Day: August 19, 2021

DUBAI, The International Humanitarian Summit, to be held in Dubai on 30th March, 2022, was launched today to mark on the World Humanitarian Day, 19th August, 2021, in its mission to solve ongoing issues around the world, including COVID-19 challenges and the persisting issues of racism, gender inequality, intolerance, and persecution.

The International Humanitarian Summit will bring together the international community of intellectuals, governmental institutions, human rights and philanthropic institutions, religious institutions, artists, media professionals, cultural associations and the private sector in order to discuss and shed light on the current concerns that need to be addressed, at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Today’s crises are larger, more complex, and go on for years at a time. Providing humanitarian assistance has become much more difficult. The International Humanitarian Summit will voice out and discuss these issues in March next year, in order to lead, coordinate, and put efforts towards assistance overseas responding to humanitarian crises, natural disasters and manmade disasters. The International Humanitarian Summit will play a major role in promoting and assisting international humanitarian organisations that can better people’s lives and save more lives.

The UAE is proud to host the International Humanitarian Summit, which will shed light on humanitarian workers who are reaching out to the most vulnerable people to save lives and alleviate suffering. In no other time has the generous, bravery, and sacrifice of aid workers been more evident or necessary. Around the world, humanitarian workers haven’t stopped saving lives despite the recent pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for one of the largest humanitarian crises since the Second World War. Over the past few months, it has severely affected the humanitarian sector. The aid industry has suffered the most severe impact of all the industries affected by the pandemic. Countries from all over the world came together to provide medical supplies and medical professionals, however, other sectors of the aid industry received little support. Even with the global pandemic, the International Humanitarian Summit will continue to voice out issues and be a platform to inspire the world, serving as a catalyst for international crisis response in both diplomatic engagements and humanitarian assistance.

The UAE has made its mark at the forefront of countries in the world in providing services and providing humanitarian aid and helping those in need around the world. And to crown this role comes the announcement of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, on Wednesday announced that the UAE would offer Golden Visas to charity and humanitarian aid workers in recognition of their efforts and sacrifices. The announcement to provide long-term residence visas was made on World Humanitarian Day.

In this regard, Dawood Al Shezawi, Secretary-General of the Board of Trustees, stated about the pioneering role of the United Arab Emirates throughout its history through humanitarian work at the regional and global levels. “The UAE policies put humanitarian and development work at the center, which is evident by the establishment of hundreds of humanitarian projects and institutions. Globally, the UAE plays a leading humanitarian role, dedicating resources and efforts to empowering communities and removing barriers to sustainable development.”

Gender Equality and Women Empowerment are topics that will be explored at the International Humanitarian Summit to enable private organisations and governments in promoting an equal world. Sessions will focus on creating an inclusive environment for women and people of determination within the society.

Utilising the latest digital technology via Events10x, the International Humanitarian Summit will take place in the form of a hybrid event, and will be a powerful dialogue platform which will discuss vital issues in order to achieve a peaceful, healthy and liveable society based on mutual respect and understanding.

The summit is powered with the most anticipated Global Leaders Debate who will discuss the increased fragmentation around the world due to extremism and intolerance, which play a destructive role in achieving global happiness and prosperity. The purpose of this debate is to bring together international leaders to discuss policies to counter these problems and to propose initiatives to further boost human fraternity and tolerance.

The International Humanitarian Summit will feature the Humanitarian Art and Photography Gallery, which allows artists and photographers from around the world to showcase their work while promoting humanitarian values. Through this, visitors will be able to cultivate knowledge, increase awareness and access leading academic archives. Furthermore, the event will also host a digital exhibition where local governments, private institutions and organisations from respective countries will unveil their humanitarian efforts to virtual attendees.

Humanitarian Stories will provide participants with the opportunity to watch encouraging stories about life-changing initiatives from around the world. By doing so, the International Humanitarian Summit will help improve society, as well as highlight individual and institutional efforts in shaping it.

Source: Emirates News Agency

DUBAI, The World Government Summit has launched a report entitled “Time to Future Proof: A blueprint for holistic urban resilience”, in partnership with Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network.

The report stresses the importance of building cities’ resilience in the region, and develop their institutional capacities to enhance their ability to face challenges and then recover from them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a severe test of the ability of countries and cities to withstand the unexpected, placing strain on economic, health, social, and urban infrastructures. Beyond the pandemic, natural and human-caused hazards have been increasing in frequency and scale, and that trend could continue, depending on mitigation efforts.

To prepare for the future, cities should build their urban resilience to anticipate and respond to shocks, recover quickly, and transform themselves innovatively in the face of adversities, disasters, and stresses.

The report includes a comprehensive tool that enables cities to do that, assess resilience levels and study their institutional capacities. The tool includes 131 performance indicators covering 36 key dimensions, and an institutional readiness checklist. As part of the analysis, the tool was used to assess the level of resilience in 9 major cities in the Middle East and North Africa region, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Amman, Kuwait City, Muscat, Riyadh, Jeddah, Casablanca, and Cairo. Strategy& selected these cities based on their levels of urbanisation and population growth, economic contribution and their business and tourism appeal.

A comparison was also done with 11 cities from different geographic regions, namely: Cape Town, Houston, London, Nairobi, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, and Zurich. These cities were selected based on several criteria including urbanisation, adoption of resilience strategies, and governance structures and frameworks.

“The report provides a comprehensive interactive tool that will support governments to enhance the resilience of their cities, increase their readiness to face challenges, and launch initiatives and programs that will support their recovery in vital sectors,” said Mohamed Al Sharhan, Deputy Managing Director of the World Government Summit Organisation Al Sharhan also adds that “the launch of the report comes within the framework of the World Government Summit partnership with leading research institutions and consultancy firms to shed light on the most prominent future trends and transformations facing governments and societies, and recommend solutions and advanced initiatives.”

“To develop resilience, decision makers must understand their city’s exposure to natural and human-caused threats,” said Dr. Raed Kombargi, Partner with Strategy& and the leader of the firm’s Energy, chemicals, and utilities practice in the Middle East. “They must then eliminate any structural vulnerabilities that might intensify the impact of a disaster in terms of basic, social, economic, and urban environment needs, through developing all required institutional capacities,” he added.

Resilient cities have eight critical features. They are anticipatory and use proactiveness and foresight to future-proof, which include developing future plans that ensure the ability of cities to withstand, mitigate and recover from the effects of shocks. They are resourceful, which secures the availability, diversity, and optimal utilisation of resources including contingency funding.

Furthermore, resilient cities are agile and can adapt to changing circumstances. They promote a participatory operating model through joint work and cooperation between the public and private sectors. Another aspect of resilient cities is their ability to be citizen-centric by providing for citizens’ needs and developing innovative and experimental plans within cities to aid recovery. They also adopt a holistic approach to deliver solutions based on their impact on systems and ensuring the ability to measure them.

The importance of cities lies in the fact that they represent the heart of the economy of countries, as they achieve economic development, innovation and growth of up to 80 per cent of the GDP, and host 55 per cent of the world’s total population, not to mention that this percentage is expected to reach 68 per cent by 2050.

According to the report, the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai occupied advanced resilience positions when compared to assessed cities, scoring among the top 10. The report “Time to Future Proof: A blueprint for holistic urban resilience”, highlights the efforts made by the government of Dubai in facing the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. It also showcases the city’s ability to control the spread of the virus, and reduce its effects on both the short and long run by launching several initiatives and programs, and adopting different governance models.

MENA cities face several major hazards such as climate change, landslides, pollution and cybersecurity, and many others. They also face various vulnerabilities such as emergency care, social protection, and inclusion, and localisation of supply chains, among others. These challenges can be tackled by developing comprehensive resilience blueprints and plans for infrastructure development to achieve great results.

The report recommends a set of steps and measures that cities in the Middle East and North Africa could focus on during the next phase, and which would aid in devising their customised urban resilience blueprints.

These cities should assess the extent of their exposure to natural and human-caused hazards and address areas that need to be developed to minimise their vulnerabilities across basic needs, the economy, the society and the urban environment. This may involve for example increasing reliance on local production of basic commodities necessary to ensure their sufficiency in emergency situations, providing comprehensive health care coverage and social safety nets, and redressing budget shortcomings and areas that need development at the financial level.

Consequently, cities will need to strengthen their institutional capacities that will help them address their hazards and vulnerabilities. These come in the form of strategies or policies, governance and partnerships, capabilities and processes, delivery of public services, financing, and data and systems.

For instance, it is likely that some countries will benefit from increased decentralisation and the level of autonomy of cities in decision-making, given the size of these countries and the large differences in the level of exposure to risks and areas that need development in the main cities. Also, investing in advanced capabilities, data and systems is critical, such as foresight and early warning systems, utilisation of real-time, big and open data, and integrated whole-of-government e-systems.

Through appropriate investment and increasing of their institutional capabilities, cities in the region can enhance their readiness for future challenges and achieve the highest levels of response, recovery and transformation.

The World Government Summit recently announced the signing of 9 new knowledge partnerships with a selection of the most prominent consulting firms and global research institutions, to launch a series of reports and studies that will identify the most important trends and opportunities for governments to focus on the next phase, and for them to enhance their readiness for the future in a post-pandemic world.

The reports focus on anticipating the future of governments around the world, studying global transformations and challenges facing the world, setting priorities and requirements for the next phase, and developing new work mechanisms and methodologies based on modern data to empower the next generation of governments.

Source: Emirates News Agency

ABU DHABI, Etihad Rail has signed a partnership agreement with Al Ghurair Iron & Steel (AGIS), the UAE’s largest producer of galvanised and cold rolled flat steel, to use the UAE National Rail Network to transport the steel producer’s product across the nation.

Etihad Rail will be providing efficient and sustainable services by transporting steel products from AGIS’s manufacturing facilities through the rail freight terminal in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) to Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi and Jebel Ali in Dubai for exports.

Speaking on the agreement, Mohammed Al Marzouqi, Executive Director of Rail Relations Sector at Etihad Rail, commented, “Our company consistently seeks more robust partnerships with a range of entities, delivering services that are integrated directly with clients’ business models and further promote their efficiency. Our agreement with AGIS will facilitate the transport of their products through the UAE National Rail Network, connecting industrial hubs, exports points, and commercial centres. Our rail network drives further cost and time savings, increases operational efficiency in comparison to road-based transport, and enables further market expansion opportunities for our partners at AGIS.”

“The addition of AGIS to our roster of partners demonstrates how Etihad Rail benefits businesses in industries across the UAE. Etihad Rail is looking to bring those benefits to all industries across the UAE, particularly the iron and steel industry. Our customers trust us for our innovative, sustainable, and competitive transport solutions and services. In doing so, they drive our ability to meet the demands of the market and enhance both our existing and future partnerships through enabling extensive freight services,” Al Marzouqi added.

Abu Bucker Husain, CEO of Al Ghurair Iron & Steel, said, “We are confident Etihad Rail will provide world class facilities. Our collaboration with the company will immensely boost our continuous endeavour to improve customer satisfaction. Transporting steel coils by rail is both reliable and environmentally friendly, reducing both time and damage caused by road transport. Additionally, rail transport allows for shorter timeframes for import clearance of hot rolled steel coils. With such improvements in our supply chain, galvanised steel coils made in UAE will find a wider customer base.”

Stage Two of the UAE National Rail Network continues to be developed on schedule. Customers will benefit from customised service scheduling solutions. Additionally, the company will deliver specialised wagons which can handle a wide variety of freight.

The agreement signed with AGIS demonstrates Etihad Rail’s sustained role in delivering additional value to the UAE’s and the GCC’s logistics sector through its sustainable rail network. The network will additionally offer long-term support for the UAE’s economic growth, offering innovative, competitive, and reliable transport and freight solutions across the region.

Source: Emirates News Agency