Huda Al Hashimi
UAE to chair Agile Nations network
DUBAI, March 30, 2022
The UAE will take over the chairmanship of the Agile Nations, a network of countries set up to foster cooperation on innovative regulatory practice between governments.
Comprising seven countries, including the UAE, UK, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Singapore, and Japan, Agile Nations is a regulatory cooperation network tasked with testing and developing new ways for easier for businesses to introduce and scale innovations across different markets by helping them navigate ever-evolving regulatory landscape.
The news was announced by Huda Al Hashimi, the UAE’s Deputy Minister for Strategic Affairs at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs at the Agile 50 Forum during day one of the World Government Summit (WGS2022) in Dubai.
A knowledge exchange platform
“Our priority as the Chairman of Agile Nations is to create a knowledge exchange platform that benefits both the Agile Nations members and the wider international community,” Al Hashimi said.
“The aim of the platform is to create a global repository of resources and knowledge to serve governments. We also want to explore new policies and agile regulations to support the New Economy, primarily focusing on virtual assets and fintech.”
The Agile 50 Forum, a joint initiative by Apolitical and the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Agile Governance, today called on nations across the globe to collaborate on shaping the New Economy while highlighting the importance of cross-governance collaboration to address tomorrow’s challenges.
Navigating disruption
Delivering her opening remarks at the Agile 50 Forum, Al Hashimi said collaboration among governments is the key to navigating disruption, as detailed in the UAE’s latest collaborative report with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
“If anything, the pandemic taught us that there are no borders when it comes to climate change, and there are no borders when it comes to poverty.
“The Agile 50 Forum recognises the contributions of leaders in agile governance for navigating disruption. Behind this is a team of unsung heroes, from governments and private sector whose work is indispensable in responding to rapid technological change and disruption,” she said.
Innovations at frenetic pace
Jeffrey Schlagenhauf, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), joined Al Hashimi for the opening remarks, saying: “Since the Covid-19, governments around the world have unleashed innovations at a pace and scale not seen in generations.
“However, the crisis has exposed several shortcomings and reinforced previous vulnerabilities at the national level. At a global level, the pandemic also highlighted the need of increasing interconnectedness of countries,” he said.
In October, the OCED launched the first in a series of three reports on governance cross-border challenges, which shows the need for more government mechanisms. The third and final report aims to deliver impactful cross-border solutions.
“As witnessed during the pandemic, innovation is a vital tool to address today’s most pressing global challenges,” said Schlagenhauf. “However, government innovations are today confined to national or local borders. Why is collaboration across borders not happening more often?”
Advanced technology
The Agile 50 Forum also highlighted the role of advanced technology and creating an enabling ecosystem of innovation hubs and entrepreneurism, as part of the ‘Transforming Governance for Disruption’ discussion.
Speaking at the panel, Rachel Chikwamba, Group Executive of Chemicals, Agriculture, Food and Health Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said: “Transformation is about collaboration when we think about fundamentally changing how government works across different hierarchies.”
In her comments during the discussion, Anna Ekeledo, Executive Director of AfriLabs, also talked about the need for transformation - with an emphasis on digital innovation.
Leveraging digital technologies
“Transformation in our work, in a plain way, is a different way of doing things. Transformation, to us, is leveraging on digital technologies, new ways of working, the leverage of open data and new ways of thinking. We also can’t be all alone, doing our own thing. Governments need to work together.”
Daniela Braga, CEO of Defined.ai, added: “The meaning of transformation, to me, is digital transformation in my world. We need to promote agile education, literacy, AI literacy.”
The Forum also covered another panel discussion on ‘Balancing Transformation & Stability: How can Agility in Government Achieve this Balance’, that examined emerging trends in data protection, public-private partnerships and public sector empowerment.
Right balance
Speaking at the panel, Jesús Cordero, Data Privacy Protection Officer at Legaltech, talking about the complexities of being agile, saying: “It is complicated to try and find the right balance between being agile and not being fast enough. It is a mix of not being too fast, but not losing too much time and resources.”
Takeshi Kito, Committee Member of the Government of Dubai’s Regulatory Sandbox and CEO of Crowd Realty, said: “We need to be more inclusive, and pay more innovations to enable inclusivity and agility in governments.”
In her comments, Sidrotun Naim, Deputy Chair of the IPMI International Business School, Advisor of the Indonesia Strategic Institute (INSTRAT) and Commissioner of Priadi.id, stressed the need for governments to listen to citizens when it comes to shaping tomorrow’s governments.
Creating change
“We need to listen, reflect and experiment to create change,” she said. “Also, I believe there is government resistance to private sector. We need more collaboration around the world between public and private partnerships - that is key.”
Bruno Santos, Innovation Director at the National School of Public Administration (Escola Nacional de Administração Pública), said: “One of the things I think is important for us to move towards the 21st century government is to overcome some false paradox. The ideas of agility and delivering things fast and the idea of it being predictable.
“People say it is hard to change culture I disagree; culture emerges from narratives, norm and most importantly, the way a group of people address problems. We also need a more humble leadership, and leave your ivory tower and go out to understand what your citizens need.”
The ‘Agile 50: the World’s 50 Most Influential People Revolutionising Governance’ is an annual list that recognises politicians, civil servants and entrepreneurs who have introduced novel approaches to governance and successfully navigated rapid transformation.-- TradeArabia News Service
