Community designs solutions for wellbeing
dubai — More than 700 people from different segments of the society participated in helping co-design solutions that enhance wellbeing in a recent initiative in Dubai.
The National Programme for Happiness and Wellbeing launched the Community Design for Wellbeing initiative, which is the first participatory platform for community engagement in the UAE. The frame work has set some strategic objectives, of which the first one focuses on healthy and active lifestyle.
The initiative aimed at designing new ways to enhance the adoption of a healthy and active lifestyle, identifying the main challenges facing the society in this regard, and raising the community awareness on healthy living and its impact.
Mustafa Al Agha, head of MBC Sports, shared his personal experience with the audience on the best ways to promote healthy lifestyle in the UAE community, during a design session on healthy nutrition and healthy life.
The initiative further witnessed the participation of a number of ministers and government officials, including Dr Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment; Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid, Minister of Community Development; and Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Chairman of the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi.
Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing and Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, noted that the Community Design for Wellbeing initiative reflects the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to ensure that the government furnishes an open platform for community participation in designing solutions and developing initiatives and projects that focus on wellbeing as one of the key pillars of the society.
The event was divided in two parts — active lifestyle and healthy eating and a number of activities were designed for the community to participate and to understand what are the challenges individuals in the community face in terms of adopting an active lifestyle or eat healthy. The initiative also aimed to try and understand some of the behaviours of people such as how healthy do they eat, how often they eat out or cook at home, what kind of food the prefer and why.
On the active lifestyle side, the event looked at seeing how active people are in their everyday life, how often they exercise, where do they prefer exercising. For this they were asked what would incentivize them to work out regularly, what would encourage you to order healthy option.
The whole activity aimed at asking people to propose the solutions and help the government design those solutions for them. Most importantly to get tangible ideas for initiaitves, policies, regulations for the government to set.
Under the Community Design platform, activities highlighted the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and committing to physical activity in promoting
healthy and active lifestyles. The initiative further hosted discussions focusing on designing solutions to the challenges facing boosting physical activity and applying the principles of healthy living to the society.