Blueprint works hand in hand with efforts to encourage UAE private sector Dubai puts families at heart of 10-year plan to increase population of Emiratis

Dubai’s efforts to increase the number of Emirati families in the next 10 years will contribute significantly to social cohesion, an academic has said.

Strengthening families is important given the rapid development of Dubai in recent years, said Dr Elizabeth Monier, an assistant professor in modern Arabic studies at the University of Cambridge.

Her comments came after the announcement last week that the city intends to double the number of Emirati families by 2033 as part of its Dh208 billion ($56.63 billion) Dubai Social Agenda 33 initiative.

Investments in health care, education, housing, arts and culture, citizen support and social institutions are part of the strategy, which will run until 2033.

“It is important to note that the emphasis is on increasing the number of families, not just on the population,” Dr Monier told The National. “The family is the basic unit of society upon which the cohesion of the state as a whole rests.

“By prioritising the family unit, there is a clear emphasis on cohesion.

“This is crucial in Dubai to avoid dislocation that can emerge in a context of rapid development.

“By supporting basic social structures this can guard against fragmentation or alienation while cementing social relations and heritage into the backbone of development.”

The population of the UAE is close to 10 million people.

However, the number of Emiratis is one million, according to data from the World Bank.

That Emiratis are outnumbered by overseas residents in Dubai emirate, a situation also evident in other parts of the Gulf region, is another reason the new 10-year approach is important, Dr Monier said.

“Supporting cohesion among [the Emirati population] is essential to avoid alienation and to maintain solidarity and a united vision,” she said.

“By investing in families, Dubai is investing in human capital.”

With the initiative, government funding for health care will rise to Dh120 billion between now and 2033, compared to Dh66 billion during the decade before.

Community development funding is increasing to Dh88 billion for the coming decade, up from Dh26 billion during the previous 10 years.

This covers areas including arts and culture, education, citizen support, sports and housing, the last of which receives Dh14.5 billion to develop integrated residential compounds for Emiratis.

Among the aims of the agenda is to put Dubai among the top three in the world for standard of living and the top 10 for life expectancy and quality of education.

Another aim is to triple the number of Emiratis working in the private sector, an aspiration that follows many years of efforts to promote Emiratisation.

Comparable programmes in other Gulf states encourage the private sector to take on more citizens of those nations.

Prof Martin Beck, of the Phillips University of Marburg in Germany, said the UAE’s efforts would need to be accompanied by steps to limit the number of Emiratis employed by the public sector.

The authorities in Gulf nations recognised the need to limit expenditure on welfare programmes for their own citizens, he said.

“There could be a political-economic rationale [behind the new policy] … if they succeed in redirecting their local population to the private sector,” he said.

Dr Kristian Ulrichsen, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in the US and author of The United Arab Emirates: Power, Politics and Policy-Making, said increasing the Emirati population “may be difficult to align with existing policy priorities to increase the proportion of women in the workforce”.

“If the initiative is to succeed it will have to be wrapped within a broader package of support and targeted assistance to Emirati households to enable them to juggle the burdens of work-life balance,” he said.

The new initiative from Dubai may have been formed, Dr Ulrichsen said, as a reaction to social pressures and with the aim of “setting Dubai up for a new phase of long-term and more sustainable growth and development”. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said that the Dubai Social Agenda 33 would be overseen by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, Deputy Prime Minister, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, and Finance Minister, and Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed, Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai, other sheikhs and senior government officials. Sheikh Mohammed said the project’s theme would be Family, the Foundation of the Nation.

“By putting his sons at the forefront of this initiative, Sheikh Mohammed may also be preparing Dubai for the eventual transition to a new generation of leadership,” Dr Ulrichsen said.

By prioritising family, there is emphasis on cohesion. This is crucial to avoid dislocation in a context of development

ELIZABETH MONIER University of Cambridge