an example to follow.
She added that future studies are tools for making sober decisions in the present based on the study of the future, and this is not a prediction of the future, but an anticipation of the future by studying the possible, desirable and undesirable futures in their various forms, to see the challenges that we can face.
And she continued: This is what the UAE has realized and has actually started organizing and hosting many events that include experts from all over the world to exchange different experiences and benefit from successful and advanced countries in this field, in addition to developing a systematic policy for these studies in all their fields to achieve the highest possible benefit.
Student re-engineering
Dr. Mansour Al-Awar, President of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, identified 4 challenges facing the public and higher education sector, represented in redefining the student so that he turns to self-education, stressing that there is an urgent need to re-engineer the student, referring to the second challenge represented by the teacher, and the need to change his role From an informant of information to a supervisor and a mentor, believing that it is a challenge that needs to work hard, leading to a total change, pointing out that this approach is followed by the university for them, where the teaching staff is trained on self-education.
Al-Awar indicated that the curricula are a third challenge, because the information is available to students and they can access it, which means that the trained teacher must follow up and be familiar with this data and information, while he believes that the traditional educational environment represents a fourth challenge because it is specific in place and time. Limited by time and place restrictions. He stressed that the challenges need to enact new legislation because the existing ones represent an obstacle in the way of digital transformation, noting that the UAE was bold in this field and granted the license to smart universities. He said that the next stage will witness a redrawing of the map of education, and the Dubai Forum for the Future is evidence of the UAE’s open approach to the other. Joyce Joya, CEO of Hermann Group, said that the challenges of the education sector in the future will require focusing on self-learning or personal learning due to its open educational characteristics and advantages, and the application of technology in educational institutions will greatly help in the multiplicity of educational methods. She added that education in the future will be completely different in all aspects, pointing out that there will be no need to educate all people in the same way, but through different methods, and this is the role that technology plays in the future. She indicated that technology will help learners better, whether they are children or youth, noting that the surrounding environment is now largely prepared to implement this transformation in educational methods.
Incorporating robots into “education”
On the role of artificial intelligence in the field of education, Professor Yongseok Park, a specialist in future studies at Yonsei University in Korea, said that in no way can artificial intelligence be a substitute for teachers, but robots can be relied on in a practical and significant way as an aid in the educational process, Noting that she spent about 35 years in future studies, and is currently teaching future studies at the university, and robots already exist and are used in the educational process.
She added that artificial intelligence has a huge amount of knowledge, and we will have a chip in the future, for example, that will be linked with the human brain and through which information will be communicated to learners through supercomputers, so that students do not have to study in traditional ways, but through information that is delivered and arrives in the end. to this chip which is like a neural link.
She said there are more than 1026 educational channels that provide a lot of different new information, which makes studying in this way gradually contribute to the absence of the need to go to school, and you will have teachers who provide information through technology so that in the future the absence of studies and schools becomes a normal thing.
She explained that the emergence of more e-learning platforms, which in turn will subject the method of knowledge transfer to a major transformation towards online platforms, and the new platforms will provide students with an opportunity to learn how to discuss issues and exchange ideas online, and e-learning will become accessible to people with limited budget.
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