Residents need to engage more with state services

It is the duty and responsibility of everyone to ensure sufficient participation through feedback

Cause and effect can lead to great positive changes in a society and when a government invites resident opinion to streamline its public service offerings, it must follow that the public too must do its bit to ensure this happens — in the form of consistent, credible feedback to the government.

A survey released by the Governance and Innovation programme at the Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Governance ( MBRSG), in cooperation with the Dubai Press Club, has found that this synergy needs to be considerably strengthened in the UAE. Only eight per cent of the respondents, the survey reveals, engage with government services on the social media platform to provide feedback. This is too little and points to a rather alarming lack of participation in governmental goals among consumers in the UAE.

The UAE government is doing everything it can to provide transparency of functioning and improve its services for residents. For example, just last week, Dubai announced a new category called Public Opinion in the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Smart Government Award, inviting people to vote through a specially devised app for the 12 best public service offerings in 2014.

The focus of such initiatives, of which there are many in the UAE, is entirely on improving the residents’ quality of life. As such, it is the duty and responsibility of every one to reciprocate by actively engaging with the government through feedback. This is a crucial synergy to enable the UAE to move towards its Vision 2021 with greater speed.